Opinion ID: 2611875
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: statutory defense

Text: RCW 7.72.050(2) sets forth Washington State's statutory government contractor's defense to a product liability claim. Pursuant to the statute: When the injury-causing aspect of the product was, at the time of manufacture, in compliance with a specific mandatory government contract specification relating to design or warnings, this compliance shall be an absolute defense. RCW 7.72.050(2). There is no dispute on appeal that Bell complied with specific mandatory government contract specifications for design of the product. The initial question is whether Bell's compliance with specifications pertaining to design gives rise, as a matter of law, to an absolute statutory defense to a postmanufacture failure-to-warn claim. In deciding this question, we first examine RCW 7.72.050(2) and determine whether, if there was compliance with design specifications, any and all product liability claims are foreclosed. We then turn to Bell's suggestion that the statute does not, by its terms, address postmanufacture warnings, and therefore the statutory defense must be read as an exception to the postmanufacture duty to warn. Lastly, we address Bell's argument that Timberline's claim is, in actuality, a design defect claim. [2] Our first inquiry is the meaning to be given the language in RCW 7.72.050(2). The purpose of statutory construction is to effectuate legislative intent. Washington Fed'n of State Employees, Coun. 28 v. Office of Fin. Mgt., 121 Wn.2d 152, 163, 849 P.2d 1201 (1993); Kadoranian v. Bellingham Police Dep't, 119 Wn.2d 178, 185, 829 P.2d 1061 (1992). Where the meaning of the statute is clear from the language of the statute alone, there is no room for judicial interpretation. (Footnote omitted.) Kadoranian, at 185. [3, 4] However, where a statute is susceptible to more than one meaning, it is ambiguous. Shoreline Comm'ty College Dist. 7 v. Employment Sec. Dep't, 120 Wn.2d 394, 405, 842 P.2d 938 (1992). If statutory language is ambiguous, resort to aids to construction, including legislative history, is appropriate. Kadoranian, at 185. Here, the statute provides that when the injury-causing aspect of the product was in compliance with a specification relating to design or warnings, that compliance is an absolute defense. RCW 7.72.050(2). Bell argues that [c]ompliance with mandatory specifications relating either to design or to warnings is a sufficient condition to the availability of the absolute defense to product liability because the statute refers to compliance with specifications relating to design or warnings. Br. of Resp't, at 20. Thus, according to Bell, compliance with design specifications precludes any product liability claim. This is a possible reading of the statute, though not a likely one, as explained below. The statute is amenable to another interpretation, i.e., that if the injury is alleged to result from a design defect, the defective design aspect must have been in compliance with a specific mandatory government contract specification relating to design. Similarly, if the injury allegedly results from a failure to warn, the statutory defense arises if warnings of the danger were given in compliance with a specific mandatory government contract specification. That is, the statute requires a link between the particular design defect or the failure to warn alleged to have caused the injury, and a specific mandatory contract specification. Thus, for example, where there are contract specifications relating to warnings, but not to design, a design aspect causing injury would not be in compliance with any contract specifications relating to design, and the defense would not arise. [5] The statute is susceptible to more than one meaning and is thus ambiguous. [1] Several principles of statutory construction, as well as legislative history, indicate that while compliance with design specifications may give rise to the absolute statutory defense to a design defect claim, it does not give rise to the absolute defense in RCW 7.72.050(2) to any other product liability claim. [6] When the same words are used in different parts of the same statute, it is presumed that the Legislature intended that the words have the same meaning. State v. Hutsell, 120 Wn.2d 913, 920, 845 P.2d 1325 (1993); cf. Cowles Pub'g Co. v. State Patrol, 109 Wn.2d 712, 722, 748 P.2d 597 (1988) (similar words used in different parts of the same statute presumed to have same meaning throughout). The second sentence of RCW 7.72.050(2) provides: When the injury-causing aspect of the product was not, at the time of manufacture, in compliance with a specific mandatory government specification relating to design or warnings, the product shall be deemed not reasonably safe under RCW 7.72.030(1). The meaning given the same language in the first sentence of the provision should accord with that given this language in the second sentence. [7] Another principle of statutory construction is that we assume that the Legislature does not intend to create an inconsistency in a statute, and thus we seek to avoid interpreting a statute in a way which leads to inconsistency. Lutheran Day Care v. Snohomish Cy., 119 Wn.2d 91, 103, 829 P.2d 746 (1992), cert. denied, 122 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993); see Washington Physicians Serv. v. Marquardt, 67 Wn. App. 650, 655, 838 P.2d 142 (1992). If we accept Bell's construction of the statute, and if we give the same language in the two separate sentences of RCW 7.72.050(2) the same meaning, an inconsistency results. Bell says that under the first sentence of the provision, compliance with either design specifications or warnings specifications gives rise to the defense. Under the second sentence, interpreting the language in the same way would mean that noncompliance with either design specifications or warnings specifications would require the conclusion that the product is not reasonably safe whether the claim is a design defect claim or a failure-to-warn