Opinion ID: 6929124
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Reverse Bifurcation

Text: The Angelos next contend that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering the issues of liability and damages to be tried in a reverse bifurcation format. The trial court has considerable discretion in determining how a trial is to be conducted. Blair v. Eagle-Picher Indus., Inc., 962 F.2d 1492, 1500 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 464, 121 L.Ed.2d 372 (1992). We therefore will not disturb the trial court's bifurcation order absent an abuse of discretion. Easton v. City of Boulder, 776 F.2d 1441, 1447 (10th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 816, 107 S.Ct. 71, 93 L.Ed.2d 28 (1986). 5 A court may order a separate trial of any claim or separate issue “in furtherance of convenience or to avoid prejudice, or when separate trials will be conducive to expedition and economy.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 42(b). Bifurcation is not an abuse of discretion if such interests favor separation of issues and the issues are clearly separable. See O’Dell v. Hercules Inc., 904 F.2d 1194, 1202 (8th Cir.1990). Regardless of efficiency and separability, however, bifurcation is an abuse of discretion if it is unfair or prejudicial to a party. See Hines v. Joy Mfg. Co., 850 F.2d 1146, 1152 (6th Cir.1988); Martin v. Bell Helicopter Co., 85 F.R.D. 654, 658 (D.Colo.1980).
“While separation of issues for trial is not to be routinely ordered, it is important that it be encouraged where experience has demonstrated its worth.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 42(b) advisory committee’s note. Courts have often used bifurcation to deal with massive product liability litigation, especially asbestos cases. See, e.g., Campolongo v. Celotex Corp., 681 F.Supp. 261, 262 (D.N.J.1988) (“The magnitude of the [asbestos caseload] problem invites the employment of extraordinary case management techniques provided they equally serve the litigants, the court and the ends of justice.”). In fact, courts have commonly used reverse bifurcation in asbestos cases. See, e.g., Borman v. Raymark Indus., 960 F.2d 327, 329 (3d Cir.1992); In re Joint E. & S. Dists. Asbestos Litig., 798 F.Supp. 940, 944 (E. & S.D.N.Y.1992), rev’d, 995 F.2d 343 (2d Cir.1993) and rev’d sub nom. Malcolm v. National Gypsum Co., 995 F.2d 346 (2d Cir.1993); Hughes v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., No. 88-3374, 1991 WL 242185 (E.D.La. Nov. 5, 1991). Reverse bifurcation obviously saves time and money by eliminating some eases after the first phase, thus avoiding trial of the defendants’ liability. When the district court issued its reverse bifurcation order, the Angelos’ claim was one of more than 600 asbestos cases on the docket of the Northern District of Oklahoma. In light of this burdensome asbestos caseload, the widespread use of bifurcation in asbestos cases, and the logical savings of time and money, the district court’s reverse bifurcation format clearly is “conducive to expedition and economy.” Cf. Blair, 962 F.2d at 1500 (holding that limits on number of experts and time for cross-examination were not abuses of discretion in light of enormous asbestos caseload).
As we have already explained, bifurcation is improper if the issues are not separable. The Angelos argue that “[t]he issues of damages and liability are so interwoven that they cannot be submitted to the jury independently, without confusion and uncertainty which would amount to denial of a fair trial.” Appellants’ Br. at 28. They do not offer concrete examples, but generally contend that the evidence and argument on the phase one issues of damages and causation would likely overlap with the phase two issues of liability and punitive damages. We conclude that the issues are clearly separable. - Although the same witnesses may testify in both phases, the issues and testimony are different. The first phase considers only whether the plaintiff has a disease that was caused by asbestos, and what damages the plaintiff suffered as a result. The evidence therefore concentrates on the plaintiffs health history, the extent of his exposure to asbestos, the possible causes of his illness, and the losses he has suffered from his illness. The second phase, on the other hand, concentrates on what warnings the defendants should have given in light of the “state of the art” and whether the products to which the plaintiff was exposed were the defendants’. Punitive damages are also decided in the second phase, because they also focus on the defendants’ conduct. The only potential overlap is proving in phase one what the plaintiff was exposed to and in phase two which of those products were produced, sold, or distributed by the defendants. Even then, however, they are clearly two separate issues, although the same witnesses may sometimes testify on both. We therefore conclude that the issues were clearly separable.
Finally, the Angelos complain that the reverse bifurcation format was essentially unfair to them. They contend that the format allowed the appellees to take inconsistent positions, that it prevented the Angelos from fully developing Nicholas’s history of exposure to asbestos, and that it is an inappropriate “judicial sanction of the Defendants’ position that product identification and exposure history is not necessary to establish medical causation.” Id. at 31. We reject each of these contentions. First, the Angelos have not pointed to any examples of “inconsistencies” in the appellees’ arguments, even if a format that permitted such inconsistencies would be unfair. Second, the Angelos have not demonstrated what they were unable to fully develop about Nicholas’s history of exposure. In fact, the master order requires developing the complete history of general exposure in phase one. Appellants’ App. at 302. If the Angelos didn’t fully develop the exposure history, it was not because the reverse bifurcation format didn’t permit it. Finally, we disagree that bifurcation suggests to the jury that exposure history is unnecessary to establish medical causation. Exposure history is an express part of the first phase, in which causation is also decided. On the other hand, causation does not depend on whose products the plaintiff was exposed to, so excluding product identification is not unfair. 6 We thus conclude that the issues were separable, that efficiency and economy justified separation of the issues, and that the separation was not unfair to the Angelos. We therefore hold that the district court’s reverse bifurcation format did not abuse its discretion.