April 2010 Archives

In Seventh Circuit Requires Full Daubert Hearing and Ruling Before District Court Rules on Class Certification, Michael Blankshain writes:

In American Honda Motor Co. v. Allen, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that when an expert’s opinion is critical to class certification, a district court must conclusively rule on any challenge to the expert’s qualifications or submissions, performing a full Daubert analysis if necessary, before ruling on a class certification motion. American Honda is the latest in a series of Seventh Circuit cases to emphasize the rigorous fact, and often merit-based analysis district courts must undertake before ruling on a class certification motion. It is also consistent with, and expands upon, the developing law in other circuits. See, e.g., In re Hydrogen Peroxide Antitrust Litig., 553 F.3d 305 (2d Cir. 2008) (vacating order granting class certification where district court did not adequately consider expert opinions).

For more, see wildman.com.

Accident investigation expert Jason Kloese testified Thursday that Edward Cook was driving at least 49 mph in a 30 mph zone last year when he went off a residential street in Batavia,IL, killing a man and his dog.  Kloese estimated Cook's speed between 49.9 mph and 56.4 mph in the July 29, 2009, crash that killed 57-year-old David Long of Batavia and his black lab mix, Shadow. He said there were no signs of mechanical problems on the car Cook was driving, nor other circumstances that would have caused him to drive onto the sidewalk and hit Long.

Cook, who was on parole for a prior DUI conviction at the time of the crash, told police he "blanked out" at the wheel after a night of drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. He denied having stolen a 2003 white Acura from a friend's girlfriend earlier that morning.

For more, see dailyherald.com.

On April 7th, the Seventh Circuit US Court of Appeals granted Honda's petition for appeal in American Motor Co, Inc. v. Allen.  The plaintiffs are purchasers of Honda's Gold Wing GL1800 motorcycle and allege that the motorcycle has a design defect that prevents the adequate dampening of "wobble," claiming defect makes the steering assembly shake excessively. 

In his report, motorcycle engineering expert Mark Ezra opined that motorcycles should "by [their] design and manufacture exhibit decay of any steering oscillations sufficiently and rapidly so that the rider neither reacts to nor is frightened by such oscillations."

For more, see leagle.com.

A proposal for an affordable housing complex on a swath of open space in the northeast corner of Belmont, MA, does not violate environmental standards and would not significantly impact wildlife habitats, the Department of Environmental Protection said last week.

The recommendation, likely to be the basis for a final decision in the coming weeks, reaffirms a previous DEP ruling that Pennsylvania-based O’Neill Properties’ plan to build a 299-unit housing complex meets environmental standards. Beverly Coles-Roby, the DEP’s presiding officer in the case wrote that environmental expert witnesses testifying for O’Neill Properties "made a particularly striking impression [with] the compilation of numerous reports based on calculations accepted as standard industry practice.”

For more, see news from the Arlington advocate.