121451P.pdf   12/17/2012  Randy Russell  v.  Whirlpool Corp.
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  12-1451
   U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Springfield   
   [PUBLISHED] [Bye, Author, with Gruender and Shepherd, Circuit Judges]
   Civil case - products liability. In suit involving claims that a fire at
   plaintiffs' home was caused by defendant's defective refrigerator, the
   district court did not err in permitting plaintiff's expert to testify even
   though he had not followed NFPA 921 as the fire investigation standard
   is not the only reliable way to investigate a fire; our cases do hold that an
   expert who purports to follow NFPA 921 must follow its contents
   reliably if his testimony is to be admitted, but here the expert did not
   purport to apply NFPA 921 and his testimony could not be excluded for
   failure to reliably follow the contents of the standard; district court did
   not err in determining the expert followed a reliable methodology in his
   investigation; Missouri law permits a jury to infer a product defect and
   causation based on circumstantial evidence under a res-ipsa loquitur
   theory; where the court gave a prompt and clear curative instruction, it
   did not err in refusing to grant a mistrial where plaintiffs' counsel
   violated an in limine order in closing argument.