4th Circuit Says Insufficient Evidence in Yamaha WaveRunner Lawsuit
Tina Bellon
(Reuters) - A federal appeals court has ruled that a South Carolina woman who suffered internal injuries when she fell off a Yamaha watercraft lacked sufficient evidence to support her claims against the company.
In a unanimous decision on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's grant of summary judgment to Yamaha in a lawsuit brought by Deborah Hickerson alleging strict liability, negligence, failure to warn and defective design.
"The district court did not exclude Hickerson's warnings claims merely because they lacked expert testimony; rather, it required her to support those claims with any admissible evidence," wrote Circuit Judge Steven Agee on behalf of the panel that also included Judges Diana Motz and Henry Floyd.
"In this regard, Hickerson simply failed," the judges concluded.
Hickerson suffered serious internal injuries in 2012 after falling off the Yamaha VXS WaveRunner she was riding on a South Carolina lake. The pressurized water from the WaveRunner's jet thrust caused injuries to her rectum, vagina, anus and colon and she had to undergo eight weeks of medical procedures.
The Yamaha WaveRunner she rode featured two warning labels, one on the front glove box and another on the rear boarding platform. Both warned riders that severe internal injuries could occur if water is forced into body cavities and said all riders must wear a wet suit bottom that provides protection.
But Hickerson said she did not read any warning labels before boarding the craft and only wore a bikini bottom.
Hickerson sued Yamaha Motor Corp USA in South Carolina district court in 2013, saying the company's warnings were inadequate and alleging the craft had been defectively designed.
To support her claims, she offered expert testimony by Anand Kasbekar, a mechanical engineer familiar with watercraft who has been retained in dozens of product liability cases involving water vehicles.
Kasbekar said a set of alternative, more visible warnings, as well as design alterations like a contoured seat and hand straps would have made the vehicle safer. But he based his opinion solely on his experience in engineering and forensic analysis, without offering relevant research and studies.
The trial court therefore excluded his testimony, ruling that his opinion on a set of alternative warnings was unreliable under the Daubert standard for admitting expert testimony.
The 4th Circuit on Tuesday agreed, saying that Kasbekar's "unproven conjecture" would risk misleading a jury. They also said Yamaha's warnings were adequate as a matter of law.
The circuit judges also struck down Hickerson's defective design arguments, saying they were defeated under a South Carolina law that allows manufacturers to rely on legally adequate warnings to avoid liability for alleged design defects.
Under the state's law, the judges held, a seller is therefore entitled to reasonably assume that warnings will be read and heeded.
The case is Deborah Meek Hickerson v. Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, No. 17-1075.
For plaintiff/appellant: David Owen, Austin Fletcher Watts and Douglas Patrick of Covington Patrick Hagins Stern & Lewis
For defendant/appellees: Richard Mueller and Heather Counts of Thompson Coburn; Robert Hood of the Hood Law Firm
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Company: THOMPSON COBURN LLP; YAMAHA MOTOR CORP USA
News Subject: (Consumer Protection (1CO43); Judicial Cases & Rulings (1JU36); Legal (1LE33); Liability (1LI55); Products Liability (1PR53))
Region: (Americas (1AM92); North America (1NO39); South Carolina (1SO63); U.S. Southeast Region (1SO88); USA (1US73))
Language: EN
Other Indexing: (Steven Agee; Robert Hood; Douglas Patrick; Henry Floyd; Deborah Meek Hickerson; David Owen; Austin Fletcher Watts; Deborah Hickerson; Richard Mueller; Diana Motz; Heather Counts; Anand Kasbekar)
Keywords: products; health; fedlit (N2:USA); (OCC:OLRTXT); (N2:US)
Word Count: 545