The Honor able Ann A ldrich, United States District Judge f or the Nor

thern District of * Ohio, sitti ng by

desig nation. NO T R EC OM M EN DE D F OR F UL L- TEX T P UB LIC AT ION F ile Nam e: 07a0787n.06 F iled: Novem ber 8, 2007 No. 07-5297 UN ITED STA TES C OU RT OF AP P EA LS F OR THE SI XT H C IR CU IT
POL L Y WEL L S, as Ex ecutr ix of the Estate of J ohn Wells, Decea sed, Pla int if f- Ap pe lla nt,
v. PORTMAN EQUI PMENT COMPANY, et al., De fe nd ants -A

pp e lle e s. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ON APPEALFROM THE U NI TED STATES DI STR I CT C OU RT F OR TH E E AST ERN DI STRI CT OF KENTUCKY AT L EXI NGTON

Be fore : KEI TH and ROGE RS, C ircuit J udg es; and AL DRI CH, District J udg e. * AN N ALDRICH, Distric t Judge. Th is i s a pr od uc ts l ia bil ity c a se ba se d o n d ive rs ity jur isd ic tion. P lai nt iff

-a pp e lla nt P oll y Wel ls, e xec utr ix of

the e state of

he r h us ba nd , Joh n We lls , appea ls ano r d e r

o f th e U n it e d

St a te s D is tr ic t C o urt f

o r th e E a s te r

nD is tr ic t o f

K e n tu c ky

g r an ting de fe nd ants ’ m oti on s f

or summa ry jud g me nt o n h e r p ro du c ts l ia bil ity c la ims
. J ohn Wells, an electric ian forUnited Metals Automation and Control (“ UMAC”), w as
e le c tr oc ute d w he n u sin g an e le c tr ic ari e l li ft manu fa c tur e d by de fe nd ant- a pp e lle e B il- Jax, Inc . ( “ B ilJ ax ”) , and subsequently

sold to UMAC by

defe ndant-a

ppellee Portman Equipment Company (“Portman” ). As manuf

actur ed, the lift would only operate if all four of its outrig g ers wer e extended to p ro vid e sta

bil ity
. Som e tim e a ft e r UM AC purc ha se d the lif t, it wa s re wi re d to op e rate wi tho ut a ll-2-

of the outrig g ers deploy ed. On Octobe r 27, 2004, Mr. Wells used the lift without deploying a ll of the out rig g ers, ex posing a small metal not ch that would not have be en exposed had the outrig g ers be en dep lo y ed. Mr. Wel ls the n ti e d a n e xten sio n c or d to the ra il o f t he lif t’ s c a g e , w hic h b e c ame lodge d in the exposed notch. As Mr. Wells elevated the lift, the notch stripped the cor d, ener g izi ng t h e l i ft
. W h en M r. W el l s ca m e i n t o co n t ac twi tht h e el ec tri ca l co mp o n en t s at t ac h ed t o t h e b u i l d i n g, he c omp le te d th e e le c tr ic a l c ir c uit and su sta ine d f

a ta l in jur ie s. Mrs. Wells subsequently

alleg ed that the lift wa s unrea sonably dang e r o u s in

its manuf actur ed state, bring ing pr oducts liability claims for a desig n defe ct and failure to war n ag ainst Bil-Jax and Portman. After

removingthe ca se to fede ral c ourt, Bil-Jax and Portman ea ch filed m o t i o n s for summary judgme nt. Upon re viewingthe re cord de novo , we f ind that summary judgme nt in f avor of Bil-Jax and Portman is the appropriate disposition i n this case. In a thoroug h an d we l l -r ea s oned opinion, the dis tr ic t c ourt re a c he d th e same c on c lus ion on tw o g ro un ds : ( 1) tha

t KRS 41 1. 32 0 ( 1) ba

rr e d We lls from re cover

y in light of the modification of the lift; a nd (2) that Wells had failed to pre sent evidenc e of a de sign de fec t. Be cause the district court fully addre ssed the issues and disposed of them
corr ectly on the second g round, the issuance of an opinion by

this Court would be merely duplicative and would not add to existi ng case law. The ref ore, w e af

firm on the basis o f t h e d i s trict court’ s second g round and r eser

ve judg ment on the applica bility of KRS 411.320 (1).