Opinion ID: 2071528
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Has Lindahl Offered Sufficient Evidence of Proximate Cause?

Text: Lindahl introduced no evidence linking the design defect to the specific causes of death identified on the death certificate. She presented no evidence connecting the seat collapse or the partial ejection to the abdominal injuries or the head trauma  the known causes of death. Nor did she assert that death was caused by factors other than those identified in the death certificate. In fact, the only expert testimony Lindahl presented was that of her seat design expert, D'Aulerio, who had been disqualified from testifying on matters of causation. Without any evidence of causation, the jury was forced to speculate as to how the seat defect may have caused the specific injuries resulting in death. [30] Lindahl contends that she has provided sufficient evidence of causation by establishing the fact of enhancement  i.e., that decedent would not have died were it not for the defective seat design. Lindahl argues that her evidence proved that had decedent's car not contained a defective seat, decedent would have survived the crash. By implication, according to Lindahl's theory, the defective seat must have caused decedent's death. In support of her survivability argument  i.e., that decedent would have survived had the seat been properly designed  Lindahl contends that D'Aulerio's testimony that had the Decedent remained in the restraint system he would have survived the crash provided a sufficient basis for the jury to conclude that the Decedent would have survived the crash but for defendant's negligent design. [31] In this vein, Lindahl points to D'Aulerio's testimony that decedent was in the driver's seat and properly restrained by the seat when the vehicle first hit the ditch, but that the later impact from the vehicle's landing on its rear caused the seat to recline backward allowing decedent to slip past the shoulder harness and slide up the back of the seat. [32] Moreover, D'Aulerio stated that had he had a properly designed seat, a stronger seat, he would have remained in a seated position and he would not have been thrown out of the vehicle. [33] Finally, D'Aulerio testified that if decedent had stayed in his seat given the height and size of Mr. Lindahl and the space available to him, there was sufficient space left for him to essentially have what we call survivable space, meaning enough space to survive the accident without serious injury. There would have been a lot of minor injuries, but I would not have expected any serious or fatal injuries. [34] Although he made the unsupported statement that there would have been survivable space, putting aside the question whether he was even qualified to testify on such matters, D'Aulerio never stated that decedent would have survived the physiological forces on his body had an alternate, safer seat been employed. D'Aulerio offered no opinion as to the nature of the injuries that would have been inflicted on the occupant of a vehicle with a properly designed seat. [35] Thus, he failed to provide any basis from which the jury could conclude that an accident with an alternate seat design was survivable. Even if Lindahl's survivability argument would have been sufficient to establish the design defect as a proximate cause of decedent's fatal injuries, D'Aulerio's testimony failed to provide evidence to support such an argument. As there was no other expert testimony supporting the conclusion that the design defect was a proximate cause of any of decedent's injuries, Lindahl failed to establish a prima facie case. [36] The Huddell Court itself faced a somewhat similar situation, involving the survivability of an accident. In Huddell, the driver of a car that ran out of gas on the Delaware Memorial Bridge was killed when his car was hit from behind by a second driver traveling between 50-60 miles per hour. The impact caused the stopped car to accelerate to over 30 miles per hour, causing Dr. Huddell's head to strike his head rest at ten miles per hour. Plaintiff alleged that the accident would have been survivable had the head rest been designed to distribute force over a wider area. As designed, the head rest contained a metal piece in the shape of an airplane wing, with the front `ax-like' portion aimed directly at the rear of the head. [37] The Huddell Court noted that plaintiffs expert failed to identify the specific types of injury that would have resulted had the head rest been designed differently. [T]he record does not indicate the specific meaning of the term survivable, and there is no testimony as to the extent of the injuries, if any, which would have resulted in a survivable crash. Although Dr. Geikas testified that there was no evidence of significant injury to vital organs from the accident as it happened, this ignored the possibility that injury to those organs might have been more severe if the great forces of the collision had been more widely distributed over the head and body by an alternate head restraint design. It was not established whether the hypothetical victim of the survivable crash would have sustained no injuries, temporary injuries, permanent but insignificant injuries, extensive and permanent injuries, or, possibly, paraplegia or quadriplegia. [38] Lindahl asserts that the Huddell Court's conclusion was based on the Court's requirement that plaintiff (rather than defendant) bear the burden of identifying the specific injuries that occurred because of the defective design. Certainly, the failure to apportion the injuries was a concern of the Court given the specific proof requirements it had established. As in this case, however, the plaintiff in Huddell had clearly failed even to meet the threshold requirement of establishing what injuries would have been caused by a properly designed product. Without proof of the injuries that would have been caused by a non-defective product, the plaintiff in Huddell could not possibly establish the injuries that actually were inflicted on Dr. Huddell because of the defective product. We likewise reject Lindahl's survivability argument, not because we hold that a plaintiff always bears the burden of identifying the specific injuries caused by the defect (a decision we do not now reach), but because Lindahl has failed to offer sufficient evidence of the injuries that would have occurred had there been a properly-designed seat. Without this evidence, it would be impossible to prove that the defect was a proximate cause of any enhanced injuries. Thus, Mazda's motion for a directed verdict should have been granted.