A Maryland trial court improperly barred an expert witness from relying on Irwin Industrial Tool Co. marking chalk bought on eBay Inc., without a chain of custody, to show the product contained asbestos, the state’s high court ruled.
The fact that 17 of the decades-old bottles were unopened would allow a reasonable juror to find them authentic, the Maryland Court of Appeals said Tuesday. The top court affirmed an intermediate appeals court’s decision reinstating a suit against Irwin over the death of carpet layer Richard Pifer.
“Just as a heightened standard of proof does not apply to authentication of ...
