Friday, January 14, 2005

8th Circuit Upholds Exclusion of Fire Causation Testimony

The Eighth Circuit has published an opinion upholding the district court's exclusion of evidence from fire causation experts testifying on behalf of various subrogated insurers in their claim against the manufacturer of the copying machine that allegedly caused the fire. The experts purported to follow a methodology prescribed by the National Fire Protection Association in its publication NFPA 921: Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations, but the panel upheld the district court's conclusion that the experts did not apply the methodology reliably. See Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. v. Canon U.S.A., Inc., No. 03-3836 (8th Cir. Jan. 12, 2005) (Bye, Lay, & Gruender, JJ.).

posted by pn at 2:19 AM  

2 Comments:

OKBlawg writes ...

After reading the article in the American Bar Journal about blawgs and blogging, I began looking for blawg in my home state of Oklahoma. However, it appeared that the only Oklahoma blawg was one devoted only to patent law (and, as it turns out, was developed by one of my former classmates). So, hoping to meet a need I began OKBlawg, a blawg focusing on the issues affecting the Oklahoma legal community. I have listed your page on my list of blawgs. If you wish to visit my blawg please visit http://okblawg.blogspot.com.

Thanks for your time.

3:24 PM  
pn writes ...

Welcome. The world needs more topical blawgs.

Meanwhile, your post highlights our parent site's continuing need for an Oklahoma correspondent.

2:12 PM  

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Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.