claim. If a government contract contains specific mandatory specifications for both design and warnings, and a manufacturer complies with one type of specifications but not the other, then, under Bell's urged construction, the absolute defense would arise under the first sentence of the provision, but under the second sentence the product would be deemed not reasonably safe  clearly an inconsistency. [8] Additional rules of statutory construction provide that provisions in a statute are read in the context of the statute as a whole, Pope v. UW, 121 Wn.2d 479, 489, 852 P.2d 1055, 871 P.2d 590 (1993), cert. denied, 127 L.Ed.2d 381 (1994); that [a]ll the provisions of an act must be considered in their relation to each other and, if possible, harmoniously construed to insure proper construction of each provision, Publishers Forest Prods. Co. v. State, 81 Wn.2d 814, 816, 505 P.2d 453 (1973); and that [s]tatutory provisions are construed in light of one another and in view of the statute's overall purpose[,] Nelson v. National Fund Raising Consultants, Inc., 120 Wn.2d 382, 392, 842 P.2d 473 (1992). The second sentence of RCW 7.72.050(2) specifically refers to RCW 7.72.030(1), which describes different theories of manufacturer liability in products liability actions. By referring to design or warnings and to RCW 7.72.030(1), which sets forth the types of claims, RCW 7.72.050(2) recognizes that distinct claims may arise depending upon the way in which the product is alleged to be dangerous. Reading RCW 7.72.050(2) in light of the rest of the act leads to the conclusion that there may be a design claim, where compliance with design specifications is relevant, or a failure-to-warn claim, where compliance with specifications relating to warnings may be relevant. Legislative history supports this view of the statute. The Model Uniform Product Liability Act (UPLA), 44 Fed. Reg. 62,714-62,750 (1979), promulgated by the United States Department of Commerce, served as the basis for the Washington tort reform act of 1981. Senate Journal, 47th Legislature (1981), at 624. The 1981 tort reform act, as it was first proposed in the 1981 Legislature, did not contain what is now RCW 7.72.050(2). However, this part of the statute parallels a UPLA provision, and was added to the act as an amendment proposed by the judiciary committee. Senate Journal, 47th Legislature (1981), at 613. The UPLA counterpart provides: When the injury-causing aspect of the product was, at the time of manufacture, in compliance with a mandatory government contract specification relating to design, this shall be an absolute defense and the product shall be deemed not defective under Subsection 104(B) [product unreasonably unsafe in design], or, if the specification related to warnings or instructions, under Subsection 104(C) [product unreasonably unsafe because adequate warnings or instructions not provided] or 105(A) [product sellers]. UPLA § 108(C), 44 Fed. Reg. at 62,730. Like the UPLA provision, the state statute refers to design or warnings, and further refers to the other provisions in the act which set forth separate and distinct product liability claims. Unlike the UPLA provision, the state statute does not separately refer to compliance with design specifications as being a defense to design defect claims and compliance with instruction or warning specifications as being a defense to a failure-to-warn claim. However, the state statute corresponds to the UPLA provision, and does not suggest any departure from the UPLA standard. The analysis to the UPLA counterpart is revealing: Subsection (C) addresses a highly specialized problem with respect to a product that had been manufactured strictly in accordance with mandatory specifications set forth in a government contract. When compliance with such a standard leads to an injury, the government, not the product seller, is the appropriate defendant. As the court in Hunt v. Blasius, 55 Ill. App.3d 14, 370 N.E.2d 617, 621-22 (1977) [aff'd, 74 Ill.2d 203, 384 N.E.2d 368 (1978)], indicated, public policy dictates that bidders who comply strictly with governmental specifications should be shielded from liability in any respect in which the product complies. (Italics ours.) UPLA § 108(C) analysis, 44 Fed. Reg. at 62,731. These comments demonstrate that there must be a causal link between the injury and the compliance with the standards set forth in the government contract specification before the defense arises. That being so, compliance with design specifications does not give rise to the defense where the claim is a legitimate claim that the injury resulted from failure to warn and not from a design defect. [9] As noted, the goal of statutory construction is to effectuate legislative intent. Clearly the statute is not intended to grant broad immunity to government contractors  only if specific criteria are satisfied does the defense arise. The evident legislative purpose is to protect the government contractor from liability resulting from compliance with specific mandatory specifications. Put another way, the statute provides protection where the government contractor is required to design a product in a certain way or to provide certain warnings, and the compliance with those specifications would otherwise expose the contractor to a product liability claim. The Court of Appeals reached the same conclusion in Hoglund v. Raymark Indus., Inc., 50 Wn. App. 360, 369, 749 P.2d 164 (1987), review denied, 110 Wn.2d 1008 (1988). In Hoglund, a worker who contracted asbestosis from working on naval vessels asserted a failure to warn claim against the manufacturer of products which government specifications required contain asbestos. The trial court had rejected a manufacturer's proposed jury instruction based upon RCW 7.72.050(2). The Court of Appeals held there was no error. The court said the purpose of the statute is to preclude manufacturer liability where the manufacturer complies with governmental standards when it is later found that those standards would have, if followed, produced an