Opinion ID: 1187135
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The allegations of plaintiff's negligence.

Text: In view of the foregoing discussion, applicable also to Wilson v. B.F. Goodrich, 292 Or. 626, 642 P.2d 644 (1982), the trial court in principle did not err in submitting plaintiff's alleged negligence to the jury for consideration in denying or reducing plaintiff's damages. The parties dispute, however, whether there was evidence to support the specifications of negligence alleged by defendants. The trial court submitted to the jury allegations that plaintiff was negligent in operating the pickup and camper fully loaded when she was not familiar with doing so, in failing to keep proper control, and in operating at an excessive rate of speed under the conditions. The court struck another allegation by defendants that plaintiff was negligent in operating the vehicle with three full gas tanks and six additional five-gallon cans of gas inside the camper. Plaintiff asserted on appeal that there was insufficient evidence on which to submit to the jury those allegations which were submitted, but on review in this court plaintiff waived that objection if this court found evidence sufficient to support any one of the allegations. Plaintiff's major reliance was on the legal argument already discussed that plaintiff's alleged negligence was not the kind that would reduce or deny her damages in a products liability case. We find sufficient evidence in the record to submit to the jury the issue of plaintiff's familiarity with the operating characteristics of the loaded pickup and camper at the time of the accident. Shortly before that day a power steering unit had been installed in the pickup. Plaintiff had driven the truck with power steering only once before that day, when it had not been loaded with equipment for the camping trip. At the time of the accident, the vehicle began swaying and weaving on the highway before it eventually rolled over and slid on the pavement. It is not impossible that plaintiff's attempts to control the heavily loaded vehicle when the tire failed were adversely affected by her unfamiliarity with the behavior of the power steering system. A jury might so conclude under one of the first two specifications mentioned above. Defendants contend that the court should have submitted their allegation that plaintiff caused or contributed to her own injuries by operating the vehicle with its numerous extra containers of gasoline. The parties argued this point, in the light of the position earlier taken by the Court of Appeals in Holdsclaw v. Warren & Brewster, supra , largely on the legal issue whether this allegation stated the kind of voluntary assumption of an obvious hazard that would count against the plaintiff's recovery in a products liability claim. Carrying extra gasoline cans is not, of course, a hazard of an unexpectedly defective tire as distinct from anything else that might cause some of the gasoline to escape and ignite, and the trial court did not regard it as an appropriate invocation of the defense left open by Holdsclaw. Although we hold that ordinary negligence can suffice as an offset or defense in a products liability case, it was not error to reject the allegation on the basis on which it was pleaded and argued to the trial court. [20] These rulings are not grounds for a new trial.