Lincoln Elec. Co. v. Gaither

The claims of over 350 plaintiffs in ten law suits against defendant electric companies' for their alleged injures as the result of exposure to welding fumes were improperly joined under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-20, since they arose from different exposure to different fumes on different dates.

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In ten lower court cases, over 350 plaintiffs, including Bobby Gaither, sued over 40 companies, including Lincoln Electric Company, alleging that they were injured as a result of exposure to welding fumes. The defendants filed a consolidated motion to sever, arguing that the plaintiffs improperly joined their claims. The trial court denied the motion, and we granted the defendants’ petition for interlocutory appeal. For reasons that follow, we reverse. 1. As a threshold matter, we must address a shortcoming with respect to the parties’ citation to the record. Under our rules, references to the record should be indicated by specific volume or part of the record and by page number.1 Notwithstanding this rule, the parties here cite only to the page number, omitting any reference to the volume. Given that the record in this case is comprised of over 20,000 pages contained in 40 volumes, the parties’ references to only the page number have hampered our review. To exacerbate the situation, the appellant has failed to provide a single citation to the record to support the factual assertions in its statement of facts, which is a clear violation of our rules.2 In view of the size of the record, we would be well within our rights to dismiss the appeal in its entirety.3

However, the lower court clerk has provided a detailed index, which has allowed us —with no small difficulty —to ascertain what transpired below. Accordingly, we will exercise our discretion and resolve the appeal on its merits. But we caution counsel that future violations of this magnitude will result in a finding of contempt.

Lincoln Elec. Co. v. Gaither

The claims of over 350 plaintiffs in ten law suits against defendant electric companies' for their alleged injures as the result of exposure to welding fumes were improperly joined under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-20, since they arose from different exposure to different fumes on different dates.

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