JOHNSTOWN — A federal judge has signed off on additional damages allocated in a products liability lawsuit concerning an allegedly faulty snow blower.
Reynolds Alley sued MTD Products in January 2017 following a January 2015 incident in which Alley was severely injured while seating the bead of a tire onto a rim, and inflating the tire, when the rim failed and burst.
In an opinion issued Oct. 17, U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson detailed the history of the litigation leading to a February 2019 joint stipulation that liability would not be contested, only damages. After a short trial in July, a jury awarded Alley $170,532. He filed a motion for delay damages Aug. 2, and on Aug. 27 MTD filed a renewed motion for judgment.
Gibson also detailed a discovery dispute that started May 23, 2017, when Reynolds served MTD a notice of corporate depositions. MTD said it was unable to schedule depositions until Jan. 25, 2018, after which Reynolds shifted the date to March 14, 2018. On March 13, “MTD objected to more than half of the topics [Reynolds] stated in the notice and stated that MTD would not provide testimony on those topics.” The parties then canceled the depositions.
Both sides agreed delay damages were in order, and that the applicable interest rate for any delay incurred in 2018 should be 5.5 percent, a daily interest rate of almost $26. But MTD said the clock should start Jan. 31, 2017, while Alley maintained he effected service a day earlier, when MTD’s lawyers entered their appearances and filed a motion to dismiss.
MTD also said Reynolds should not be entitled to delay damages for a period spanning Jan. 31-Sept. 4, 2018, because he made inappropriate discovery requests and failed to adhere to Gibson’s deadlines. Reynolds disagreed, saying MTD had the deposition notice for 295 days and did not object until the day before, bypassing opportunities to object to discovery requests.
Reynolds agreed he is not entitled to delay damages from May 20-July 9, 2019, because he failed to disclose an expert.
Gibson said MTD had no support for its argument Reynolds did not effect service until Jan. 31, 2017, and so ruled the delay period initiated Jan. 30, 2018. He also said MTD did not present sufficient evidence showing delays were Reynolds’ fault. He granted delay damages of $12,974, based on 336 days of interest in 2018 and 142 in 2019, bringing the total award to $183,480. He also denied MTD’s renewed motion for judgment on the same grounds he denied the initial motion during the trial.