A Florida state court jury’s verdict in favor of plaintiffs was vacated and a directed verdict was entered in favor of Hyster-Yale. At trial, Hyster-Yale was represented by Francis J. Grey, Jr. The jury found the lift truck operated by plaintiff was not defectively designed. However, the jury found Hyster-Yale to be partially negligent, assigning 80% fault to plaintiff. Under Florida’s pre-tort reform rules, the pure comparative negligence principle applied, and Hyster-Yale would have been obligated to pay 20% of the judgment.
Hyster-Yale filed a post-trial motion to renew its motion for a directed verdict and for a new trial on plaintiffs’ negligence claim. After briefing and oral argument, the Court found “there was a failure to establish causation beyond, at most, a mere possibility of causation” and this was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict. In its ruling, the Court went on to state that plaintiffs’ engineering expert’s opinion on causation was “unreliable and flawed,” lacked methodology, failed to be tested and lacked “critical information to support a conclusory opinion.” The Court concluded its ruling by stating that the pre-trial denial of Hyster-Yale’s Daubert Motion was reconsidered and that it explicitly found plaintiffs’ expert’s opinion “does not meet the Daubert standards.”
The Hyster-Yale Team at RTJG is led by Members Francis J. Grey, Jr. and Rebecca E. Leonard
