Circuit Watcher

07-1191 Pineda v. Ford Motor Co.
Before: McKEE, AMBRO, Circuit Judges, and IRENAS,¹ Senior District Judge.
IRENAS, Senior United States District Judge. Appellant Jose Pineda is an automobile technician who was injured when the rear liftgate glass of a 2002 Ford Explorer shattered. He filed a products liability action against Appellee Ford Motor Company in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and retained an expert to support his claims. After extensive discovery and a Daubert hearing,² the District Court³ ruled that Pineda’s proffered expert witness was not qualified to testify and that his methodology was not reliable. The District Court then granted Ford’s motion to exclude the testimony of Pineda’s expert and its motion for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, we will reverse both decisions and remand for further proceedings. … Pineda v. Ford Motor Co.

1. Honorable Joseph E. Irenas, Senior United States District Judge for the District of New Jersey, sitting by designation. [↩]
2. A Daubert hearing refers to a pretrial hearing where a court determines whether a proffered expert witness’s testimony is both relevant and reliable, and thus admissible as evidence, pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993). [↩]
3. On June 16, 2006, the Honorable Bruce W. Kauffman, United States District Judge, referred this action to the Honorable Jacob P. Hart, United States Magistrate Judge, to conduct any and all proceedings and to order the entry of a final judgment. The referral was made pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c) and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 73 and with the consent of all parties. Upon an appropriate referral and an entry of judgment, “an aggrieved party may appeal directly to the appropriate United States court of appeals from the judgment of the magistrate judge in the same manner as an appeal from any other judgment of a district court.” 28 U.S.C. § 636(c)(3). [↩]