Gordon & Rees Miami partners Ari C. Shapiro and Daniel A. Garcia and senior counsel Eric Thompson won summary judgment on behalf of their client, a prominent automotive parts supplier, in the Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.
Plaintiffs sued Defendant alleging damages arising from Plaintiff’s purported exposure to asbestos and asbestos-containing products from “shade tree” automotive mechanic work involving products sold by Defendant. Plaintiffs asserted that Defendant failed to exercise reasonable care with the products that caused Plaintiff’s injury, Defendant made an express warranty applicable to the products sold which did not conform to the warranty, and/or that Defendant’s intentional wrongdoing caused Plaintiff harm.
After taking numerous depositions, Defendant established that Plaintiff could not recall any specific type of product(s) that he may have purchased from Defendant and even if he were able to establish this fact, there was no store open and owned by the Defendant during the relevant time period. Thereafter, Defendant filed a Motion for Summary Judgment arguing that Plaintiffs could not establish that Plaintiff used any automotive replacement parts purchased from Defendant during the relevant exposure period.
Based on the evidence Defendant put forth in support of this Motion, the Court concluded that there were no triable issues of material fact as to any of their causes of action.
After extensive oral argument at a hearing on the matter, the Court granted Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment in its entirety.