W. Bruce Howerton, Jr., Dds v. Arai Helmet, Ltd., a Japanese Corporation; Arai Helmet, Ltd., a New Jersey…

Summary

The court held that North Carolina has not adopted the federal Daubert standard and instead continues to apply its own three-part reliability, qualification, and relevance inquiry for expert testimony. Because the trial court excluded the plaintiff's causation experts under the wrong legal standard, the court vacated the resulting judgment and remanded; it also held that genuine factual disputes precluded summary judgment on the unfair-and-deceptive-trade-practices and safer-design claims. Justice Parker, concurring in part and dissenting in part, agreed on the expert-testimony standard but would have affirmed the exclusions and summary judgments.