Ordinarily, we do not comment about individuals or expert witnesses that we face during the course of litigation.This time, we will make an exception.
Alex Deas, Ph.D. is the man behind Deep Life, Ltd., the designer of the Apocalypse rebreather.The Apocalypse is marketed by Open Safety Equipment, Ltd. as having been “Developed out of the 200 man-year Open Revolution ™ rebreather safety initiative led by Deep Life Ltd,” whatever that is.Among other things, the Apocalypse is supposed to be the safest rebreather design in the world, or so says Alex Deas.
Frankly, we have a hard time believing anything Alex Deas says.
Dr. Deas first came to our attention when we received notice that he would be acting as an expert witness for the plaintiff in the case of Stephanie Barrett v. Ambient Pressure Diving, Ltd.Mrs. Barrett alleged that her husband, Robert Barrett, died because of a defect in his Inspiration rebreather, which was manufactured by the firm’s client, Ambient Pressure Diving, Ltd.Mrs. Barrett had scant evidence to prove her claims, until she found Alex Deas.
Dr. Alex Deas
Between November 2007 and November 2008, Dr. Deas provided more than 300 pages of reports and a full day of trial testimony in which he opined that Robert Barrett’s Inspiration rebreather was defective. According to Dr. Deas, a pair of electrical faults allegedly caused the rebreather to malfunction, catching Mr. Barrett unaware and causing his death.
But Dr. Deas had a problem: he had no evidence to support his claims. Undeterred, Dr. Deas simply manufactured evidence, altered existing evidence and ignored contrary evidence. When challenged, he simply changed his opinions about what caused the rebreather to allegedly malfunction (see here and here). If it was not one thing it was another. Dr. Deas was never able to demonstrate that these faults actually existed. In fact, in a videotaped equipment inspection that the plaintiff did not show to the jury, Dr. Deas succeeded only in showing that the rebreather operated exactly as it was supposed to.
But that's not all. As the case was about to go to trial, we received a tip that in October 2007, before he ever authored his first report, Dr. Deas received information directly from an eye-witness that the switches on Robert Barrett's rebreather were in the "OFF" position when it was recovered from the water (see here).If the rebreather was turned off, it could not have malfunctioned.Dr. Deas never tried to explain this inconsistency; instead, he ignored it altogether.He never mentioned the eye-witness or the information he had learned in any of his reports or in his direct testimony to the jury.He simply acted as if the information never existed because it contradicted his opinions. Eventually, he crumbled on cross-examination, but not before wreaking havoc for more than a year and propelling an otherwise baseless lawsuit through trial.
Although Dr. Deas was not known to the firm, he was well known to Ambient.Within months of obtaining his Inspiration rebreather certification, Dr. Deas was corresponding with the company, commenting on the design of the Inspiration rebreather, and offering to design components he felt were necessary or needed reworking.Ambient had a hard time taking his suggestions seriously because his comments showed an alarming disregard for safe diving practices and equipment usage.Among other things, Dr. Deas managed to flood his Inspiration rebreather while using an incorrect carbon dioxide scrubber material, and then he placed his rebreather electronics in the dishwasher to clean them (see here and here).Dr. Deas also prefaced his comments with remarks like “I would never act as an expert witness for any legal actions” against Ambient (see here and here), but the implication was clear – adopt my designs, or else. By 2007, Dr. Deas was acting as an expert witness against Ambient in two separate cases, opining in each that the Inspiration rebreather was defective because Ambient failed to heed his advice.Dr. Deas failed in both cases.In the first case, he was labeled a “crusader” by the Coroner (see here).In the second case, the Judge characterized his opinions as “doubtful” (see here), especially when "more persuasive expert opinion" (see here and here) and factual evidence was offered to contradict Dr. Deas' opinions. We do not believe that Dr. Deas conducts his affairs in the "open" manner which he professes. In February 2002, Dr. Deas' wife Christine reportedly sued him seeking a £7 million divorce settlement.Mrs. Deas was reportedly living in public housing after their separation, getting by on less than £65 per week, while Dr. Deas had moved in to substantially larger accommodations and was supposedly one of Scotland’s richest men (see here). We do not know how this case was resolved.We do know, however, that by the time of the trial in the Barrett case, Deep Life was owned entirely by Dr. Deas' teenage daughter, who is not a diver, and company records listed Dr. Deas as nothing more than the corporate Secretary (see here).
