Hunter v. General Motors Corp.

31 Pa. D. & C.5th 62
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedJune 13, 2013
DocketNo. 0872
StatusPublished

This text of 31 Pa. D. & C.5th 62 (Hunter v. General Motors Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hunter v. General Motors Corp., 31 Pa. D. & C.5th 62 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2013).

Opinion

MAZER MOSS, J.,

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiffs, John and Barbara Hunter, h/w, appeal this court’s orders dated March 3, 2009, March 5, 2009, April 7,2009 and October 6,2009. Plaintiff previously appealed this court’s findings and order entered on October 6,2009. denying plaintiff’s motion to reconsider the March 3,2009 order precluding the opinion testimony of R. Scott King and granting summary judgment in favor of defendant, Holman Enterprises d/b/a Saturn at English Creek (incorrectly sued as Holman Enterprises d/b/a Saturn at English Creek and Holman Saturn at English Creek.) Thereafter, the appeal at 3312 EDA 2009 was quashed by order of the Superior Court dated December 23, 2009 as this court’s October 6th order was interlocutory.

Following a stipulation approved by the Honorable Sandra Mazer Moss on January 29, 2013 (docketed on February 1,2013), which severed the claims of defendant, [64]*64Holman Enterprises d/b/a Saturn at English Creek from the claims of General Motors Corporation and Saturn Corporation, plaintiff again appealed the October 6, 2009 order as well as this court’s orders of March 3, 2009, March 5, 2009 and April 7, 2009.

This court’s findings and order of October 6, 2009, denying plaintiff’s motion to reconsider the March 3,2009 order precluding the opinion testimony of R. Scott King and granting, summary judgment in favor of defendant, Holman Enterprises d/b/a Saturn at English Creek will be reproduced in part herein. The court will then discuss the March 5, 2009 and April 7, 2009 orders from which plaintiff also appeals.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

This is a products liability action in which plaintiffs allege that their 2003 Saturn VUE was defective in that the rear suspension system caused the vehicle to lose control while plaintiff’s were driving in South Carolina returning to their home in New Jersey.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

This court’s findings in support of its orders of March 3, 2009 and October 6, 2009 follow:

Defendants maintain that because of the complexities of the issues that could be presented, a competent expert report is required so that a jury could understand what plaintiff’s claim to be a defect in the automobile that Mr. Hunter was driving when it ran off the road and how the [65]*65alleged defect was a causal factor in this accident. There is no question that a competent expert report is required here and failing to have same requires the defendant’s summaiy judgment motion be granted, and so it is ordered.

Because of this, the focus now shifts to this court’s underlying order which precluded plaintiff’s expert from offering his report based upon a finding that it was legally incompetent.

This court will discuss below some but not all of the factors which clearly demonstrated the legal incompetence of the report.

The expert report was a “summary report based upon our review of the materials received.” The materials “reviewed” included “a police report, data related to a manufacturer’s safety recall/customer satisfaction program, and photographs of the incident vehicle.” Expert report of September 16, 2008.

A review of the police report referred to by the expert reveals the following data extracted from this report.

The time was around midnight on or about December 21, 2004 near Waterboro, South Carolina. Plaintiff was driving northbound on Interstate 95. The description of what happened as entered by Cpl Rouse, Badge #831, is as follows.

Unit #1, (Plaintiff’s vehicle), (not in original), was travelling North on 1-95. The driver of Unit #1 ran off the left side of the roadway and overturned several [66]*66times.

South Carolina Traffic Collision Report Form TR310, 12/21/04.

The following data was also extracted from the same report.

Action prior to Impact: Movements Essentially Straight Ahead
Weather Conditions: Clear
Light Conditions: Dark (No Lights)
Contributing Factors: Driver: Fatigue/Asleep

Although the expert cited this document as one on which he based his opinion nowhere in his report are the above facts cited, explained or addressed in any way.

Plaintiff’s expert report of September 16, 2008, goes on to cite what is referred to as the recall information, which is ostensibly how he arrives at his conclusion of product defect:

The vehicle is prone to rollover during a certain vehicle maneuver that includes a certain series of opposite-direction turns. The recall information indicates that the rollover is preceded by a buckling and failure or a rear suspension control arm that can result in the affected wheel assembly collapsing beneath the vehicle.

Expert Report of September 16, 2008.

A review of the documents he claims supports the conclusion that a manufacturer’s recall was operative at the time of the accident for this “rollover prone vehicle” [67]*67fails to support plaintiff’s expert’s conclusions and is contradicted by the documents relied upon. The letter to Saturn VUE owners of August 2004, stated that:

.. .there have been some recent media reports of rollover tests conducted on the VUE by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the results of which have led the agency to start an investigation. These tests, which were recently adopted, induce a sharp left turn at set speeds between 35 and 50 mph, followed by over correction to the right. Though the VUE did not roll over during the tests, the rear suspension was damaged by wheel contact with the pavements, thus preventing the vehicle from completing the test. It is important to note that the suspension damage was a result of the severity of the test; at no time did the suspension damage cause loss of control of the vehicle.
Of course, your Saturn VUE meets and/or exceeds all Federal Vehicle Safety Standards. In addition, the 2004 Saturn VUE earned a five-star rating in the frontal and side crash test categories established by NHTSA. However, to maintain confidence and peace of mind with your VUE, Saturn has decided to issue a customer satisfaction recall.
To complete this customer satisfaction recall, Saturn will replace certain rear suspension components and increase the recommended cold inflation tire pressure to reduce the risk of suspension damage. At no charge to you, we will launch this customer satisfaction recall [68]*68as soon as possible. We will contact you again once the necessary replacement parts are available1

The notice advises of a “customer satisfaction recall” and that, “the VUE did not roll over during the tests.”

The December 2004 notice advised in a similar fashion:

In August 2004, Saturn letters to current owners of 2002, 2003 and 2004 model year Saturn VUE vehicles to announce a voluntary customer satisfaction program, 04067. In our correspondence we explained that our parts inventory was not sufficient to perform all replacements at that time. We stated we would contact you again once replacement parts became available.

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31 Pa. D. & C.5th 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunter-v-general-motors-corp-pactcomplphilad-2013.