Texas Supreme Court: "Other Similar Incidents" Must Actually Be Similar

The Texas Supreme Court has again admonished that plaintiffs in product liability suits cannot prove their case through evidence of other incidents, unless those incidents are sufficiently similar to the incident in question.  In Kia Motors Corp. v. Ruiz, the plaintiffs allege that the circuitry in a vehicle’s airbag system was defectively designed.  The Supreme Court held last week that the trial court committed harmful error by admitting a spreadsheet that summarized hundreds of airbag warranty claims submitted to Kia.  The Supreme Court held that admission of the listed warranty claims prejudiced Kia, because the claims were not shown to be similar to the accident in question.

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