No. 5-99-0830 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ... - Appellate.net
No. 5-99-0830 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ... - Appellate.net
No. 5-99-0830 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ... - Appellate.net
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end of the day, Mathur conceded that he had not estimated damages with any reasonable<br />
degree of certainty:<br />
Q: So, when [plaintiffs’ counsel] asked you whether the figures that you gave<br />
to this jury were, every time, as conservative as you could make them, the<br />
fact is that the figure that you gave to this jury has to be reduced over and<br />
over and over again, by your own admission; isn’t that right, sir?<br />
A: That is correct.<br />
R. 7256. In fact, he conceded that his figures might be off by as much as a billion dollars.<br />
R. 7238 (Q: “[is it] possible that they are off by as much as a billion dollars?” A: “That is<br />
possible”). It is hard to imagine expert testimony that is more contrary to the basic, black<br />
letter rule that damages cannot be based on speculation or conjecture. See Brown v. Chicago<br />
& N.W. Transp. Co., 162 Ill.App.3d 926, 937-38 (1st Dist. 1987) (Although “expert<br />
testimony couched in terms of probabilities or possibilities based on assumed facts is<br />
admissible, . . . this rule does not lessen the need for a reasonable degree of certainty. It is<br />
manifestly unfair to hold [defendant] liable for injuries which [plaintiff’s] own experts admit<br />
are problematical”).<br />
Because Mathur was unable to make even a wild guess as to how many class<br />
members were entitled to installation damages, he could only speculate about the cost of<br />
buying new OEM parts, the labor costs of installing those parts, and the car rental costs<br />
during the repair; yet he opined that these amounted to up to $ 1.2 billion. Mathur had no<br />
way of telling, however, how many class members actually had non-OEM parts installed,<br />
or how many of those class members still owned those cars, so he could not know how<br />
many class members could conceivably be in a position to have OEM parts installed. And<br />
because Mathur did not know which non-OEM parts (which could range from a headlamp<br />
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