LYNCH, Circuit Judge.
This diversity case arose from the death of Maribel Quilez-Bonelli following an automobile accident involving Maribel's Jeep Liberty and a truck in use by Municipality of San Juan employees that had fitted onto its trash body an underride guard designed by Ox Bodies, Inc. ("Ox Bodies"). Maribel's family members brought suit in federal court against Ox Bodies, seeking damages for, inter alia, defective design of the underride guard. A jury found Ox Bodies strictly liable for defective design and awarded the plaintiffs damages totaling $6,000,000. By special verdict form, the jury assigned 20% of responsibility for the damages to Ox Bodies, 80% to the Municipality of San Juan, which was not a party in the suit, and 0% to Maribel. The presiding magistrate judge ruled that judgment should enter on the strict liability claim in favor of the plaintiffs and that under Puerto Rico law, Ox Bodies should be held responsible only for 20% of the damages award, which equaled $1,200,000. This appeal and cross-appeal followed.
Ox Bodies appeals the verdict, contending that the court should not have allowed the plaintiffs' expert to testify on an alternative underride guard design, and that absent such testimony, no reasonable jury could have found for the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs appeal the order limiting their recovery, arguing that under Puerto Rico law Ox Bodies should be held "jointly and severally liable to the plaintiff[s] for the totality of the damages" — the entire $6,000,000 award — such that "the risk of loss of having to pay the entire judgment without obtaining contribution is borne by the defendant joint tortfeasor, not by the plaintiffs."
We affirm the court's decision to admit the plaintiffs' expert's testimony and so reject Ox Bodies' appeal. On the plaintiffs' appeal, in the absence of clear Puerto Rico law, we certify to the Puerto Rico Supreme Court the question of the extent of Ox Bodies' liability for the damages award.
On October 1, 2010, Maribel Quilez-Bonelli, a then 28-year-old married woman and mother, was driving on a highway overpass near the city of San Juan in a 2004 Jeep Liberty with her toddler son when her Jeep collided with a stopped or slowly moving truck in use by Municipality of San Juan employees. The truck bore an underride guard near its rear that had been designed by Ox Bodies. The front of Maribel's Jeep hit the truck from behind and underrode the truck's trash body such that the truck penetrated the Jeep's passenger compartment and struck Maribel, lacerating her head and face. Maribel died from resulting injuries on October 6, 2010.
Maribel's family members, Berardo A. Quilez-Velar, Marta Bonelli-Caban, Berardo A. Quilez-Bonelli, and Carlos A. Quilez-Bonelli
On March 20, 2013, Quilez filed an amended complaint in its diversity action in federal district court against Ox Bodies, its parent company, and other defendants, for defective design and negligence under Puerto Rico law. Ox Bodies and its parent company brought a third-party claim for contribution and/or indemnification against, inter alia, the Municipality of San Juan. On May 16, 2014, the Municipality of San Juan notified the federal court that it had deposited $500,000 that day with the Puerto Rico court. On September 4, 2014, the federal court dismissed the Municipality of San Juan from the suit, without objection from Ox Bodies. Quilez-Velar v. Ox Bodies, Inc., No. CIV. 12-1780, 2014 WL 4385418, at *2, *3 (D.P.R. Sept. 4, 2014), reconsideration denied, No. CIV. 12-1780, 2014 WL 4656649 (D.P.R. Sept. 17, 2014). At the time of this appeal, the only remaining defendant is Ox Bodies.
On January 26, 2015, Ox Bodies filed a pre-trial motion in limine to exclude the testimony of Quilez's expert, Perry Ponder, arguing that "Mr. Ponder's report is devoid of any scientific analysis or calculations
After reviewing both parties' submissions and relevant discovery materials, the magistrate judge, presiding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636, denied the motion to exclude Ponder's testimony. Quilez-Velar v. Ox Bodies, Inc., No. CIV. 12-1780, 2015 WL 418151, at *7 (D.P.R. Feb. 1, 2015). The magistrate judge acknowledged Ox Bodies' argument that Ponder "did not perform specific tests or calculations in the course of his analysis," but found, first, that Ox Bodies failed to "show that these specific tests must have been carried out to provide a foundation for Ponder's opinions," and second, that upon "review[ing] Ponder's report, ... its conclusions are well-explained, and its use of crash-test data appears appropriate." Id.
