Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Partner Ryan Landis, Partner Bartek Rejch, and Senior Counsel Amanda Dworkin secured a summary judgment victory in the Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of the firm’s client, a stone product re-seller, in a high-profile product liability silicosis matter.
The plaintiffs alleged that the injured plaintiff was exposed to respirable crystalline silica from fabrication work with certain stone products purportedly supplied by the firm’s client. The plaintiffs asserted claims for negligence, product liability failure to warn, product liability design defect, fraudulent concealment, and punitive damages.
The record included nearly a dozen volumes of testimony from the injured plaintiff, along with multiple depositions of alleged “product identification” co-workers. Discovery also encompassed extensive materials concerning the injured plaintiff’s stone fabrication shop employers. After depositions and discovery, the GRSM team moved for summary judgment, arguing that the plaintiffs could not establish causation between the purported injury and any stone product that the plaintiffs claim was supplied by the firm’s client and that allegedly exposed the injured plaintiff to respirable crystalline silica dust.
The court evaluated the extensive briefing on the issue, granted GRSM’s evidentiary objections, and ultimately agreed with GRSM’s arguments. The court granted the motion for summary judgment in its entirety, dismissing the case against GRSM’s client.