Opinion ID: 1976802
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Bailor's Duty to Warn.

Text: Although our holding in the preceding division would be sufficient to dispose of the appeal, we consider certain additional issues which may arise again on a retrial. The trial court's instruction concerning Best Rental's duty to warn of defects or dangers in the equipment which it rented was as follows: [T]he bailor has a duty to those whom he should expect to use the property, or be endangered by its probable use, to use reasonable care to make it safe for use in a manner for which, and by a person for whose use it is bailed, or to disclose its actual condition to those who may be expected to use it. (Emphasis added.) Rinkleff objected to this instruction on the basis that the bailor's duty to warn in the present case went considerably beyond disclosing the actual condition of the disassembled scaffolding components. In addition to objecting to the trial court's instruction, Rinkleff submitted a requested instruction which would have told the jury: Defendant ... as a bailor also owed the plaintiff a duty to warn or instruct him of any particular hazards or risks involved in the use of the scaffolding ... if such hazards or risks were of a kind which would not be readily discoverable or observable to the person or persons using the scaffold. He timely excepted to the trial court's refusal to give this requested instruction. Rinkleff's argument that he was entitled to an instruction which indicated a broader duty to warn than that given by the trial court is hinged on the following duties recognized in Restatement (Second) of Torts § 388 (1965): One who supplies directly or through a third person a chattel for another to use is subject to liability to those whom the supplier should expect to use the chattel with the consent of the other or to be endangered by its probable use, for physical harm caused by the use of the chattel in the manner for which and by a person for whose use it is supplied, if the supplier (a) knows or has reason to know that the chattel is or is likely to be dangerous for the use for which it is supplied, and (b) has no reason to believe that those for whose use the chattel is supplied will realize its dangerous condition, and (c) fails to exercise reasonable care to inform them of its dangerous condition or of the facts which make it likely to be dangerous. We generally approved the standard of care recognized by this section of the Restatement in West v. Broderick & Bascom Rope Co., 197 N.W.2d 202, 209 (Iowa 1972). Rinkleff correctly points out that under comment c of this section of the Restatement the duties imposed extend to any person who for any purpose or in any manner gives possession of a chattel for another's use, or who permits another to use or occupy it. Section 407 of the Restatement expressly extends such duties to persons who rent chattels. Two Minnesota cases have applied the standards of section 388 and section 390 of the Restatement in finding that rental companies were negligent in failing to warn intended users as to risks attendant in the improper use of scaffolding. See Clark v. Rental Equipment Co., 300 Minn. 420, 220 N.W.2d 507, 511 (1974); Miller v. Macalester College, 262 Minn. 418, 426-30, 115 N.W.2d 666, 672-74 (1962). We conclude that the foregoing authorities support the applicability of the standards of section 388 of the Restatement to bailed chattels, including the duty of warning which is made applicable by that section. We are further convinced that the trial court's instruction on warning, limited as it was to disclosure of the chattel's actual condition inadequately presented these standards. While a warning as to actual condition may have obviated the negligence claims based on a failure to supply pins to hold the casters in place, there was evidence of other dangers inherent in the overall stability of the scaffolding which would not have been apparent from a mere description of actual condition. Best Rental argues, however, that a duty to warn under section 388 did not arise in the present transaction because Rinkleff was a professional painter who should have been equally aware of the dangers of working on unstable scaffolding. We have recognized that the obligation to warn under section 388 turns on the concept of superior knowledge. West, 197 N.W.2d at 209. But, we do not believe that Best Rental's argument that it did not have superior knowledge in the present case may be sustained as a matter of law. This question presented an issue of fact for the jury which was required to be submitted under proper instructions. Rinkleff was, at the time of his injuries, a carpenter employed by a hospital. He had been a professional painter at one time and was moonlighting on the John Deery Motor Company job. Rinkleff testified, however, that his previous painting experience had been residential painting and that he was not familiar with the use of scaffolding in the manner involved on the John Deery Motors job. Rinkleff further testified that he advised the employee of Best Rental who waited on him that the job would require spray painting at heights of twentytwenty-four feet and that, having been given this information, that employee selected the scaffolding which was involved in the accident. Given the dimensions of the end frames which were rented to Rinkleff, spray painting at a height of twentytwenty-four feet would necessarily have required a scaffolding configuration which exceeded four times the minimum width of the frames. According to the expert testimony, this was an unsafe use of the scaffolding. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, Best Rental was on notice that Rinkleff intended to use the scaffolding in an unsafe mannera circumstance from which it could have inferred that he was unfamiliar with the dangers involved. Best Rental's knowledge of the danger involved may be inferred from the evidence indicating that it placed a decal on the scaffolding end frames stating: CAUTIONFollow All Federal, OSHA, State Wide and Local Regulations For The Proper Use Of This Equipment. Rinkleff denied that this decal had been placed on the equipment he rented. Regardless of whether it had been, Best Rental's evidence was indicative of knowledge by the bailor that, in the interest of safety, a warning of the IOSHA standards should have been given. Moreover, even if the warning decals had been on the end frames at the time Rinkleff rented them, that circumstance does not establish as a matter of law that an adequate warning of the particular dangers involved was given. The adequacy of the warning was a jury issue which was required to be submitted under proper instructions. We hold that the trial court's instruction limiting Best Rental's duty to warn to a disclosure of the acts of the actual condition of the unassembled scaffolding components was inadequate. The instruction should have included the material elements of section 388 of the Restatement.