At trial, when Quilez moved to qualify Ponder as an expert, Ox Bodies requested voir dire, which was initially conducted in front of the jury and during which Ponder acknowledged that he did not crash-test his proposed alternative design and that none of his "rear underride guard designs" had ever been adopted by tilt or dump bed manufacturers. Ox Bodies conceded that Ponder was qualified as an accident reconstructionist but renewed its objection to Ponder's testifying about an alternative design for an underride guard. The court permitted further questioning by both parties outside the presence of the jury, spanning more than nine pages of transcript, before ultimately ruling that Ponder was qualified to testify about an alternative underride guard design.
Following a 12-day trial, the jury returned a verdict finding Ox Bodies strictly liable to Quilez for defective design. In the magistrate judge's March 3, 2015, memorandum and order, damages were apportioned as described earlier. Quilez-Velar v. Ox Bodies, Inc., No. CIV. 12-1780, 2015 WL 898255, at *1-3 (D.P.R. Mar. 3, 2015).
Ox Bodies appeals the admission of Ponder's testimony regarding a feasible safer alternative design, arguing that without Ponder's testimony no reasonable jury could have found it liable. "Under Puerto Rican tort law governing design defect claims, if the plaintiff proves that the product's design is the proximate cause of
Ponder's expert report pointed to two key deficiencies in Ox Bodies' guard design: first, "[a]pproximately the outside 16 inches on each side of the rear of the [Ox Bodies] truck is left without any underride guarding at all," and second, "the guard is not sufficiently braced against impacts" because "[t]he outside span of the horizontal member is a beam supported at an interior location, but unsupported at the end," such that part of the guard "would begin to fail at a load of approximately 7,000 lbs." He further opined that "[t]he frontal collision safety features in [Maribel's] Jeep Liberty were rendered ineffective because the ... truck lacked a substantially constructed underride guard."
Ponder's report went on to conclude that "[t]here exist feasible safer alternative rear impact guard designs for" the truck involved here. He noted a number of published studies that "offer completed truck underride guard designs." He outlined a design suited for the instant truck, "consist[ing] of a horizontal member positioned at the or very close to the rear extremity of the vehicle, long enough to protect the entire width of the truck," and "[d]iagonal bracing ... placed at the truck bed's interior longitudinal members and side longitudinal members at a 45 degree angle along with a vertical support to complete the truss at the side extremities."
Our review of the magistrate judge's decision to admit Ponder's testimony on alternative design is for abuse of discretion. Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137, 152, 119 S.Ct. 1167, 143 L.Ed.2d 238 (1999). "Absent a material error of law, we will not second-guess such a discretionary determination unless it appears that the trial court `committed a meaningful error in judgment.'" United States v. Jordan, 813 F.3d 442, 445 (1st Cir.2016) (quoting Ruiz-Troche v. Pepsi Cola of P.R. Bottling Co., 161 F.3d 77, 83 (1st Cir.1998)). We find that under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, the magistrate judge's decision to admit Ponder's testimony was within her discretion.
Under Federal Rule of Evidence 702:
Fed.R.Evid. 702. The magistrate judge here must "serve[] as the gatekeeper for expert testimony by `ensuring that [it] ... both rests on a reliable foundation and is relevant to the task at hand.'"
There is no dispute that testimony regarding alternative design was necessary to determine a fact at issue. The magistrate judge acted within her discretion in determining that Ponder's "scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge" would help the jury determine that issue. Fed.R.Evid. 702(a). Ponder, a licensed professional engineer with a degree in mechanical engineering, has designed and tested at least four underride guards, reviewed crash tests and underride crashes, and lectured or published on the subjects of underride guard history, regulations, and side underride guard protections. He is also certified by the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction as an accident reconstructionist and has performed more than 400 accident reconstructions, including about twenty in underride cases. On appeal, Ox Bodies has not raised a developed objection to the relevance of these experiences to the issue at hand.
