5th Circuit Upholds Testimony on Defective Door-Latch Design

The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting plaintiffs' engineering testimony on defective door-latch design in a truck-accident case, the Fifth Circuit ruled on Wednesday. As recited in the appellate opinion, the defendants' Daubert objections sound pretty weak: the expert had published no peer-reviewed work on Mack truck door latches; his testimony had been ruled inadmissible in a previous case; he relied on third-party testing rather than conducting the tests himself; and he was "not a door-latch specialist."

The $7.9 million jury verdict in plaintiffs' favor was nevertheless vacated, because the trial court erred in excluding evidence about seat belt use. See Hodges v. Mack Trucks, Inc., No. 04-41362 (5th Cir. Dec. 27, 2006) (Davis, Barksdale, & DeMoss, JJ.).