Beville ex rel. Estate of Beville v. Ford Motor Co.

MEMORANDUM ***

Dawn Beville, individually and as representative of the estate of Paul Beville, along with other Beville family members (collectively “Beville”), appeal the district court’s denial of two motions for a new trial. Beville sued Ford Motor Company (“Ford”), alleging that Ford’s decision not to mandate a back-up alarm on one of its semi-truck models was a design defect, and that the defect caused an accident in which of one of these vehicles backed up into Paul Beville, crushing and killing him. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motions, and we affirm. See Navellier v. Sletten, 262 F.3d 923, 948 (9th Cir.2001) (“A district court’s denial of a motion for new trial is reviewed for abuse of discretion.”).

Beville argues that a new trial is warranted because one juror pi’epared a series of questions and answers while at home during a break in deliberations and discussed these notes with the jury. Be-ville claims that the juror’s notes contradicted the district court’s jury instructions and referred to excluded evidence. However, the notes cannot be used to impeach the verdict because they are not extraneous information. See…