Rather, the central question before us concerns whether the magistrate judge abused her discretion in concluding that Ponder's testimony on alternative design was sufficiently reliable to survive the admissibility threshold.
In any event, the record permitted a factfinder to conclude that Ponder did do some testing, and here, the record supports the magistrate judge's determination that there were alternate methods of testing from which the jury could evaluate reliability. See Johnson, 484 F.3d at 431. First, Ponder testified that he looked at "crash test information" from several sources, including a 1980 study available from the National Technical Information System, "a number of patents," "crash test data from 1971 from Aeronautical Research Associates," and other crash tests done under contract with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA"). Ox Bodies argues that Ponder's conclusion regarding the guard in the instant case does not "fit" with or follow from the studies. In its motion in limine, Ox Bodies argued that those studies "evaluated impacts and forces that were different from those involved in this case." But Ponder testified in voir dire that at least some of the "information is transferrable... [to] underride guards for any type of vehicle." He explained in response to a question about crash-test data asked during his deposition, for example, that "a 90-degree frontal test is what NHTSA uses as confirmation for crash worthiness and passenger safety in crash types — all crash types." Upon review of the arguments and documents in the record properly submitted to us,
Second, Ponder testified that he tested his design using "stress calculation[s]." Cf. Lapsley, 689 F.3d at 815 ("A mathematical or computer model is a perfectly acceptable form of test."). His reliance in part on a Society of Automotive Engineers ("SAE") article, in order to determine the energy involved as well as "compar[e] the damage to [the SAE article's] damage matrix index," was appropriate.
Ox Bodies contends that Ponder failed to perform calculations its expert said were necessary in testing his design. However, as the magistrate judge correctly stated in ruling on Ox Bodies' motion in limine, "Defendants do not show that these specific tests must have been carried out to provide a foundation for Ponder's opinions." Moreover, Ponder's report and his responses when questioned during his deposition demonstrate support for his findings. We emphasize that in most cases, "[v]igorous cross-examination, presentation of contrary evidence, and careful instruction on the burden of proof are the traditional and appropriate means of attacking shaky but admissible evidence." Daubert, 509 U.S. at 596, 113 S.Ct. 2786. And here, Ox Bodies "had ample opportunity to cross examine" Ponder "and to use its own expert witness — which it did." Diefenbach v. Sheridan Transp., 229 F.3d 27, 31 (1st Cir.2000).
Finally, on appeal Ox Bodies argues that Ponder did not show that his alternative design would have "withstood the force of the crash" and would have prevented intrusion into the passenger compartment, or that the alternative design guard would have caused "the Jeep to rotate away from the truck on impact, rather than continuing further into the trash body." Ox Bodies did not raise these objections in its motion in limine or in its objections at trial. Arguably, the contention is waived. Sierra Club v. Wagner, 555 F.3d 21, 26 (1st Cir.2009). But even assuming that the more general argument — that Ponder has not shown that his alternative design would have prevented Maribel's injuries — was properly raised, that argument goes to the credibility of his testimony that the design was "safer." As these arguments were appropriate to make to the jury when it weighed the evidence, they do not lead us to conclude that the testimony's admission was in error.
In short, admitting Ponder's testimony on alternative design was not a "meaningful error in judgment," Ruiz-Troche, 161 F.3d at 83 (quoting Anderson v. Cryovac, Inc., 862 F.2d 910, 923 (1st Cir.1988)), and we affirm the magistrate judge's decision to admit his testimony.
The sole issue in Quilez's appeal is whether the magistrate judge erred by not holding Ox Bodies jointly and severally liable
The underlying assumption of the magistrate judge's reasoning is that Ox Bodies had no right of contribution against the Municipality of San Juan and that it necessarily followed that Quilez could not recover the sum of $6,000,000 against Ox Bodies on a joint and several liability theory. There are many questions, as discussed below, about whether contribution is or is not available, and whether the reasoning tying the existence of contribution to the existence of joint and several liability is valid under Puerto Rico law. Quilez posits that even if Ox Bodies does not have a right of contribution, Ox Bodies is nonetheless responsible to Quilez as a jointly and severally liable defendant. That is, the municipal cap does not excuse Ox Bodies from paying the sum of $6,000,000; and so, it cannot have the effect of shifting the risk of non-payment of the full sum to Quilez.
