Yeaman v. Hillerich & Bradsby Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
570 F. App’x 728 (2014)
- Written by Steven Pacht, JD
Facts
Dillon Yeaman (plaintiff) was a 15-year-old pitcher for his Oklahoma high-school baseball team. Dillon was seriously injured when he was hit in the face by a batted ball during a game. The ball was hit with an Exogrid nonwood bat designed, manufactured, and sold by Hillerich & Bradsby Company (H&B) (defendant). Dillon and his parents (collectively, Yeamans) (plaintiffs) brought a products-liability suit against H&B, alleging that (1) the Exogrid was defectively designed because it produced bat-exit speeds (exit speeds) in excess of the expectations of ordinary consumers and (2) H&B failed to warn consumers about the Exogrid’s dangerousness. At trial, various lay witnesses testified that nonwood bats like the Exogrid can hit a ball farther and faster than wood bats, that the ball that hit Dillon was the hardest hit ball they had ever seen, and that the ball that hit Dillon had an exit speed between 100 and 105 miles per hour. But there was no expert testimony at trial that objectively quantified the Exogrid’s exit-speed capability, the exit-speed capability of allegedly nondangerous bats (acceptable bats), or the exit speed of the ball that hit Dillon. Nor did the trial testimony address nonbat factors that may have contributed to the exit speed of the ball that hit Dillon, such as the speed and type of Dillon’s pitch or the skill and ability of the batter who hit the fateful ball. The jury ruled in favor of the Yeamans and awarded damages in excess of $950,000. However, the trial court granted H&B’s posttrial motion for judgment as a matter of law, ruling that the Yeamans presented insufficient evidence that the Exogrid had a design defect that made it unreasonably dangerous or that H&B had any duty to warn consumers. The Yeamans appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (O’Brien, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.