Justia Wyoming Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

A minor child was injured in 2018 while playing on a piece of playground equipment called “Rocks and Ropes” at Meadowlark Elementary School in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The child’s parents, Scott and Heather Hunter, alleged that the equipment was defective and that the school failed in its supervision and medical care following the incident, as their daughter was diagnosed weeks later with a crushed vertebra. The Hunters sued Universal Precast Concrete, Miracle Recreation Equipment, Churchich Recreation Equipment, and Laramie County School District #1, alleging strict product liability, negligence, breach of warranty, and failure to warn.The case proceeded before the District Court of Laramie County. Due to extensive delays—including those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic—there were multiple changes to scheduling orders. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the business defendants after excluding several of the Hunters’ expert witnesses under the Daubert standard, finding their testimony unreliable or irrelevant. The court denied summary judgment to the School District. After a mistrial was declared due to repeated improper conduct by the Hunters’ counsel during voir dire and opening statements, the district court dismissed the remaining claims against the School District with prejudice as a sanction for counsel’s actions and various procedural violations.The Supreme Court of the State of Wyoming affirmed the district court’s exclusion of the Hunters’ experts and the grant of summary judgment in favor of the business defendants, holding that the lower court properly performed its gatekeeping function and the Hunters failed to offer admissible evidence of a defect. However, the Supreme Court reversed the district court’s dismissal with prejudice, concluding that, while counsel’s conduct warranted sanctions, the extreme sanction of dismissal was not justified without prior warning or full consideration of lesser sanctions. The case was remanded for imposition of a lesser sanction. View "Hunter v. Universal Precast Concrete, Inc." on Justia Law