Opinion ID: 1219560
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The misleading jury instruction.

Text: Enterprise placed warning decals on the machine which warned consumers to keep hands clear of' the machine. Enterprise contends that these decals should shield it from liability. In conformance with Enterprise's theory, the court gave a jury instruction which read,. [a] product which bears suitable and adequate warnings concerning the safe manner in which the product is to be used and which is safe to use if the warning is followed is not in a defective condition. Robinson contends that this instruction effectively directed a verdict for the defendant because it told the jury that warnings shield manufacturers from liability. This court has already held that manufacturers can still be liable for a foreseeable misuse of a product in spite of an adequate warning. Crown Controls Corp. v. Corella, 98 Nev. 35, 639 P.2d 555 (1982). In Crown, the plaintiff was injured when a power lift stacker fell on him. This court determined that a manufacturer cannot be liable for an abnormal and unintended use of a product, but may be liable for a foreseeable misuse. Id. at 37, 639 P.2d at 557. Therefore, in spite of a warning, the defendant in Crown was still liable for a foreseeable misuse. The question before us now is when, in spite of an adequate warning, a manufacturer is still liable for a foreseeable misuse. When the defect in the product is the lack of a safety device, the misuse is often an accidental misuse. In these situations, a warning, although it adequately informs of the danger, is of no help to the consumer. Strict products liability law should not punish manufacturers for unanticipated injuries from reasonably safe products, but it should encourage manufacturers to take all measures to avoid accidents from product misuse. Therefore, we must require manufacturers to make their products as safe as commercial feasibility and the state of the art will allow. Many jurisdictions have adopted the rule that a manufacturer may be liable for the failure to provide a safety device if the inclusion of the device is commercially feasible, will not affect product efficiency, and is within the state of the art at the time the product was placed in the stream of commerce. Titus v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 91 Cal.App.3d 372, 154 Cal.Rptr. 122 (1979) (oil well pumping unit designed without adequate safety features may be considered defective). See also Fabian v. E. W. Bliss Co., 582 F.2d 1257 (10th Cir.1978) (failure to incorporate a safety device into a punch press renders manufacturer liable for design defect); Scott v. Dreis & Krump Manufacturing Co., 26 Ill.App.3d 971, 326 N.E.2d 74 (1975) (manufacturer's liability for failure to put a safety guard on a press brake was a jury question); Fischer v. Cleveland Punch and Shear Works Co., 91 Wis.2d 85, 280 N.W.2d 280 (1979) (failure to interlock circuits on punch press created foreseeable risk of injury). These cases promote a compound goal of encouraging manufacturers to make products safe without unduly burdening them with excessive liability without fault. In Titus, supra, the court found a manufacturer liable when a child who was riding on an oil well pumping unit fell into the unguarded crank area. Even though the child's action was a misuse of the product, the court found the unit defective because it did not have a safety guard that would have prevented the injury. The court stated, [A]ny product so designed that it causes injury created when used or misused in a foreseeable fashion is defective if the design feature which caused the injury created a danger which was readily preventable through the employment of existing technology at a cost consonant with the economical use of the product.... Titus, 154 Cal.Rptr. at 128. The Titus court recognized that factfinders must consider existing technology and commercial feasibility when evaluating whether a product is defective. Notwithstanding these factors, manufacturers are in the best position to include devices to make their products safe. If the technology is available, the cost is not prohibitive, and the product remains efficient, then a potentially dangerous product which lacks a safety device is in a defective condition. This case differs from Titus because here the machine that caused the injury had warning decals. However, a warning is not an adequate replacement when a safety device will eliminate the need for the warning. If manufacturers have the choice between providing an effective safety screen or simply placing a decal on the product, cost will encourage the latter. Therefore, Instruction 22A, which informed the jury that an adequate warning will always shield manufacturers from liability, is not a correct statement of the law. Instead, warnings should shield manufacturers from liability unless the defect could have been avoided by a commercially feasible change in design that was available at the time the manufacturer placed the product in the stream of commerce. Enterprise did include a safety screen in its product. The evidence shows that the screen was easily detachable and the machine could function without the screen in place. Still, the employer did have to alter the machine slightly to make it function without the screen. Generally, a substantial alteration will shield a manufacturer from liability for injury that results from that alteration. Gasdiel v. Federal Press Co., 78 Ill.App.3d 222, 33 Ill. Dec. 517, 396 N.E.2d 1241 (1979) (employer's substitution of a significantly different starting mechanism on a punch press shielded the manufacturer from liability when the press malfunctioned). However, if the alteration was insubstantial, foreseeable, or did not actually cause the injury, then the manufacturer of a defective product remains liable. See Medina v. Air-Mite, 161 Ill.App.3d 502, 113 Ill.Dec. 785, 515 N.E.2d 770 (1987) (manufacturer of air press was not shielded from liability when the employer failed to install a safety device on the machine). In this case, the causal connection between the absent safety screen and the injury is clear. Therefore, the question left to the jury is whether the employer's act of overriding the limit switch was a substantial alteration of the product. [1]