Haley v. Kolbe & Kolbe Millwork Co.

Dist. Ct. did not err in entering summary judgment in plaintiffs’ action that defendant-manufacturer sold defective windows that leaked and prematurely rotted in contravention to certain express and implied warranties, and that defendant negligently designed and manufactured said windows, where Dist. Ct. excluded plaintiffs’ expert witnesses and entered summary judgment after finding that plaintiffs could not establish their claims without expert testimony. One expert was excluded because his report contained material factual error, and plaintiffs waived their appellate arguments regarding said exclusion by failing to include them in their response to defendant’s Daubert motion filed in Dist. Ct. Moreover, as to second expert witness, Dist. Ct. applied Daubert factors to exclude said testimony based on finding regarding reliability of expert’s testing methods, and plaintiffs forfeited their appellate arguments regarding said exclusion by failing to include them their Daubert response. Also Dist. Ct. did not err in issuing rule to show cause as to why plaintiffs’ claims should not be dismissed in absence of any expert testimony to support said claims, where: (1) Dist. Ct. gave explicit prior notice of possibility of dismissal due to lack of expert testimony; (2) window distributors’ emails proffered by plaintiffs to establish causation constituted improper hearsay evidence and were otherwise inadmissible as improper expert testimony; and (3) other evidence proffered by plaintiffs failed to establish any negligent design of defendant’s windows.