Facts

This was a subrogation action arising out of a water loss, which occurred on July 18, 2001 at the vacation home of Joseph and Gwen Tarantino in Rancho Mirage. On that date, the Tarantinos were not occupying the home (they only used the home approximately five months out of the year). They received a call that their toilet was leaking and flooding the home.

The Tarantinos had a policy of insurance with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Pursuant to the policy of insurance Liberty Mutual paid the Tarantinos the amount of $110,414.93 to repair the home, replace contents and provide an alternate vacation home.

The plaintiff's investigation determined that the toilet was leaking through the toilet supply line, specifically at the plastic ballcock valve. This valve was manufactured, assembled and distributed by Robert Manufacturing Company as part of an entire assembly of the toilet supply line. Defendant Southwest Plumbing Inc installed the toilet supply line in 1993.

After the loss, Liberty Mutual had the toilet supply line inspected, and its expert concluded that the toilet supply line leaked due to a slow crack growth mechanism caused by environmentally induced material degradation (chlorine degrading the acetyl nut). Further, the notches at the thread root had little to no radius, weakening the integrity of the part. Those, and various other reasons, made the product defective.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
The plaintiff contended that the plastic nut was defectively designed; that many other similar parts manufactured by Robert Manufacturing Inc. were and are failing across the country.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
Robert Manufacturing Inc. contended that their parts never fail by themselves, that instead, they always find tool marks, indicating the installer did not follow instructions, used a tool to tighten the tool during installation, and this was the cause of this loss and all others. The tool contained an instruction printed on the supply line, which stated "Hand Tighten Only."

Southwest Plumbing Inc. admitted they probably used a tool, however, this was and remains custom in the industry, and the one-quarter turn of the nut after hand tight is not over-tightening, and did not cause this loss.

Settlement Discussions

Pre-trial settlement resulted in plaintiff accepting $15,000 from Southwest Plumbing. Robert Manufacturing declined to offer any more than $5,000 at a mediation one month before trial. The case could not settle at two mandatory settlement conferences and court ordered mediation. Plaintiff demanded $30,000 from Robert in a CCP 998 two years before trial. Robert countered with a $5,000 CCP 998 offer.

Damages

$110,000 actual cash value

Result

The plaintiff recovered $105,000 from defendant Robert Manufacturing; and $15,000 from defendant Southwest Plumbing.

Other Information

This case involved extensive litigation. Defendant Robert attempted to have plaintiff's counsel disqualified for hiring an associate who previously worked at a defense firm which defended Robert Manufacturing in other litigation. Southwest plumbing filed a motion for summary judgment, which was denied. Extensive motions in limine were filed by plaintiff. Primarily, plaintiff sought to exclude the expert opinions of defendant's designated expert Bruce Antunez, the president of Coast Foundry Manufacturing, a rival nut manufacturing company. After plaintiff deposed Mr. Antunez, Robert attempted to de-designate Mr. Antunez and designate a more qualified expert. The motion to preclude the supplemental designation filed by plaintiff was taken off calendar before hearing, after Robert agreed to pay all costs and fees associated therewith. The court conducted six hours of 402 hearings on expert Bruce Antunez before ruling on plaintiff's five motions in limine regarding whether Bruce Antunez was qualified to give opinions, most specifically regarding the standard of care of plumbers in installing plumbing parts, which the court ruled he was not. Additionally the court ruled that Mr. Antunez would be precluded from offering opinions that the part was overtightened, that there were tool marks on the part, and that the failure was from overtightening. Further, the court ruled that Mr. Antunez was unqualified to offer any opinions regarding the notches, and whether acetyl degrades in chlorine: in short, defendant was precluded through motions in limine, from offering any expert defense that their product was defectively designed. Plaintiff counsel's motions relied on Mr. Antunez's deposition testimony in a total of four cases, in which plaintiff's counsel was involved, where were cross-referenced in the motions. Trial was continued to allow Robert to settle the case without trial. On the date of trial Robert paid $105,000 (in addition to the $15,000 already recovered by plaintiff), giving plaintiff a recovery in excess of its payments!