Opinion ID: 2283207
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: did the trial judge properly instruct the jury on the applicable law of strict liability?

Text: Near the close of trial, the court permitted plaintiff to amend his complaint to include a claim for recovery grounded on strict liability in tort. The defendant does not challenge the granting of the motion to amend, but does take issue with the trial judge's instructions on the law of strict liability. The court instructed, in pertinent part, When a person or firm or a corporation is in the business of making a product or a machine and selling it to the public or leasing certain kinds of merchandise or machinery to the public, the manufacturer or the sellers of the machinery have an obligation under the law not to sell or lease the product or the machine that is in any way defective so as not to be reasonably safe for the purposes for which it was intended to be used. If a defective item is sold or leased and the defect causes an accident while the product or the machine is being used for the purposes and in the manner in which it was intended to be used, and that defect or accident causes damage to someone reasonably expected to be in or around or near the machine, then there is strict liability on the part of the lessor, person leasing the defective machine or the manufacturer or seller of the defective machine.    He is liable, the seller if a defect existed at the time of the leasing.    [T]he liability will attach to the act of leasing a defective product.    It is leased, but if it was defective at the time of the leasing and not reasonably safe for the purposes for which it was intended to be used, liability will attach. (Emphasis added.) Although the trial judge instructed in his charge and defendant conceded in his brief that strict liability applies to the leasing or rental of consumer products, this court has never considered that issue. Our cases adopting and applying § 402A of the Restatement (Second) Torts (1965) relate only to the sale and manufacture of defective goods. See Parrillo v. Giroux Company, R.I., 426 A.2d 1313 (1981); Geremia v. Benny's, Inc., 119 R.I. 868, 383 A.2d 1332 (1978); Romano v. Westinghouse Electric Co., 114 R.I. 451, 336 A.2d 555 (1975); Ritter v. Narragansett Electric Co., 109 R.I. 176, 283 A.2d 255 (1971). The doctrine of strict liability in tort originally developed in cases involving sales by manufacturers and retailers of unreasonably dangerous, defective products. See Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc., 59 Cal.2d 57, 377 P.2d 897, 27 Cal. Rptr. 697 (1963); Suvada v. White Motor Company, 32 Ill.2d 612, 210 N.E.2d 182 (1965). In fact, the rule enunciated in § 402A of the Restatement (Second) Torts, which has been instrumental in guiding the adoption of strict products liability by the majority of states in this country, expressly refers only to the liability of sellers of consumer products. See Restatement (Second) Torts, § 402A, comment f at 350-51 (1965). Despite the early cases and the language of § 402A, however, the majority of jurisdictions that have considered the issue have extended the doctrine of strict tort liability to commercial lessors of personal property. [2] The policy considerations that impel imposition of strict liability upon manufacturers and sellers of dangerously defective goods apply with equal or greater force to lessors of potentially dangerous products or instrumentalities. Persons in the business of leasing, like manufacturers and sellers, continually introduce potentially dangerous instrumentalities into the stream of commerce and stand in a far better financial and technical position than lessees to insure against, prevent, and spread the costs of product-related injuries. Moreover, lessees of goods might have a lesser opportunity to inspect a leased item than would a purchaser, and would rely to a greater extent upon an implied assurance by the lessor that the product is safe for its intended purpose. An additional consideration is that lessors put a given product to a more sustained use than do retailers, introducing and reintroducing the product into the consumer market with each new lease. One product may thus benefit a larger consuming public, but that same product may also expose a greater number of persons to potential injury. These factors support the imposition of responsibility on lessors to ensure that the used product is in a reasonably safe condition each time it is leased. We therefore join those courts that have held persons in the business of leasing personal property strictly liable in tort for injuries proximately resulting from products that they lease in a defective condition, which renders such property dangerous. The defendant takes issue with the language of the trial justice's instruction on strict liability. Under the law of strict liability, a seller or lessor will be liable only if at the point of sale or at the commencement of the lease the product was already defective. Thus, to hold a seller or lessor liable, a plaintiff must prove that the product was defective at the time it left the control of the seller or lessor. See Geremia v. Benny's, Inc., 119 R.I. at 873, 383 A.2d at 1334; Ritter v. Narragansett Electric Co., 109 R.I. at 190-91, 283 A.2d at 262-63. The defendant contends that the trial justice failed to instruct the jurors that they must find the product to have been defective at the commencement of the lease or at the time it left the defendant's control. In fact, the trial justice instructed the jurors that liability would attach in the event that they found that the backhoe was defective at the time of the leasing. We are of the opinion that this instruction was the substantial equivalent of the instruction urged by defendant. In reviewing the language of the jury instructions, we do not indulge in drawing metaphysical semantic distinctions. It is our function to consider the manner in which the instruction would be interpreted by a jury composed of ordinarily intelligent lay persons listening to it at the close of the trial. State v. Reid, 101 R.I. 363, 366, 223 A.2d 444, 446 (1966). Utilizing this standard and considering the instruction as a whole, we conclude that the meaning conveyed clearly indicated that the jurors were required to find the backhoe to have been defective either at the commencement of the lease or at the commencement of a renewal period thereof. The defendant further contends that the jury should have been instructed to base its determination of liability upon whether the backhoe was defective at the time it left the defendant's hands rather than at the commencement of the lease. The unusual facts of this case require a somewhat different application of these two phrases. It must be noted that the terms of the agreement between defendant and Marzano Construction provided for a leasing of the backhoe either on a monthly basis for a two-month period or on a weekly, daily, or hourly basis. Because of the different interpretations of which the evidence in this respect was susceptible, the jury might have made a variety of factual findings regarding the term and duration of the lease. The jury could have found that on September 16, 1966, the date of the accident, an original two-month lease was still in effect. Alternatively, however, the jury could have found that a new lease commenced on September 16 because the original two-month lease had concluded. Thereafter, the jury might have determined that a new daily or monthly lease began. By the same token, the jury could have determined that the initial lease had been made on a daily or monthly basis and that the term was renewable each day or each month. Another unusual aspect of this case arises out of the possible finding by the jury that the backhoe remained in the hands and in the control of defendant throughout the period of its use by Marzano Construction. Certainly, the jury could have found that Rocco, Ausdale's president, was personally operating and maintaining the backhoe on September 16, 1966, and during the entire period of the lease prior thereto. From the evidence in this case the jury also could have made a number of alternative findings in respect to the time when the backhoe became defective. Testimony revealed that backhoe cables generally have a useful life of three to four months. The first cable on the backhoe in question snapped after two months of use by Marzano Construction on a job in Connecticut. Testimony further indicated that Rocco replaced the cable in Connecticut and that the new cable snapped ten days later in Warwick, causing the instant accident involving plaintiff. There was further evidence from which the jury could have found that at the time of the original leasing there was a worn sheave on the backhoe which had the effect of cutting and weakening the fiber of the cables, thus creating a danger of excessive wear to the cable and causing the ultimate failure and injury. [3] As a consequence, under the peculiar facts of this case, the instructions of the trial justice were neither erroneous nor prejudicial to defendant.