Product Liability & Mass Torts Digest

The recent decision in Mendoza v. SharkNinja Operating, LLC by the District of Colorado offers a practical illustration of how federal courts are applying the heightened reliability standard under the 2023 amendments to Rule 702.

Since the 1970s, the Song–Beverly Consumer Warranty Act was meant to protect consumers who buy (or lease) vehicles that may be defective. The Song–Beverly Act has seen several amendments, most recently with Assembly Bill 1755. AB 1755 establishes new procedures for consumers alleging noncompliance with certain express warranties to (a) stem the recent flood in lemon law litigation, (b) streamline discovery, and (c) expedite settlements.

Under both strict product liability and negligence theories, plaintiffs must establish proximate causation where there is a reasonable certainty that the defendant’s acts caused the injury. Several recent cases have emphasized the Daubert requirement that expert testimony supporting proximate cause for product liability claims must be non-speculative and backed by reliable, reproducible, scientific methodologies.

In a recent decision, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the summary judgment victory of Zeltiq Aesthetics, Inc. in a failure-to-warn and design defect lawsuit regarding its CoolSculpting medical device and found that a health care provider’s misunderstanding of an adverse effect did not bear on the adequacy of the product’s warning.