The magistrate judge's March 3, 2015, order read the Puerto Rico Supreme Court's decision in Cortijo Walker, which disallowed a third-party suit by a defendant against a plaintiff's employer covered by Puerto Rico's workmen's compensation statute, 91 P.R. at 559, 566, to preclude Ox Bodies from seeking contribution from the Municipality of San Juan. Quilez-Velar, 2015 WL 898255, at *2. Then, the magistrate judge held that, under Widow of Andino and Rosario Crespo, where "a defendant's general right to contribution is lost due to a joint-tortfeasor's statutory immunity," 2015 WL 898255, at *2, in a tort action a "defendant should be held liable for the damage only in proportion to its fault," id. at *3 (quoting Widow of Andino, 93 P.R. at 180); see Rosari Crespo, 94 P.R. at 813.
Quilez disputes both steps in the court's reasoning. Quilez argues that the cap on municipal damages at issue here is not analogous to the workmen's compensation statute's remedial restriction in Cortijo
Ox Bodies counters that the municipal cap and the workmen's compensation remedial restriction provision are materially indistinguishable. It points to the magistrate judge's reading of Cortijo Walker as holding that where a statute precludes a party's liability, a third-party claim against that party is prohibited because it "would amount to doing indirectly what the lawmaker has forbidden to be done directly." Cortijo Walker, 91 P.R. at 564. In Ox Bodies' view, the magistrate judge correctly interpreted the municipal damages cap here as a legislative policy choice to "protect[]... the municipal fisc" and any right to contribution as a forbidden attempt to indirectly get at that fisc. See Quilez-Velar, 2015 WL 898255, at *2.
Quilez suggests that Ox Bodies has misunderstood Cortijo Walker's reasoning, suggesting that the quoted language is dicta, and the court's holding actually resides in the preceding paragraph. There, the Cortijo Walker court reasoned that the right to contribution was lacking because under the particular statutory scheme — the workmen's compensation statute — "[t]he employer is not liable to the workman in tort," and so "he cannot be a joint tortfeasor with the third person and third-party plaintiff." 91 P.R. at 564. The court explained that the defendant lacked a right of contribution against the plaintiff's employer because "[t]he workman's claim or remedy against his employer is solely for the statutory benefits; his claim against the third party is for damages. Both causes of action are in law different in kind and they cannot result in a common legal liability." Id. Quilez argues that
Quilez also views the magistrate judge's subsequent reliance on Widow of Andino and Rosario Crespo for the rule that a "defendant should be held liable for the damage only in proportion to its fault," Widow of Andino, 93 P.R. at 180; see Rosario Crespo, 94 P.R. at 813, as misplaced.
Ultimately, "we lack `sufficient guidance to allow us reasonably to predict' which of our ... options the Puerto Rico Supreme Court would choose," Carrasquillo-Ortiz v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 812 F.3d 195, 199-200 (1st Cir.2016) (quoting Pagán-Colón, 697 F.3d at 18). Because the allocation of risk is an important question of Puerto Rico tort law, it is determinative of the appeal at issue, and the precedents available are not clear, we think the better course is to certify the question in accordance with the rules of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court.
We affirm the magistrate judge's decision to admit the testimony of Quilez's expert. We direct entry of judgment against Ox Bodies' appeal.
We welcome the opinion of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court on any other aspect of Puerto Rico law that the Justices believe should be clarified in order to assist in the resolution of the certified question or to give context to their reply.
The Clerk of this court is directed to forward to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, under the official seal of this court, a copy of the certified question and this opinion, along with a copy of the briefs and appendices filed by the parties. We retain jurisdiction over Quilez's appeal pending that court's determination.