Expert Needed In Design Defect Suit Over Oil Worker’s Fatal Fall, 5th Circuit Says

Mealey's (June 2, 2017, 1:05 PM EDT) -- NEW ORLEANS — A federal court did not err in holding that, lacking expert testimony that was excluded, the parents of a man who died in an oil rig fall failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether a design defect in his safety harness was the proximate cause of his death, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled May 30 in affirming the grant of summary judgment to the harness maker (Billy Stewart, et al. v. Capital Safety USA, No. 16-30993, 5th Cir., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 9474)....