Opinion ID: 437443
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Inadequate Labelling as the Proximate Cause of Mr. Ferebee's Pulmonary Fibrosis

Text: 35 Given that Chevron had a duty to warn that dermal paraquat exposure could produce serious lung disease and death, Mr. Ferebee was still required to show that Chevron's failure to perform that duty was a proximate cause of his illness and death. On appeal Chevron argues that the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that Mr. Ferebee did not read the label that was provided and that a more detailed label thus would have done nothing to prevent Ferebee's injuries. 36 It is true that the plaintiff's failure to read a warning actually provided may at times absolve a manufacturer of liability. See, e.g., Johnson v. Niagra Machines & Tool Works, 666 F.2d 1223, 1225 (8th Cir.1981). It is also true in this case that the district court expressed some difficulty in agreeing that a rational jury could have found either that Mr. Ferebee read the label or that the label was not adequately designed to attract attention. We need not reexamine the evidence to decide this issue, however, for we hold that satisfaction of the proximate cause requirement does not depend entirely on whether Mr. Ferebee read the label. Instead, if the jury could reasonably have found that the information on an adequately labelled paraquat bottle would have been communicated to Mr. Ferebee--even if he personally did not read the warning--the failure to provide such a warning could validly be treated as a proximate cause of Mr. Ferebee's pulmonary fibrosis. 37 We live in an organizational society in which traditional common-law limitations on an actor's duty must give way to the realities of society. See, e.g., MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co., 217 N.Y. 382, 111 N.E. 1050 (1916) (eliminating privity requirement for tort suits). In this case, Mr. Ferebee did not purchase the paraquat for his personal use, and there was substantial evidence that workplace communication about the dangers associated with various chemicals usually took the form of oral instructions from supervisors to workers, the latter of whom then retransmitted the information to co-workers. This, rather than individual reading of product warnings, is a typical method by which information is disseminated in the modern workplace. See Schwartz & Driver, Warnings in the Workplace: The Need for a Synthesis of Law and Communication Theory, 52 U.CINN.L.REV. 38, 66-83 (1983). The requirement that an improper warning proximately cause the injury should be elaborated against this background. We believe Maryland would construe its tort law in this case to require only that someone in the workplace have read the label, not that Mr. Ferebee personally have read it. Because there is no dispute that one or more employees at BARC did read the label, we hold that the jury could properly have inferred that, had a warning about the danger of disease from dermal exposure been included on the label, that warning would have been communicated to Mr. Ferebee and that he would as a result have acted differently. Alternatively, the jury could have inferred that an adequate warning would have led Ferebee's employers to undertake steps that would have protected him from paraquat poisoning--for example, provision of showers for use after spraying. 38 Finally, Ferebee's alleged failure to read the label does not constitute misuse as a matter of law, see Levin v. Walter Kidde & Co., 251 Md. 560, 248 A.2d 151 (1968). While a manufacturer is entitled to assume that warnings given will be heeded, see RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS Sec. 402(A) comment j, in this case Chevron failed to warn Ferebee adequately that dermal exposure to paraquat could seriously injure him. As a result, Ferebee could not have known the results that might follow from his failure to heed a warning that was not given; he therefore cannot be charged with misuse. 39 In sum, the narrow standard of review of a district court's failure to grant a judgment notwithstanding the verdict provides a very small window for appellant through which it has failed to pass. Sufficient evidence supports the jury's finding that plaintiffs established all the elements of their case by a preponderance of the evidence. We turn now to appellant's claim that the jury verdict should nonetheless be overturned because other federal law demands that Chevron be immune from tort liability of the sort levied against it in this case.