May it please the court, opposing council, members of the jury. We must not confuse tragedy with
liability. Now, imagine a company. A company who has always abided the standards of the
industry, a company who has always put safety as their first priority when it comes to business. This
company is a construction company. Now, when they started a new project building houses for the
underprivileged, they are completely unaware that there were illegal dumping under the site. Yes,
they did hire analysts to assess safety for those houses, but none of the report stood out to be worthy
of attention to them. Now they are being accused of being the cause of a toddler’s heart defect. But
ladies and gentleman of the jury, what you did not hear from the other side of the story is that the
mother of the toddler has a history of being alcoholic. The other side of the story also tells you that
she works at a hotel, where she could be easily exposed to other chemicals that cause heart defect in
utero. This company is called castle construction, and the woman, is Evelyn Tam. Members of the
jury, what has happened to the Tam family is sad, is unfair, is tragic; but that does not mean we
should equate tragedy with liability.
This case is extremely easy if you know answers to the following four questions:
Are we sure that TCE, the substance Evelyn Tam had been exposed to during her pregnancy is
really able to cause dilated cardiomyopathy ​in utero​?
Are we sure that there are enough amount of TCE to cause dilated cardiomyopathy ​in utero​?
Can we really eliminate every single alternative possible factors that might induce to dilated
cardiomyopathy ​in utero​?
Is there enough time for Castle construction to carry the duty to warn its costumers?
After listening to our three witnesses, you will find your answers to those questions to be no, no and
no.
It is the opposing counsel who needs to settle by a preponderance of evidence, meaning more likely
than not, to present you the liability of the Castle construction. However, members of the jury, after
listening to our three witnesses, you will find out that, the opposing counsel’s argument, just
doesn’t add up​.
You will hear from Harri Lundgren, a licensed professional engineer who was hired by the Castle
Construction company to investigate and advise Castle on how to best remediate the situation.
You will learn that it is not abided by any regulation for construction companies to further run a
phase two assessment. In fact, there are sufficient reasons for castle to not run a phase two
assessment given the details in the phase one report. Therefore, there was no way for Castle
Construction the potential existence of TCE.
You will also hear from Harper Stebbins, she will tell you that Castle Construction has a policy to
carry phase ll safety assessments whenever feasible; she will also tell you that it is because of the
mistakes made by the law firm Castle hired that hindered a phase ll assessment to further investigate
potential danger of the sites. In fact, you will know that there are hardly anything written in the
phase l assessment that said anything about the importance of doing a phase ll in the case.
Last but not least, you will learn facts from Dr. Rowan Hulsebus. Dr. Hulse is a well qualified
toxicologist who is experienced working as an Integrated risk analysts. She has gone through all the
relevant data and facts and she will conclude for you, that there are simply too little evidence to
support that it is chemicals inside the apartments built by the castle construction company that led to
Timothy Tam’s disease.
Castle construction did not overlook danger, did not ignore warnings, and did not cross the line of
being negligent. There theory, (points at the plaintiff) just doesn’t add up. Castle hired Harri
Lundgren to advise them to remediate the constructions because they believe that their customers’
health is the most important factor they should consider. Members of the jury, tragedy isn’t liability,
and by the end of today’s trial, my co-counsel Sophia Chen will come before you and show you the
real side of the story. Find the defendant, not liable.