Successfully defended a bus company that was sued after an intoxicated passenger was removed from the bus and was later killed on the highway. The plaintiff sought in excess of $1 MM, but the jury exonerated the bus company. 

Successfully defended a leading manufacturer of personnel lifts in a products liability case in which the Texas Supreme Court changed Texas products liability law, specifically regarding design defect cases. The plaintiff argued that our client’s lift was defective as designed because it was not safe when the explicit instructions (to never move the lift when someone is in the basket) are ignored. Those instructions were ignored and the person in the basket was killed. The Court held that the instructions against this type of misuse were very clear and the danger was obvious, and held that when the risk that someone will ignore those instructions is very small, then a change in the design is not required in order to make the product reasonably safe. In such a case, the Supreme Court held, the question should not even be submitted to a jury, as the risk of harm does not outweigh the product’s utility as a matter of law.

Successfully defended the Mexico-based branch of an international electronic manufacturing company in federal court regarding a case in which a truck driver allegedly hauling appliances from Mexico to Mississippi fell asleep and killed a number of people on a highway in Louisiana.

Represented a large international manufacturer of plastic pipe. The pipe was used to transport water at an oil well drilling site and, because the water was extremely hot, the pipe burst and caused a sinkhole. An oilfield worker fell into the sinkhole, which was full of boiling water, and was burned. He survived ten days and then died of his injuries. The plaintiff sued the manufacturer of the pipe, seeking several million dollars. The case was tried in south Texas, and the jury found that the pipe was not defective, completely exonerating the manufacturer.