Opinion ID: 733243
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Underlying Methodology

Text: 17 Davidson would have testified that he first identified the false park detent phenomenon in January 1979. He would have explained that a false park detent can occur when the gear selector lever is not placed completely in the park notch, which is set off to the left in the console shift, a position referred to as latched park. See Appendix A. When the selector lever is in latched park, the vehicle will not roll any appreciable distance. A position just short of latched park, however, could produce a false park detent--a tactile sensation that the car is fully in park gear. In this situation, the car is susceptible to rolling. 10 18 Davidson would have testified that this false park detent is felt when one shifts rapidly from drive towards park, but fails to fully engage in the latched park position. He stated that if one were to look closely at the console shift, one would be able to see if the selector lever was in a position, e.g., between reverse and park, that would indicate the possibility of a false park detent. He explained that if the operator shifted slowly and carefully into park, he or she could not leave the selector lever in anything but latched park. 11 He also stated that if the operator sees that the gear selector lever is in the latched park position (i.e., set off to the left), the false park detent phenomenon has no application. 19 With respect to his investigation of the facts of this case, Davidson stated that, in January 1994, he questioned Bogosian about the July 1992 events leading up to her injury. He examined the parking area of her home and measured the grade of the approximate location on which she had parked just before the 560 SEL rolled. He then travelled to an automobile garage, Fred's Autohaus, where the automobile was located. At the garage, Davidson tested and experimented with the action of the park lock in the vehicle's transmission mechanism. 12 20 Based on his testing of the 560 SEL's transmission park mechanism, Davidson would have testified that the vehicle was capable of a false park detent. He would have opined that this phenomenon rendered the vehicle defective and unreasonably dangerous, and he would have offered a corrective solution involving a part modification. While the record is unclear on this point, 13 Davidson presumably would have opined that, given Bogosian's insistence that she placed the gear selector lever in park before exiting the automobile, this defect, in combination with the slight slope of the parking area, led to her injury. 21 Citing Daubert, the district court expressed its concern with the reasoning and methodology underlying Davidson's opinion. The court stated: 22 Here the proffered evidence is that the vehicle was in a garage, the rear wheel was lifted and rotated, and the shift lever placed in a particular position with a result from which the witness apparently would extrapolate the conclusion that this is the way Plaintiff was injured. But there is no evidence that the so-called test that was used was anything that even remotely resembled a known technique. No proffer of any kind of scientific journal or paper, nothing of that sort to show that this is the way you find out that sort of thing. 23 The court further remarked that the appropriate design of part of an automobile having to do with keeping it at rest after the car is stopped and the driver has left the driver's seat was a scientific issue. 24 Bogosian contends that the court committed reversible error because it wrongly characterized the subject of Davidson's testimony as scientific rather than technical, and thus, Daubert was inapplicable. Assuming arguendo that this case does not involve scientific law (and thus, Daubert 's holding does not apply), we must then consider Daubert 's countervailing precept: that the trial judge is assigned 'the task of ensuring that an expert's testimony both rests on a reliable foundation and is relevant to the task at hand.'  Vadala, 44 F.3d at 39 (quoting Daubert, 509 U.S. at 597, 113 S.Ct. at 2798). Thus, even if Daubert 's specific discussion of the admissibility of scientific principles did not strictly apply to Davidson's testimony, the admissibility of the testimony was still controlled by the requirement of factual relevance and foundational reliability. See 509 U.S. at 591-92, 113 S.Ct. at 2795-96. 25 Here, the district court was troubled by Davidson's procedures in investigating the applicability of his false park detent theory to this case. Davidson examined the vehicle away from the site of the accident. He did not, in any way, attempt to replicate the known facts surrounding the injury-producing event, but rather, tested his theory by raising a rear wheel of the vehicle as it sat in Fred's Autohaus. On the record before us, it appears that Davidson did little more than come to the unremarkable conclusion that the vehicle's wheels would not turn when the gear selector lever was in latched park, but that they would turn when the lever was in any other position. See supra notes 12 & 13. 26 Moreover, Davidson's conclusion that a false park detent caused the injury-producing events assumed that Bogosian shifted the selector lever rapidly from drive towards park, and that she left the lever in a position short of latched park. First, there was no evidence as to the speed with which Bogosian shifted the selector lever. More importantly, Bogosian repeatedly testified that she looked at the console shift before exiting the vehicle and saw the selector lever in latched park. She steadfastly maintained this position, even after prompting from a generously worded question by her counsel on redirect examination. While, of course, the jury could have disregarded plaintiff's own testimony, it does little to tie the facts of this case to Davidson's proffered opinion, especially given his concession that there could be no false park detent if the vehicle operator observed the selector lever in latched park. The district court appropriately found it very odd that Bogosian would present an expert witness who would testify that her own unwavering testimony was incorrect. 27 In the end, the district court clearly was not persuaded that Davidson's opinion rested upon a reliable factual and methodological foundation. While the district court may have inartfully cited Daubert in making its ruling, we cannot say that it abused its substantial discretion when finding inadequate the premises of the proposed testimony.