United States v. Mirama Enterprises, Inc.

AMENDED ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGEMENT

On November 30, 2001, Plaintiff filed the instant motion for summary judgement; Defendant opposes. Both sides are proceeding through counsel. Oral argument, limited to the issue of whether the government need furnish expert testimony to support its motion, was heard on January 22, 2002.

I. Background

This is not your usual summary judgement motion: aside from evidentiary objections, the relevant material facts are clear and uncontested. Plaintiffs complaint seeks civil damages for Defendant’s failure to notify the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“Commission”) about alleged defects or the alleged danger posed' by Defendant’s consumer product. Plaintiffs instant motion seeks summary judgement on Defendant’s liability for failing to properly notify the Commission once Defendant had notice of the defects and/or dangers posed by its product. The essential question is whether Defendant had notice of the problems with its product, such that it was required to notify the Commission. Defendant interposed evi-dentiary objections to many of the factual allegations made by Plaintiff. Those evi-dentiary objections are…