Case:Johnson vs. Coldrock Tireand Rubber Company-Read the case and prepare to research how the judicial panel to….

Assignment:

Read the case
and prepare to research how the judicial panel to conduct a trial and give
proper instructions to the jury.
In the courtroom,
the judges have to hear objections at trial and over rule or sustain them. The
judge’s role is to ensure a smooth efficient and speedy trial without undue
delay. The judges have to keep the attorneys in line and on track.
•Pre-Trial
Conference:All attorneys and the judicial panel will be
responsible for conducting a pre-trial conference, run by the judges, where
workload is equitably divided between the plaintiff and defense teams. You must
delegate the varied responsibilities amongst yourselves, such as writing
potential juror questions, drafting witness examination questions and preparing
for trial. It is your responsibility to allocate the workload in a fair and
equitable manner and submit all documents to the relevant parties by the
deadline. In the conference report, I want to know both sides’ position. Plaintiff
has to be clear what their argument is and

Case:Johnson vs. Coldrock
Tireand Rubber Company

In March
2006,when John Johnson, a
mechanic employed byInfiniti
of Parkland, attempted
tomount a16 inch tireon a
17 inch rim of
anInfinitiG35 wheel,
leaning andreachingovertheassembly
whileinstalling it, the tireexploded, causinghim serious, permanent
injuries. Mr.
Johnson lost three
fingers ofhis right hand
in theaccidentas well
as thevision in his right
eye. In
addition to his job at the
dealership, Mr. Johnson was an
aspiringreggae musician whothedayofthe
accident had received a multi-million dollar record contractofferfrom
TinseltownRecords. Mr. Johnson filed suit in Florida’s
17th Judicial Circuit Court
against his employer,American Hawk
Company– the manufacturerofthe wheel, Nissan MotorCompany– themanufactureroftheautomobile and designer
ofthe wheeland Coldrock
Tireand Rubber
Company– the manufacturerofthetire.Mr.
Johnson had 10years
of
experienceas a
mechanicand had
received three daysofon-site
training from representatives
of Coldrock.The
dealership,wheel manufacturer
andautomobile manufacturerall settled,
leavingColdrockas theremaining
defendant. Thesuit
is scheduled for trial starting April
24, 2014.

At issuein
the caseis thelabelingon the
tire.Thetire
had alabel, advising users
neverto mounta
16-inch tireona17-inch
rim, warningofthe
dangerof severeinjuryordeath, and
included adrawingofamechanic
leaningoverthe
tireto install it with a circle and redline drawn through
it. Whetherthe label wassufficientlyconspicuous, oradequatelydepicted
the
resultingdanger
or risk of injury, remainsan
open issue. In
depositions, Johnson admitted that he
ignored thesewarnings at
theurgingofhis employer
and becauseit was
common practiceto install smallertires
on largerrims oftheInfiniti G35. Duringdiscovery,
Johnson’s attorneysexplored whyColdrock
did not usea safer”bead”design. Thebead is arubber encased steel
wirewhichcircles the tireand holds
it on to the rim. Each side
has offered upexperts,
with Johnson’spointingout that
other manufacturers usedifferentand safer bead designs and Coldrock’sarguingthat the
Coldrockdesignwas the
safest intheindustry
anda different designwould not
have changed theoutcome. Amongthe witnessesdeposed byplaintiff’s counsel was RogerColdrock,
CEOofthe company.

Plaintiffis beingrepresented
by
thelaw firm of
Dewey, Cheatum&Howe,LLP, a
specialist inproduct liabilitysuits. The defendant is beingrepresented bytheWall Street
firm of Ben, Jarvis,Green&Ellis,LLP.Theassigned
judgein thecaseis the Hon. Solomon Cardozo Holmes, arecentappointee
bytheRepublicangovernor. Beforehis
appointment, JudgeHolmes was
inprivate
practice with a largeFortLauderdale
firm;his major client was General Motors.

YourTask:

You havebeen
assigned to this trial. Actingas
the judge.

Roles to choosefrom(one only):

Plaintiff:JohnJohnson (known
to his friends as”Johnny”).Mr.
Johnson will be called as
awitness
by
plaintiff’scounsel and
will be cross-examined bydefendant’s counsel.