At the same time Dr. Deas was testifying against his competitor in the Barrett trial in November 2008, Deep Life was accepting customer deposits for the Apocalypse rebreather, which was supposed to be delivered to the public by January 2009. As of April 2011, 2.5 years later, the promised delivery of Apocalypse rebreathers to customers is still nothing more than a promise - a promise that remains unfulfilled.
The publicly available company accounts for Deeplife and Open Safety Equipment Limited are interesting.The most recent accounts for Deeplife and Open Safety are for December 2009 (see here and here).These accounts were filed at the end of September 2010.For comparison, we have attached the Deeplife and Open Safety accounts for the period ending December 31, 2008 (see here and here). Compare Deeplife’s accounts for 2008 to 2009.In December 2007, the company reportedly had £783,018 in the bank.By December 2008, £514,124 of this amount was “invested,” leaving £12,592 in the bank.However, in the December 2009 accounts, the figure recorded for 2008 investments has changed to £477,455 from £514,124 declared in the last accounts.By December 2009, the current asset value has been shrunk to £40,103.There is no mention of any investments in the accounts, or anything being written off, bad debts, bad investments, etc.
We did not think anything would make the Deeplife accounts look good, until we examined the Open Safety accounts. The latest accounts for Open Safety show that the company had just £1,376 in the bank at the end of December 2009, plus £84,000 of debts. By comparison, at the end of December 2008, Open Safety had £34,000 in the bank, and this was after taking numerous deposits from customers for rebreathers that still have not been delivered. As of the end of 2009, the Director still had not even paid his £100 share of capital. In fact, there was a negative Director's account of £4,047.
These accounts make us wonder if Deeplife and Open Safety are in danger of being forced into compulsory liquidation like another company affiliated with Dr. Deas, Patentica Limited (see here). In July 2004, Patentica reported having £1,744,033 in gross revenues in 2003, and cash in the bank or at hand of £218,049 as of December 31, 2003 (see here).However, Patentica was ordered into liquidation by October 13, 2005.
This also makes us wonder whether Dr. Deas has turned to testifying as an expert witness for competitive reasons. Dr. Deas has said he is not involved in "litigation of any sort." However, Dr. Deas was quoted in the February 2009 issue of Undercurrent as saying that he might get involved in a Los Angeles case as an expert against Ambient, he was advising the plaintiff in that case by April 2009, and he changed his published opinion about the cause of the diver's death from diver error to a design fault with the diver's rebreather. As in Barrett, Dr. Deas' opinion in the Los Angeles case did not appear to be supported by any evidence obtained in the case. In fact, his opinion did not cite the Coroner's report, which showed that the diver suffered from an arterial gas embolism ("AGE").
It appears, however, that Dr. Deas' days as a testifying expert witness may be numbered. At the very least, one of his clients has lost faith in his opinions. On the eve of trial in the Los Angeles case, the plaintiff suddenly sought permission from the court to add two new expert witnesses to address the medical evidence that the diver suffered from AGE. The trial court denied this request. The plaintiff asked for reconsideration, but this request was also denied. The plaintiff filed a petition for writ of mandate in the California Court of Appeals, seeking an order from the appellate court requiring the trial court to allow the plaintiff to add new expert witnesses. On September 29, 2010, the California Court of Appeals denied the plaintiff's petition (see here), and the case has been dismissed.
Finally, Dr. Deas recently stated that "the fullness of time will expose everything." This statement is true. In fact, we plan to do our part to "expose everything." We figured this was a good place to start.
Law Offices of David G. Concannon, LLC, 200 Eagle Road, Suite 116, Wayne, Pennsylvania 19087 Phone: (610) 293-8084 - Fax: (610) 293-8086 info@davidconcannon.com
