Opinion ID: 429450
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other Consumer Complaints.

Text: 58 Procter & Gamble objects to the trial court's admission of seven documents and the testimony of one witness, all relating to complaints Procter & Gamble received from consumers concerning Rely. Two of the documents were admitted only to show that Procter & Gamble had notice of the Rely-TSS link before Mrs. Kehm fell ill. The other five documents and the testimony of Susan Myers were admitted to show notice, causation, and Rely's dangerousness. 59 As to the first two documents, one a letter from a consumer and the other a Procter & Gamble memorandum summarizing the complaints and inquiries it received concerning Rely in late August 1980, Procter & Gamble argues that neither document links Rely with any of the recognized symptoms of TSS. Consequently, Procter & Gamble contends, the documents were not admissible for even the limited purpose of showing notice. As to the other documents and the testimony of Susan Myers, 10 Procter & Gamble contends that even if they were admissible to show notice, they were inadmissible to show causation in the Kehm case and therefore should have been the subject of a limiting instruction. We disagree. 60 Under Fed.R.Evid. 401, evidence of similar occurrences might be relevant to the defendant's notice, magnitude of the danger involved, the defendant's ability to correct a known defect, the lack of safety for intended uses,    the standard of care, and causation. Ramos v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 615 F.2d 334, 338-39 (5th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1112, 101 S.Ct. 921, 66 L.Ed.2d 840 (1981). In this case, consumer complaints need not match the exact scientific description of TSS in order to show substantial similarity between other consumers' illnesses and Mrs. Kehm's illness. Procter & Gamble had ample opportunity, of which it availed itself, to rebut the force of the other complaints by pointing out dissimilarities between the complainers' symptoms and the symptoms of TSS. It was up to the jury to decide what weight to give the complaints from other consumers. See Henwood v. Chaney, 156 F.2d 392, 397 (8th Cir.) (weight to be given to evidence of prior accidents varies according to similarity of prior accidents to incident being tried), cert. denied, 329 U.S. 760, 67 S.Ct. 113, 91 L.Ed. 655 (1946). Accordingly, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to give the limiting instruction. 61