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00-1955 Dhillon v. Crown Controls Corporation, et al.

By: dmc-admin//October 29, 2001//

00-1955 Dhillon v. Crown Controls Corporation, et al.

By: dmc-admin//October 29, 2001//

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“We could identify a number of problems with the testimony these witnesses were prepared to offer, but the most glaring among them is the lack of testing, or more generally the failure to take any steps that would show professional rigor in the assessment of the alternative designs (or, as the amended rule puts it, that the testimony is ‘the product of reliable principles and methods’). Although both experts wanted to assert that the truck design was defective because it did not include a rear door, neither expert has actually designed a model of a forklift truck with a rear door. Nor has either performed any tests of such a model to see if it is both economically feasible and just as safe or safer than the model without the door. In alternative design cases, we have consistently recognized the importance of testing the alternative design. See Bourelle v. Crown Equip. Corp., 220 F.3d 532, 535-38 (7th Cir. 2000); Cummins v. Lyle Industries, 93 F.3d 362, 368 (7th Cir. 1996). In deciding whether an alternative design is appropriate, an expert needs to look at a number of considerations: ‘the degree to which the alternative design is compatible with existing systems . . .; the relative efficiency of the two designs; the short- and long-term maintenance costs associated with the alternative design; the ability of the purchaser to service and to maintain the alternative designs; the relative cost of installing the two designs; and the effect, if any, that the alternative design would have on the price of the machine.’ Cummins, 93 F.3d at 369. Many of these considerations are product- and manufacturer-specific and cannot be reliably determined without testing. Id. This case illustrates why these questions are crucial. In some environments, the record suggests that the presence of a rear door could exacerbate injuries to the operator by slowing an escape from a forklift tipping over or falling off of a dock.”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Lindberg, J., Wood, J.

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