Downey v. Bob's Discount Furniture Holdings, Inc., 09-2137
By
FindLaw Staff
on January 14, 2011
| Last updated on March 21, 2019
Action against a furniture store for selling bedbug infested mattress Downey v. Bob's Discount Furniture Holdings, Inc., 09-2137, concerned a challenge to the district court's exclusion of plaintiffs' expert testimony as a sanction
for failure to comply with the disclosure requirements of Federal Rule
of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2)(B), in plaintiffs' suit against a furniture store asserting claims for negligence, breach of implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose and merchantability, and violations of a Massachusetts consumer protection law, for selling to plaintiffs a bedbug infested mattress.
In reversing the judgment, the court held that the district court abused
its discretion in excluding the proffered testimony because the expert
in question was not an expert specially retained or employed for the
purpose of testifying. The court rejected plaintiffs' challenge to the
district court's exclusion of a compendium of thirty-six customer
complaints lodged with the defendant between 2004 and 2006 as, the
plaintiffs never marked for introduction, or otherwise placed in the
record, the list of complaints. Lastly, the court held that the
evidence of record, together with the excluded testimony, could lead a
jury reasonably to conclude that the defendant violated its duty of care
and this evidence could plausibly permit the jury to find in favor of
the plaintiffs on their claims for violation of Massachusetts consumer
protection law and for breach of warranty.
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