Reddy

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Prabhakar Reddy was injured in a hotel room when a stone tabletop detached as he was attempting to move a side table. Reddy sued the hotel and settled with it prior to trial. Reddy also sued the designers and manufacturers of the table, Unifactor Corporation (Unifactor) and Steve’s Plating Corporation (Steve’s) (collectively, Defendants) under a theory of strict product liability for design defect, and the case against them proceeded to a jury trial. At trial, Reddy sought to prove the existence of a design defect using both the consumer expectation test and the risk- benefit test. The trial court found no evidence to establish the consumer expectation test and granted a nonsuit as to that theory; it permitted the risk-benefit theory to go to the jury. Also during trial, Reddy sought to introduce into evidence two tables from the hotel. The court determined that neither was the table that had resulted in Reddy’s injury; both had been obtained years after the injury occurred. The court found Reddy could not authenticate the tables or establish a sufficient chain of custody for them, but did permit Reddy’s expert to introduce certain photographs of one of the…