Plaintiff’s Counsel: As a
memberofthe plaintiff’slegal team,yourjob
will beto preparefor andrepresent
your client at trial.
First,youwill
need to determine what
legal theoriesyou
arerelyingupon as the basis foryour
lawsuit and develop what elements of thesetheoriesyou
will havetoprove.
You will need togatheryour physical evidence, developyourlist
ofwitnesses
and
experts and prepare
fortrial. At
trial,you will first makeyouropeningstatement which outlines
the elements ofyourcaseand
the evidence thatyou
will be presentingin support ofyourposition.
You will then present
your evidencebycalling
and questioningwitnesses and expertswhich
together will proveyour
case.You will also havethe
opportunityto cross examinethedefendant’s witnesses and redirectyour
own witness testimonyaftercross examination
by
thedefendant’scounsel.
Finally,you
will concludewithyourclosingargument.

Defendant’s CEO:
Roger
“Cole”Coldrock, 87,
alegend in the industry.His familystarted
thebusiness afterWorld
WarII,
first buyingsurplus rubber from the
U.S. Armyand buildingthecompanyinto a
leaderinthe business. Inrecentyears, Coldrock
has moved much ofitsmanufacturingoverseas to Malaysia and
Thailand,seekinglower
laborcosts and easieraccess
toraw
materials.

Defendant’s Counsel: As a
memberofthe defendant’s legal team,yourjobwill
beto prepare forand representyourclient
at trial. First,you
will need to determinewhat legal theories
plaintiffisrelyinguponas the
basisforits lawsuit and present
proof refutingthose
elements or establishingyourown
defenses (i.e.,what are
the defenses toa
product liabilitycase?).You
will need togatheryour
own physicalevidence, developyourlist of
witnesses and experts and
preparefortrial.At
trial,you will makeyouropening
statement which outlines
yourposition (i.e., whytheplaintiff cannot provehistheoryand/or
presentingyouraffirmativedefenses) and introducetheevidencethatyouwill
be presentingin support ofyourposition. You
will then cross examinethe
plaintiff’s witnesses. Afterthe
plaintiff’scounsel rests,you will
presentyourevidence
bycalling and questioning
witnesses and experts which proveyourcase. You will
also havetheopportunityto redirectyour
own witness testimonyaftercross
examination bythe plaintiff’scounsel.Finally,
afterthe plaintiff’s counsel
makes its closingargument,you
will conclude withyourclosing argument.

Judge:The
judgeis the “umpire”, hewill
establish the ground rules ofthecase(i.e., thetimetobe
allotted to each partyfor each part ofthecase),he will decide
what evidenceis admissible(i.e., is the evidencerelevant? hearsay?), he willsettleanypoints oflaw argued duringthecaseand
finallywill deliver instructions
to thejury(i.e., deciding what factual
issues thejurymustevaluate
in reachingits legalconclusion).

Witnesses (Hint:Notall witnesses
needbe called- that
is a decision forcounsel)

ï
John
“Johnny”Johnson
ï
Roger “Cole”Coldrock

ï
Mickey Wrenchwell
-A
mechanicand
oneoftheplaintiff’s co-workers.
ï
Sandra Somerville-A
customer who witnessed the accident.
ï
Dr. Stanley Goodspeed
-A retiredFord
MotorCompanymechanical engineer andanexpert
in automobilestabilitycontrol
systems whothe plaintiff has hiredas an
expertwitness to testifyas
to the inherent hazard in installinga smaller tireona
larger rim.
ï
Dr. Christina Hernandez-A
formermechanicalengineerand
formeremployeeofFirestone who thedefense has hiredas its expert
witnesses.

Jury:Will listen to all the
facts ofthe trial and
deliberatein theconferenceroom offthe
courtroom. Theywill reach adecision and reportback to thecourtroom.

Schedule:

ï
Plaintiff’s Counsel OpeningStatement
-10minutes
ï
Defendant’s Counsel OpeningStatement
-10minutes
ï
Plaintiff’s Case-20minutes
+ 10minutes for
cross-examination
ï
Defendant’s Case-20minutes + 10 minutes for
cross-examination
ï
Plaintiff’s Counsel
ClosingArgument -10minutes
ï
Defendant’s Counsel
ClosingArgument-10minutes
ï
JuryInstructions
-5minutes
ï
JuryDeliberation
and
Verdict -15minutes
ï
Total Time= 2 hours