In Vazquez v. Raymond Corp., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5355 (2019), United States District Judge Richard W. Story excluded a human factors expert from giving design opinions. There, the plaintiff sought to hold defendants, Raymond Corporation and Carolina Handling, responsible for injuries he sustained in a forklift accident. At the time of the accident, the plaintiff was using the forklift to pick up a full pallet of tires and was traveling tractor first (or ?forks trailing?) when he turned to speak with another employee while the forklift was still moving. When he did so, he lost control of the forklift and crashed into a metal column. The plaintiff?s left foot was crushed because it was outside of the operator compartment at the time of the collision.
The plaintiff retained an expert whose testimony the defendants promptly moved to exclude. The defendants contended that the expert should not be allowed to testify because he lacked the necessary qualifications and because his opinions were unreliable. The plaintiff?s proposed expert witness Ruston Hunt had a bachelor?s and a master?s degree in industrial engineering and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. He taught courses dealing with human factors, engineering design and analysis, and human interaction with machinery at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The expert had served as an expert witness in numerous cases and offered opinions concerning human reaction time and the viability of warnings.
The Court held that the defendants? motion to exclude the testimony of the expert was granted in part and denied in part. Judge Story held that the expert was qualified to testify as a human factors and warnings expert. However, it found that the expert was not qualified to offer opinions regarding design defects because he had no training, education, or experience designing forklifts or similar products. He was not and had never been a member of any committee that authors safety standards for stand-up forklifts and he had never been employed by or consulted by forklift manufacturer. He had done no independent work, tests, surveys, or photography, to support his opinion.