Musick v. Dorel Juvenile Group, Inc.

847 F. Supp. 2d 887, 82 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 247, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38694, 2012 WL 957540
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Virginia
DecidedMarch 22, 2012
DocketCase No. 1:11CV00005
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 847 F. Supp. 2d 887 (Musick v. Dorel Juvenile Group, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Musick v. Dorel Juvenile Group, Inc., 847 F. Supp. 2d 887, 82 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 247, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38694, 2012 WL 957540 (W.D. Va. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

JAMES P. JONES, District Judge.

The plaintiff, a child seriously injured in an automobile accident while seated in a child safety seat manufactured by the defendant, claims that the seat was defectively designed. It is claimed that the plaintiff struck her head on the front edge of the seat and that the seat should have had larger and padded side wings which would have prevented the injury. A jury found that the seat was not defective and the plaintiff has moved for a new trial, contending, among other things, that the verdict resulted from the defendant’s misconduct and was contrary to the weight of the evidence. For the reasons that follow, I must deny the motion for a new trial.

I

A. Events Surrounding Samantha Musicic’s Accident.

The plaintiff, Samantha L. Musick, suffered serious brain injury on March 28, 2009, when her family’s Windstar mini-van was rear-ended at an intersection. At the time of the accident, Samantha was five years old and seated in the middle row in a child safety seat called the Dorel Commuter High Back Booster (“HBB”) manufactured by the defendant Dorel Juvenile Group, Inc. (“Dorel”). Samantha’s mother and father were seated in the front of the mini-van, and her two older sisters were seated in the “wayback” seat of the vehicle. None of the other passengers were seriously injured in the accident.

Several days after the accident, the plaintiffs father, Earl Musick, traveled to the salvage yard where the wrecked Windstar was stored in order to retrieve personal belongings. At that time, Musick claims he had no plans for a lawsuit. He did not retrieve Samantha’s child safety seat, but took various photographs of it as well as the interior and exterior of the vehicle.

On April 7, 2009, Musick contacted attorney Shea Cook for legal advice and assistance. Cook faxed a letter to the salvage yard requesting that Samantha’s [891]*891child seat be placed in a safe place to ensure that no one would dispose of or damage it. That same day, Cook’s investigator retrieved the child seat. Neither the Musicks nor their attorney secured the Windstar mini-van or preserved it for future inspection. On or about May 21, 2009, the vehicle was destroyed by the salvage company.

Samantha later brought this lawsuit against Dorel seeking damages for her injury based on the alleged negligent design of the child safety seat, a failed duty to warn of its dangerous conditions, and breach of express warranties and the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness.1 The action is founded on the court’s diversity jurisdiction. See 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332(a) (West 2006).

Prior to trial, Dorel moved to dismiss the case due to spoliation of evidence, arguing that the plaintiffs failure to preserve the vehicle was egregious and prejudicial. I denied the motion, finding that there was no reason for Samantha’s parents or her attorney to believe that the Windstar mini-van should have been preserved, since it was not the product at issue. Musick v. Dorel Juvenile Grp., Inc., No. 1:11CV00005, 2011 WL 5029802, at *2 (W.D.Va. Oct. 24, 2011). Furthermore, I found that the absence of the minivan was not so prejudicial that it denied Dorel the ability to defend against the claim — the child safety seat at issue was preserved, Dorel had full access to post-accident photographs of the mini-van, and Dorel was able to conduct its own crash tests using duplicative Windstar front passenger seats. Id. at *3.

B. Pre-Trial Discovery Issues.

As the early stages of pre-trial discovery unfolded, plaintiffs counsel was faced with several setbacks. First, plaintiffs counsel served a request for production on Dorel seeking all documents that discussed, related to, or contained reference to, the use of energy-absorbing materials on the side wings of the HBB. When the lead attorney for Dorel, Walter C. Greenough, responded that Dorel had no such documents, plaintiffs counsel filed a Motion to Compel.

A hearing on the Motion to Compel was conducted before the magistrate judge on July 15, 2011, during which attorney Greenough assured the court that Dorel had never considered adding foam to the side wings of the HBB. However, plaintiffs counsel presented documents that they had independently obtained from discovery taken in a similar case against Dorel, Cardenas v. Dorel Juvenile Grp. Inc., 230 F.R.D. 611 (D.Kan.2005). After further review of the materials provided by plaintiffs counsel, including evidence that the HBB may have been part of Dorel’s Protective Foam Project (“PFP”),2 the magistrate judge found that Dorel’s response to the request for production was inaccurate and ordered Dorel to produce all responsive documents.

Consequently, Dorel produced additional documents, including a computerized depiction of the HBB with added foam, as well as a multi-page document showing that Dorel specifically considered pulling the HBB from the market to add foam to its side wings. Evidence that the HBB was in fact part of the PFP also came from the deposition testimony of at least three [892]*892former Dorel employees. One of these former employees, Richard Glover, was Dorel’s Rule 30(b)(6) corporate representative. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 30(b)(6). Despite being produced as the corporate designee, Glover possessed extremely limited information concerning the PFP and admitted that he did not know why the decision was made to include foam on some of Dorel’s seats but not others.

Faced with this evidence, Samantha filed a Motion for Discovery Sanctions Based on Defendant’s Failure to Comply with Rule 30(b)(6) (ECF No. 95) and a Motion for Discovery Sanctions Based on False Statements by Defendant and Failure to Produce Documents as Ordered (ECF No. 128). At a hearing on the motions, Greenough admitted that his prior statements to the court were incorrect, stating that he had simply “forgotten” that the documents found in the Cardenas case file existed. Consequently, the magistrate judge granted a discovery sanction against Dorel precluding it from offering evidence as to why it chose not to add foam to the side wings of the HBB, a ruling that I later upheld. See Musick v. Dorel Juvenile Grp., Inc., No. 1:11CV00005, 2011 WL 5241692, at *1 (W.D.Va. Nov. 1, 2011). The magistrate judge also ordered plaintiffs counsel to provide the court with an itemized, sworn statement of the fees and expenses incurred “specifically in an effort to prove that the High Back Booster was included in the ‘Protective Foam Project’ and why the determination was made that foam should not be added to it.” Musick v. Dorel Juvenile Grp., Inc., No. 1:11CV00005 (W.D.Va. Oct. 14, 2011) (order granting plaintiffs motions for discovery sanctions).3

C. Evidence At Trial.

At trial, Samantha contended that her HBB safety seat was defective, and that her injuries were caused when her head struck the unpadded front edge of one of the side wings of the seat. Dorel denied this, asserting that the HBB was not defective and that Samantha’s injuries were in fact caused when, as a result of the rear impact, her father came up and over the back of his front passenger seat and struck Samantha in the head.

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Bluebook (online)
847 F. Supp. 2d 887, 82 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 247, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38694, 2012 WL 957540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/musick-v-dorel-juvenile-group-inc-vawd-2012.