Judge upholds wrongful death judgment in fatal Minnesota crash involving aerosol spray duster

A federal judge in Minnesota has upheld a landmark ruling that said the manufacturer of aerosol spray dusters is partially responsible for a 2019 crash that killed a Baudette woman.

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim on Nov. 26 denied CRC Industries’ request for a new trial after a jury awarded Cynthia McDougall’s family $7.75 million, saying that jurors had enough evidence to conclude the company was partially responsible for her death. The judge ruled that the family will get an additional $2.75 million in pretrial and post-verdict interest.

That brings the total award for the McDougall family to $10.5 million.

“For the McDougall family, it’s justice,” said Philip Sieff, an attorney who represents the McDougall family in the case.

CRC’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

The 42-year-old McDougall died in a head-on crash on July 22, 2019, near her hometown in northern Minnesota. A jury found earlier this year that CRC was partially liable for the crash because the other driver in the crash, Kyle Neumiller, 28, of Isle, Minn., was under the influence of aerosol dusting spray that was manufactured by the company. Commonly called air duster, the compressed air in a can is typically used to blow dust off computers and other electronic devices.

Troopers determined Neumiller had huffed air duster, possibly minutes before the crash.

That caused him to lose control of his bodily functions and the vehicle he was driving that night, according to court documents. Neumiller was sentenced in 2020 to six years in prison for criminal vehicular homicide.

McDougall’s husband, David McDougall, filed the lawsuit against CRC, alleging the company was negligent and liable for the air duster’s use, among other claims, according to court documents.

“In Minnesota, product manufacturers have a duty to prevent foreseeable misuse of their products,” plaintiffs law firm Robins Kaplan said in a news release last week. “This case highlighted the well-known abuse of aerosol dust remover products, like CRC Duster, and CRC Industries’ neglect to stop such abuse.”

CRC asserted that Neumiller was responsible for Cynthia McDougall’s death.

The jury found that the air duster product had “foreseeable risks” and “CRC actions were a substantial factor in causing” Cynthia McDougall’s death, Tunheim wrote in his November opinion.

CRC also asked Tunheim to reduce the amount the company must pay to the McDougalls to roughly $1.75 million, a motion the judge denied.

This was the first trial that focused on air duster abuse, said Tara Sutton, Robins Kaplan’s national mass tort group chair and co-lead attorney for the McDougalls.

“This verdict is a clear statement that manufacturers can no longer ignore the real dangers created by their aerosol dust remover products,” she said in a statement.

The case has raised awareness about the dangers of air duster abuse, Sieff said.

“We also think the verdict sends an extremely powerful message to the manufacturers of this product that just sitting back and doing nothing is not acceptable,” he said. “If that’s the course of action they choose to take, juries of good folks are going to continue to hold them responsible for the damage that’s being caused.”

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