Opinion ID: 1620130
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Identification of the Product Involved

Text: ¶ 32. [i]t is incumbent upon the plaintiff in any products liability action to show that the defendant's product was the cause of the plaintiff's injuries. Moore v. Miss. Valley Gas Co., 863 So.2d 43, 46 (Miss. 2003). Pollard and Trellvion argue that, prior to 1970, the house was painted with Sherwin-Williams lead-based paint. The record shows that there is no admissible evidence to support this allegation. Pollard and Trellvion submit by deposition, testimony of Reverend Lias who said in the 1930s individuals painting the house told him they were using paint with lead in it. This testimony is inadmissible hearsay and insufficient to avoid summary judgment; the special master and judge so held. ¶ 33. Pollard and Trellvion further allege that the house was painted using Sherwin-Williams lead paint on four separate occasions between the late 1970s and 1994. Plaintiffs claim that the lead-based paint used was purchased at local hardware stores and once in the mid-1980s from a Sherwin-Williams store. Plaintiffs assert that the house was painted with white, blue, pink, and grey paint. The record indicates that the home was purchased in 1978 by Johnny Crawford, and subsequently inhabited by Gaines. Therefore, Gaines could not have painted the home until after 1978. Gaines could not have used lead-based paint that was sitting around for years on the shelf of Darsey's Hardware, because the record reflects that she had to order the paint that she purchased at the store. Plaintiffs have no paint cans or labels to prove that Sherwin-Williams Company lead-containing paint was applied to the home. At best, Plaintiffs have advanced a mere scintilla of colorable evidence which absolutely will not defeat a motion for summary judgment. ¶ 34. Further, and more importantly, the undisputed facts show that Sherwin-Williams had removed lead pigments from all of its interior residential paint by 1955 and from all interior and exterior residential paint by no later than 1973. None of Sherwin-Williams' residential paint formulas for white, blue, pink, or grey paints dated June 1, 1973 through December 31, 1978 contained any lead ingredient. Sherwin-Williams stopped selling its Sherwin-Williams-brand residential paints through independent dealers such as local hardware stores by early 1976. ¶ 35. In Luvene v. Waldrup, 903 So.2d 745, 748 (Miss.2005), this Court stated that [t]he non-moving party's claim must be supported by more than a mere scintilla of colorable evidence; it must be evidence upon which a fair-minded jury could return a favorable verdict. In Luvene, this Court found an affidavit fatally defective and deficient regarding a critical element of the underlying claim. The affidavit was merely a broad summarization of the required elements of the claim. This Court found that summary judgment was appropriate because [t]he affidavit failed to set forth specific facts and certainly did not provide more than a mere scintilla of colorable evidence. Id. ¶ 36. Similarly, Plaintiff's only product identification comes by way of the affidavits of Doris Gaines and Johnny Crawford, who testified they saw the words lead or lead paint on some portion of the labels. Neither Gaines nor Collier have personal knowledge of whether the paint they used contained any lead, and both have given contradictory statements. During Collier's deposition he admitted he was just assuming that the paint contained lead because it was washable. Collier does not assert that any one told him the paint contained lead, that he read the labels, nor that he asked for lead-containing paint. ¶ 37. During Gaines first deposition, she admitted that she did not look at the labels to see if the paint contained lead, but in her second deposition she claimed that she read the labels and saw that it was lead-based. This testimony contradicts, without explanation, her previous testimony, and such cannot defeat a motion for summary judgment. ¶ 38. What this all adds up to is unsupported speculation and allegations, and they are not sufficient to defeat a motion for summary judgment. Gorman-Rupp Co. v. Hall, 908 So.2d 749, 757 (Miss.2005); Adams v. Cinemark USA, Inc., 831 So.2d 1156, 1162 (Miss.2002). In Corey v. Skelton, 834 So.2d 681 (Miss.2003), this Court affirmed the trial court grant of summary judgment. In Corey, the plaintiff's mere allegation was insufficient to establish a critical element of his claim, in light of the voluminous record to the contrary. Id. at 684. ¶ 39. Plaintiffs have failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish that Sherwin-Williams manufactured the alleged lead paint. Therefore the trial court's dismissal of Plaintiffs' product liability claims as unmeritorious was proper and should be affirmed. ¶ 40. For the aforementioned reasons, I respectfully concur in part and dissent in part. EASLEY, CARLSON AND DICKINSON, JJ., JOIN THIS OPINION.