Fusco v. General Motors Corp.
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
11 F.3d 259 (1st Cir. 1993)
Carol Fusco (plaintiff) was injured when her car suddenly veered off the road and struck a telephone pole, and she sued General Motors (GM) (defendant), the manufacturer, claiming a steering-system malfunction caused the crash. GM sought to introduce two video recreations made by its own employees, in which a car was deliberately rigged with the same alleged defect, but under controlled conditions with drivers who knew the malfunction was coming and using doctored equipment; in the videos, the rigged car reacted differently than Fusco's car had. The trial court excluded the videos as inadmissible and ruled for Fusco, and GM appealed.
Whether a video recreation of an accident that is sufficiently close in appearance to the original accident is admissible when it was not recreated under substantially similar conditions.