unsafe product. (Italics ours.) Hoglund, at 369. The court reasoned that although the government required the asbestos products to meet certain requirements, the governmental standards did not prevent the manufacturer from fulfilling its duty to warn of dangers posed by exposure to the products, and thus RCW 7.72.050(2) did not excuse the manufacturer from liability for failure to warn. Hoglund, at 369-70. [10] Another principle of statutory construction is that a statute should be construed so as to avoid unlikely, absurd, or strained consequences. Ski Acres, Inc. v. Kittitas Cy., 118 Wn.2d 852, 857, 827 P.2d 1000 (1992). Imagine, for example, that the government buys a stock item, such as a space heater, from a manufacturer, and requires, by a specific mandatory contract specification, that there be warnings to the effect that flammable materials should not be stored within x feet of the heater. There are no contract specifications, however, pertaining to design. Imagine that the space heater suffers from a serious design defect which causes it to fail to shut off when the desired temperature is reached, and devastating fires result from the heater's overheating. In this example, compliance with the warnings specification bears no relationship to the injury-causing aspect of the heater, a defective design allowing it to overheat. Alternatively, imagine that the government contract specifications require that the heater meet design specifications for an automatic shutoff once a certain temperature is reached, but there are no specifications for warnings. Imagine that flammable materials are stored too close to the heater, and a fire results. The government contractor's compliance with the design specifications bears no relationship to the injury-causing aspect of the heater, i.e., the failure to warn of the danger existing when flammable materials are stored too close. Construing RCW 7.72.050(2) to provide an absolute defense to any and all products liability claims under either circumstance described above leads to unlikely, strained, and even absurd results  precluding products liability claims even though absolutely nothing mandated by the government prevents the manufacturer from designing a safe product in the first example or giving adequate warnings in the second example, and regardless of how serious and harmful the manufacturer's failure to design a safe product or adequately warn of dangers is. [11] We hold that compliance with specific mandatory government contract specifications relating to design does not give rise to the absolute defense in RCW 7.72.050(2) to a postmanufacture failure-to-warn claim. We note that our construction of RCW 7.72.050(2) accords with WPI 110.05, which sets forth alternative jury instructions depending upon whether the injury-causing aspect is alleged to be in conflict with government specifications relating to design or is alleged to be in conflict with government specifications relating to warnings. Bell also reasons that the defense in RCW 7.72.050(2) is an exception to the postmanufacture duty to warn. Bell points out that Timberline argues that because there were no warnings specifications, Bell could not have complied with any such specifications, and therefore the statutory defense does not arise. Bell says that this argument is flawed because RCW 7.72.050(2) speaks of compliance with specifications at the time of manufacture, while a postmanufacture duty to warn would necessarily arise only after manufacture. Bell maintains there could thus never be compliance with postmanufacture warnings specifications, and maintains the only way to harmonize the two statutes is to read the statutory defense as an exception to the postmanufacture duty to warn. [12] We disagree. As discussed, the purpose of the statute is to protect a manufacturer from liability arising from its compliance with specific mandatory government contract specifications. The focus is thus on what the injury-causing aspect of the product is, whether there were mandatory contract specifications leaving the manufacturer no choice but to comply, and whether the injury-causing aspect of the product was in fact in compliance with those specifications. There is no question here that the only compliance was with design specifications. Compliance with design specifications may bar a design defect claim under RCW 7.72.050(2), but it does not bar other claims, including a postmanufacture failure-to-warn claim. Bell also maintains, however, that the injury-causing aspect of the helicopter is a design defect in the -9 input pinion gear, which was manufactured in compliance with specific mandatory government contract specifications. Then, Bell reasons, because this is actually a design defect case, and Bell complied with design specifications, it is entitled to the statutory defense. We disagree. Timberline claims that the cause of the failure of the -9 gear was the more numerous incidences of stress imposed upon the -9 gear during repetitive heavy lift operations than foreseen by Bell at the time of its original design and manufacture. Br. of Appellant, at 14. Timberline says that the -9 gear is not defective for the use for which it was originally designed for the government, Br. of Appellant, at 18. Under Timberline's theory of liability, the injury-causing aspect of the product was not faulty design, but the failure to warn of a danger of which Bell learned after manufacture, i.e., that repetitive heavy lift operations could stress the -9 gear and cause it to fail. Like RCW 7.72.050(2), which references design and warnings at the time of manufacture, RCW 7.72.030(1)(a) and (b) refer to design defects at the time of manufacture and failure to warn of dangers about which the manufacturer knows at the time of manufacture. RCW 7.72.030(1)(c), however, which sets forth the postmanufacture duty to warn, refers to a failure to warn of a danger of which the manufacturer learns after manufacture, the type of claim which Timberline makes here. Timberline's claim is not a design defect claim.