Linares v. Crown Equipment Corp.

Central District

U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal

Defense Lawyers: Todd A. Cavanaugh, Raymond H. Hua, Yukevich Cavanaugh; Thomas J. Cullen Jr., Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann LLP

Plaintiff's Lawyers: Roger L. Gordon, Vincent V. Bennett, Gordon, Edelstein, Krepack, Grant, Felton & Goldstein LLP

Plaintiff Jose Linares claimed the steering malfunctioned on his Crown Equipment Corp. "stand-up rider" forklift and caused it to strike a metal guardrail so that his foot was crushed as it extended outside the operator compartment. He sought $3 million for injuries including Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder and the inability to work.

Linares contended that the forklift was defective because it lacked a door in the entryway to the operator compartment and that Crown negligently serviced the steering system. But following a seven-day trial, a federal jury took less than 45 minutes to deliver a unanimous defense verdict in March 2018.

Todd A. Cavanaugh of Yukevich Cavanaugh, Crown's California counsel, said a key to the defense was detective work that led to his discovery of Linares' Facebook pages, posted under an alias, that contradicted many of his claims.

"At deposition, we learned Mr. Linares' cell phone number," the defense attorney said. "That led us to a Spanish-language newspaper in San Bernardino County where he was operating a parcel service specializing in deliveries between the U.S. and El Salvador. That undercut his claims he couldn't work."

As for Linares' assertion that he couldn't travel or even walk through an airport, the Facebook posts showed photos of him on vacation abroad. They included statements that he called United Airlines' Presidents Club his "second home."

Plaintiff's attorney Roger L. Gordon did not reply to a message seeking comment. There has been no appeal. Linares v. Crown Equipment Corp., 16-CV01637 (C.D. Cal., filed July 27, 2016).

Thomas J. Cullen Jr., Crown's national counsel, cross-examined Linares. "I've used Facebook before at trial, but I had never encountered the fictitious name angle," he said.

"There's such an incentive for people to be in the social media world -- but their lawyers usually warn them to be careful what they say," Cullen said. "I was somewhat worried that the judge would make a decision to rule out the material. But we were ready for that. Mr. Linares had used the names of his dogs and family members in his fictitious name posts, so those were indices of reliability we could present if we'd had to."

Linares admitted that the posts were his.

"We had established with his doctor that he wasn't supposed to travel internationally, and there he was in first class," Cullen said. "In the courtroom, you could feel the effect. You could see a look of contempt in the jurors' eyes that he had misrepresented his capabilities."

Defense teamwork was key, Cullen said. "This was a combination of handling discovery appropriately and using it at trial pretty effectively."

-- John Roemer