Opinion ID: 3165150
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Parties’ Discovery of a Modified ROPS

Text: The last day for Appellants to amend their pleadings was December 16, 2013. After two extensions, the district court set a June 6, 2014 deadline for fact discovery. Appellants’ expert Dr. David Renfroe testified he learned in October of 2013 that the ROPS on Mr. Birch’s 2011 RZR had been replaced with a ROPS from a different model year, though he could not recall how he learned that fact. Nor could he remember whether he realized at that time that the replacement ROPS was a 2008 model specifically. Sometime in December 2013, Polaris produced to Appellants the Birch-Damron email correspondence from June and July of 2011. Polaris deposed Mr. Damron on March 20, 2014. He testified he had purchased the replacement ROPS from an unknown seller on Craigslist.com and that “it was brand- -6- new, it was in the package.” Aplt. App., Vol. 1 at 87. Two weeks later, on April 4, 2014, Polaris filed a Notice of Non-Party at Fault, which alleged that “Mr. Damron is at fault and liable to [Appellants] due to his negligent and improper repairs, modifications, and alterations to the subject RZR, specifically the rollover protection structure (‘ROPS’).” Id. at 90-91. The Notice indicated that Mr. Damron had installed a replacement ROPS on Mr. Birch’s 2011 RZR, in addition to making various other repairs. Polaris asserted in the Notice that “Mr. Damron’s negligence caused and/or significantly contributed to [Appellants’] and [Mr. Birch’s] alleged injuries and damages.” Id. 1 at 90. On May 1, 2014, Polaris’s corporate representative, Aaron Deckard, sat for a deposition. He testified that “[i]f you try to order a 2008 or ’9 or ’10 cab frame and put it on a 2011 RZR, they won’t fit and they’re not designed to go together.” Aplt. App., Vol. 2 at 291.