Case Name: Willie J. HIGH and Florida Power & Light Company, Appellants, v. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1989-12-12
Citations: 559 So. 2d 227
Docket Number: No. 88-202
Parties: Willie J. HIGH and Florida Power & Light Company, Appellants, v. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Appellee.
Judges: Before NESBITT and FERGUSON, JJ., and VANN, Harold R., Associate Judge.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 559
Pages: 227–231

Head Matter:
Willie J. HIGH and Florida Power & Light Company, Appellants, v. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Appellee.
No. 88-202.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
Dec. 12, 1989.
As Corrected on Denial of Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc April 24, 1990.
Sinclair, Louis, Siegel, Heath, Nussbaum & Zavertnik and Frank Nussbaum and Paul A. Louis, Miami, for appellant High.
Coll, Davidson, Carter, Smith, Salter & Barkett and Norman A. Coll, Miami, for appellant Florida Power & Light Co.
Kimbrell & Hamann and Paul L. Nettle-ton and R. Benjamine Reid, Miami, for ap-pellee.
Before NESBITT and FERGUSON, JJ., and VANN, Harold R., Associate Judge.

Opinion:
NESBITT, Judge.
Willie J. High, a seventeen-year employee of Peppers' Steel and Alloys, Inc., alleged that he had been injured, on the job, by exposure to hazardous PCB's (polychlo-rinated biphenyls) in the transformer fluid contained within "junk transformers" which he handled, dismantled and helped process as part of his job. High sued Westinghouse, the transformer manufacturer, under theories of strict liability and negligence. The trial court granted Westinghouse's motion for summary judgment, adopting the rationale expressed in Kalik v. Allis-Chalmers Corp., 658 F.Supp. 631 (W.D.Pa.1987), Johnson v. Murph Metals, Inc., 562 F.Supp. 246 (N.D.Tex.1983), and Wingett v. Teledyne Indus., Inc., 479 N.E.2d 51 (Ind.1985), finding those decisions consistent with Florida law regarding section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts as adopted in West v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., 336 So.2d 80 (Fla.1976). We agree.
Westinghouse Electric Corporation sold electrical transformers to Florida Power & Light Company (FP & L). When the devices became too old to be of further use to FP & L, it disposed of the transformers by selling them to Pepper's, a scrap metal salvage business. In order to recover valuable metals located inside the transformers for resale, it was Pepper's procedure to dismantle the transformers and dump the dielectric fluid contained in them on the ground. High alleged his injury occurred during this process.
Liability exists under section 402A for a negligent failure to warn only if there is a use of the product reasonably foreseeable to the manufacturer. The dismantling and recycling of products after they have been destroyed have been held to be product uses not reasonably foreseeable to manufacturers. See Kalik, 658 F.Supp. at 635 (scrap metal business's dismantling and processing of junk electrical components originally manufactured by defendant was not "reasonably foreseeable" use of components, so that defendant was not liable when PCB's in components combusted to produce highly toxic dioxins which contaminated business's land); Johnson, 562 F.Supp. at 249 (the creation of dangerous gases due to the smelting of battery scrap metal cannot be viewed as a foreseeable "use" of a defendant's automotive batteries); Wingett, 479 N.E.2d at 56 (a manufacturer's potential liability for products placed in the stream of commerce does not extend to the demolition of the product).
Although courts in Florida have yet to address this precise issue, there appears to be no reason to reach a contrary result in the present case. Westinghouse's transformers were destroyed prior to the alleged injuries. While the transformers were sealed and intact there was no harm. Rather, the alleged damage occurred after the contents of the devices were exposed through the dismantling process. Westinghouse's product as it had originally been sold to FP & L, for practical purposes, had ceased to exist at the time the alleged injuries occurred.
Here, the determination of no liability is based upon a substantial change in the product from the time it left the manufacturer's control to the time of the subject incident; this change negates the manufacturer's liability for any alleged defect under 402A. Cf. Martinez v. Clark Equip. Co., 382 So.2d 878 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980) (changes and repairs to forklift were held not to be substantial changes for the purpose of determining strict liability of manufacturer to injured forklift operator).
Where it is undisputed that a product defect has been created by subsequent alteration (i.e., destruction) and not by the actions of the manufacturer, the manufacturer is properly exonerated of liability as a matter of law. See Foecker v. Allis-Chalmers, 366 F.Supp. 1352 (E.D.Pa.1973) (manufacturer of electrical switchboard entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law since there was no genuine issue of material fact relative to the proximate causation of the injury to steelworker because the injury was caused not by defective design of the product but by the altering of the circuitry done by plaintiff's employer). See generally, Annotation, Products Liability: Alteration of Product After it Leaves Hands of Manufacturer or Seller as Af fecting Liability for Product — Caused Harm, 41 A.L.R.3d 1251 (1972).
A 1976 letter from Westinghouse to FP & L does not affect this analysis. That letter advised that 1) some transformers might contain PCB's; 2) a number of states had recently enacted legislation providing for special reporting, labelling and/or disposition of PCB's; and 3) when repairing, maintaining, or disposing of transformers, they should be cheeked for the presence of PCB's. Through the letter, Westinghouse did not assume liability for a transformer once its useful life was over and it had become a scrap item. Rather Westinghouse was acting in a responsible corporate fashion to inform its ultimate consumer, FP & L, of potentially important product information.
We find that the decisions cited by the trial court in its order in this case provide a persuasive basis for concluding that the actual products supplied by Westinghouse were the electrical transformers, not the contaminated dielectric fluid. As a matter of law, the unsealing, stripping, and dumping of the contents of Westinghouse's product in order to salvage junk components were not reasonably foreseeable "uses" of the product nor was Willie High an intended "user" within the meaning of section 402A.
Accordingly, the summary judgment in favor of Westinghouse is affirmed.
NESBITT, J., and VANN, Harold R., Associate Judge, concur.
. Section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1965) states as follows:
(1) One who sells any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer or to his property is subject to liability for physical harm thereby caused to the ultimate user or consumer, or to his property, if
(a) the seller is engaged in the business of selling such a product, and
(b) it is expected to and does reach the user or consumer without substantial change in the condition in which it is sold.
(2) The rule stated in Subsection (1) applies although:
(a) the seller has exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale of his product, and
(b) the user or consumer has not bought the product from or entered into any contractual relation with the seller. (emphasis added).
. We certify to the Supreme Court of Florida that the within question passes upon one of great public importance within the meaning of article y, section 3(b)(4), Florida Constitution.