Top Defense Result: Gutierres v. Balch Petroleum

Jodi B. Gutierres worked as a technician in a windowless telephone exchange when she claimed that exhaust from a backhoe used outside the facilities seeped into the building's heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.

She said the exhaust gave her carbon monoxide and diesel fumes poisoning, resulting in brain and liver damage and rendering her unable to walk or take care of herself. Gutierres sued Balch Petroleum, the backhoe operator. Gutierres et al. v. Balch Petroleum et al., 09CECG04550 (Fresno Super. Ct., filed Sept. 17, 2010).

The company decided to take its chances at trial, represented by Miles D. Scully and J. Todd Konold, San Diego-based partners at Gordon & Rees LLP.

Key to their defense was that the plaintiff's attorneys could not "mathematically explain" how such a high degree of carbon monoxide could accumulate in the building to such a degree that it would cause Gutierres' injuries.

"It was a battle of the experts," Scully said. He said the plaintiff's case fell apart when he exposed problems with the mathematical calculations used by Gutierres' expert witness to explain the poisoning.

In January 2013, after a six-week trial, the jury denied Gutierres' request for $5 million and found that Balch Petroleum wasn't negligent.

Scully attributed Gutierres' injuries in part to psychosomatic issues. "I think that she had a long history of health problems that she tended to relate to [chemical] exposures," he said. "She obviously had some sort of medical condition. It just wasn't caused by our client."

Gutierres died in September at the age of 59. Her attorney, David M. Feldman, is appealing the verdict on the grounds that an expert witness was allowed to testify about issues introduced outside the scope of deposition.

- EMILY GREEN

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