Lumber Liquidators Holdings store in San Francisco. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
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Toxicology expert William Sawyer had just begun a deposition in a case involving formaldehyde exposure when the questions started to get hostile.

The defense lawyer, Robert Redmond, a partner at McGuireWoods, “became abusive,” leaning into Sawyer's face with “an outstretched neck” and at one point threatening to call the judge, according to an affidavit Sawyer filed last month. After about four hours, Sawyer, an expert for the plaintiff, abruptly left the Aug. 20 deposition, which took place at the Hampton Inn & Suites on Fort Myers, Florida, across the bridge from Sanibel Island, home to Sawyer's company, Toxicology Consultants and Assessment Specialists LLC.

A few days later, Sawyer wrote a letter to the plaintiffs attorneys, both in Santa Ana, California, stating he had withdrawn from the case, one of a handful of personal injury lawsuits remaining against Lumber Liquidators over its laminate wood flooring. Redmond's “rude and unprofessional conduct,” he said, had exacerbated a previous medical condition.