On March 6, 2009, plaintiffs’ decedent, Robert Myers, 50, was scuba diving off Casino Point in Catalina with his sister. Myers was wearing a dry suit hose manufactured by Förvaltningsbolaget Insulan AB, doing business as SI Tech. The hose contained a small plastic insert called a “flow restriction orifice,” but during the dive, the flow restriction orifice became dislodged from the hose and eventually lodged in the second stage of Myers’ breathing apparatus. Myers’ sister noticed that her brother was signaling to ascend, but that eventually stopped responding and appeared to stop breathing. Myers ultimately died. Myers’ parents, Horace Myers and Joanne Myers, both 87, and his sister, Barbara Frontman, sued Förvaltningsbolaget Insulan AB, Aqua-Lung America Inc., Catalina Scuba Luv Inc., Elmer’s Water Sports, Johnson Outdoors Inc., Scubapro Uwatec USA and White’s Manufacturing Ltd. Frontman was eventually removed from the case and her matter is on appeal. In addition, the trial only continued against Förvaltningsbolaget, as the other defendants were let out of the case. The decedent’s parents alleged that Förvaltningsbolaget defectively manufactured the dry suit hose, and failed to adequately advise purchasers, including the decedent, that the dry suit hose was defective and dangerous. Plaintiffs’ counsel noted that there was evidence prior to the dive that Förvaltningsbolaget was aware of reported instances where the flow restriction orifice became dislodged and interfered with divers’ breathing. After Robert Myers’ death, Förvaltningsbolaget recalled the product, the efficacy of which was disputed by the parties. The decedent’s parents claimed that the flow restriction orifice became dislodged from the hose during their son’s dive and eventually lodged in the second stage of their son’s breathing apparatus, causing him to have trouble breathing and die because of this defect. Plaintiffs’ counsel called the lead investigator for dive fatalities for Los Angeles County, who testified that following the fatal accident, the Förvaltningsbolaget flow restriction orifice was found in the second stage of the Scuba Pro regulator purchased by the decedent. The investigator further testified that he then dove with Robert Myers’ equipment within a week of the fatal dive and that doing so was akin to “breathing through a straw.” Thus, he opined that the breathing device would not sustain life at the depth encountered by Robert Myers. Förvaltningsbolaget admitted at trial that its product was defective, but disputed the causation of the decedent’s death. It contended that its product, though defective, did not fail and that the decedent’s death resulted, instead, from a sudden cardiac arrest due to his pre-existing coronary artery disease, which was determined by autopsy. Thus, defense counsel argued that on medical questionnaires completed for scuba dive classes, Robert Myers knowingly concealed any heart-related problem he had. Defense counsel also presented videos of three of its four experts successfully diving with Myers’ actual equipment to depths equal to or greater than those during the fatal dive, and noted that they did so without incident. Counsel also showed a similar video made by the dive shop owner who sold the equipment to the decedent in Chicago, in which the owner used exemplar equipment. Plaintiffs’ counsel responded that the decedent’s undisclosed medical condition made him susceptible to cardiac arrhythmia, which was prompted by the failure of the breathing apparatus and in turn resulted in Myers’ death. Counsel also disputed that the decedent knowingly concealed any heart-related problem on medical questionnaires completed for scuba dive classes based upon testimony by, and the medical chart from, his treating internist in Chicago. Plaintiffs’ counsel also contended that the defense experts were able to successfully complete their dives with the decedent’s equipment because they had knowledge of the defect and had the ability to compensate for the breathing problem created by the defect. The plaintiffs’ engineering expert testified that the presence of the insert in the second stage of the regulator would restrict a user’s breathing by 85 to 92 percent. In addition, plaintiffs’ counsel noted that two of the defense’s experts conceded upon cross-examination that the product failed on the decedent’s dive, and that a third defense expert testified that he had been told by defense counsel that the product had failed., Robert Myers stopped breathing during his dive and became unresponsive. After pulling him from the water, he was transported to the USC Hyperbaric Dive Chamber at Two Harbors on Catalina Island, where he was pronounced dead. The decedent was 50 years old. He was single and had no children. The decedent’s mother and father sought recovery of wrongful death damages to be divided equally amongst them. During closing argument, plaintiffs’ counsel requested that the jury award the decedent’s parents $5 million. Defense counsel argued that the decedent did not die from any alleged breathing problem he had with the dry suit’s flow restriction orifice during his dive. Counsel contended that, instead, the decedent died from a sudden cardiac arrest due to his pre-existing coronary artery disease, which was determined by autopsy.