Opinion ID: 2220457
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: issue v ordinary negligence claim

Text: The trial court directed a verdict for the Defendant upon the question of strict liability but permitted the case to go to the jury upon the issue of negligence, and the jury returned a verdict for Defendant upon that issue. Although it appears to us that Plaintiff has sought review of the rejection of OSHA standards only as it affected his claim of strict liability, two statements from his argument might be viewed as presenting a claim that the standards were admissible as evidence of negligence, even if not as evidence of negligence per se; and Judge Ratliff, in a brief opinion concurring in the result of the decision of the Court of Appeals, agreed that the standards were admissible in evidence for that purpose. We express no opinion in that matter. The OSHA standards do not appear to be in the record. We, therefore, do not know the level of concentration of the chemical that they permit before reasonable care requires exposure precautions to be taken. Neither has Plaintiff informed us of the levels of concentration actually present at the time of the alleged exposure. It therefore appears to us that to find error upon this question would require us to speculate upon both the provisions of the Standards and upon the concentration of acrylonitrile present.