The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the exclusion of unreliable expert testimony effectively ends a product liability case. In Sims v. KIA Motors of America, Incorporated, ____ F.3d. ____ (5th Cir. 2016) 2016 WL 5831464 Harry Sims, Sr. was a passenger in a 2010 KIA Soul which was in a traffic accident. The fuel tank ruptured and Sims was killed in the resulting fire. Plaintiffs alleged that the Soul’s fuel tank was defectively designed and offered expert opinions to support their allegation.
The Court of Appeals reviewed the testimony of each expert and concluded that the experts did not rely on sufficiently reliable methods and materials to conclude that the vehicle was unreasonably dangerous due to the design of the fuel tank and also did not show that there were safer alternative designs that the vehicle manufacturer could have used. The court said:
“As the district court correctly concluded without admissible expert testimony, the plaintiffs could not raise a genuine issue of material fact concerning key elements of their products liability claim. It follows that the court properly granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants.”