Opinion ID: 1831924
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: decedent's comparative fault

Text: Because the jury was not properly charged, it did not correctly evaluate the parties' comparative fault. Since the jury was erroneously instructed, its findings are tainted and entitled to no weight. Picou, supra . Defendants did not prove the 45 percent of fault assigned to decedent; the jury's conclusion is clearly wrong. Smith v. Travelers Ins. Co., 430 So.2d 55 (La. 1983). As to the cause of the explosion, the most likely hypothesis, consistent with the timing of the explosion, Exxon's warnings, and the testimony of expert Armstrong, is that moving the pickup truck tire off the diesel line caused a surge of fuel, which was ignited by static electricity. However, the jury apparently concluded that decedent lit a cigarette as he was pumping the contaminated diesel fuel and set off the explosion. Although the diesel would not have ignited if it had not been defective, the jury may have thought that ordinary prudence required decedent to refrain from smoking in the presence of fuel. Assuming that defendants proved decedent's ordinary negligence combined with the defective diesel to cause the explosion, a 45 percent reduction in the recovery of his survivors serves no public purpose. It reduces the supplier's economic incentive to control the quality of its product. Conversely, it provides no greater incentive for employees to refrain from smoking than was furnished by decedent's horrible death. See Bell, supra . Applying the factors in Watson v. State Farm Fire and Cas. Ins. Co., 469 So.2d 967 (La.1985), any negligence by decedent resulted from inadvertence. Lighting a cigarette, an habitual act, represented only a momentary lapse of attention. In the presence of inert diesel, decedent's action would have presented no danger. There was a risk only because the diesel fuel was contaminated, adulterated and dangerous. Being ignorant of the diesel's hidden defect, decedent did not assume the risk of that defect. See Rozell v. Louisiana Animal Breeders Co-op., 496 So.2d 275 (La. 1986). Decedent was in an inferior position, vis-a-vis Guidry Oil, as an employee who was unaware of the product's defect. Under these circumstances, any ordinary negligence of the deceased employee in lighting a cigarette must be weighed against the greater fault of the supplier that marketed a defective and explosive product. Bell, supra . Guidry Oil is strictly liable for supplying a defective product. Decedent's comparative fault cannot be greater than ten percent. See Turner v. New Orleans Public Service, Inc., 476 So.2d 800 (La. 1985). Compare Bell, supra ; Thompson v. Tuggle, 486 So.2d 144 (La.App. 3d Cir. 1986), writ denied, 489 So.2d 919; Lanclos v. Rockwell Intern. Corp., 470 So.2d 924 (La.App. 3d Cir.1985), writ denied, 477 So.2d 87; and Robertson v. Superior PMI, Inc., 791 F.2d 402 (5th Cir.1986).