Opinion ID: 1630934
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: law i. whether the trial court should have granted a directed verdict for cooper because the tuckiers failed to prove a prima facie case under the mississippi product liability act (mpla).

Text: ¶ 8. Cooper complains that the Tuckiers did not establish a prima facie case under the Mississippi Products Liability Act (MPLA), Miss.Code Ann. § 11-1-63(a)(i)(1) (Supp.2001). While the Tuckiers assert that the use of bad stock in the manufacturing process led to Laura's accident and subsequent death, Cooper states this argument fails due to the fact that the Tuckiers did not set forth Cooper's specifications for the manufacture of its tires and make appropriate comparisons with the relevant factors in this case. Cooper also asserts that the Tuckiers did not successfully prove a case of negligence against it. The Tuckiers did make a prima facie case under the MPLA by asserting that Cooper did in fact use bad stock in the manufacturing of its tires and that under the MPLA, a products liability act, proof of a negligence case is not necessary. ¶ 9. Miss.Code Ann. § 11-1-63(a)(i)(1) (Supp.2001), states: In any action for damages caused by a product except for commercial damage to the product itself: (a) The manufacturer or seller of the product shall not be liable if the claimant does not prove by the preponderance of the evidence that at the time the product left the control of the manufacturer or seller: (i)1. The product was defective because it deviated in a material way from the manufacturer's specifications or from otherwise identical units manufactured to the same manufacturing specifications;.... ¶ 10. Cooper refers to the analogy of the recipe for a cake, arguing that, if the cake tastes bad, one must examine the recipe in order to determine whether the baker failed to follow the recipe. While the Tuckiers state that if the ingredients are bad, whether the recipe was followed is irrelevant. The Tuckiers did meet their burden of proof when they put on expert testimony that the subject tire did in fact fail due to the use of bad stock, which in turn failed to create a chemical bond in the tire. The Tuckiers also presented supporting testimony from two Cooper employees who stated bad stock was knowingly and intentionally used in tire manufacturing by Cooper. The Tuckiers put on sufficient proof to uphold the jury verdict, and the trial court did not err by denying Cooper's motion for directed verdict. ¶ 11. The Tuckiers called as their expert witness, Max Nonnamaker (Nonnamaker), an expert in the field of tire manufacturing, who had analyzed over 3,000 tires, including hundreds of radial tires during his twenty-six-year career. Nonnamaker stated that he made an independent examination of the subject tire and did not base his findings upon the testimony of former employees Jimmy Oats and Richard Angell, as Cooper suggests. ¶ 12. Nonnamaker completed an independent forensic examination of the tire, and he explained his procedure while testifying. When asked to explain what he looked for in examining a tire such as the subject tire, Nonnamaker stated, We look at everything. In other words, the first thing that I do is I take the unit and look at it very carefully at all of the exposed areas. Then I go back and record on a sheet the markings that are present and the conditions by documenting what their location is on the tire, and then I finish up by taking photographs to document those conditions.... We look for everything, and then we interpret whatever we find. And not only do we interpret what we find, but it also has to be consistent with what is present in the balance of the tire in the wheel. In other words, you just can't pick out one area and say this is so and so, or you can say that, but you would then be overlooking how it ties in with the balance of the tire. So everything about the tire is significant. It's just a matter ofIt's like running an autopsy on a person. It's the same thing. ¶ 13. Nonnamaker further stated that he had found a large area where the tire actually separated and that there was a breakdown in the rubber between the two steel belts in this area. He found a similar area on the opposite side of the tire and stated that the fact that the breakdown appears on opposite sides of the tire indicates that it was due to something built into the tire, rather than operating conditions. He further testified that the tire peeled and ripped apart due to the stock that was used to build the tire. Although the tire had bonded mechanically, it had not bonded chemically due to the bad stock used by Cooper in the manufacturing process. ¶ 14. Nonnamaker's testimony refuted Cooper's assertion that the tire had been allowed to run after it was torn by road damage. Nonnamaker did not find that the tire had been over-inflated or under-inflated, and he found no evidence of a cut that would explain why the tire had peeled apart. He also found that the inner steel belt had not been penetrated and that if it had, he would have expected to have seen the tire cut in a centralized location, but he did not find this during his examination. ¶ 15. Cooper asserts that because Laura's Bronco was towed to a service station following the accident and because the tire was not deflated, the tire was not mismanufactured, but was damaged by road debris. Nonnamaker also provided testimony to refute this assertion when he observed the tire pressure. After receiving the tire for inspection, Nonnamaker observed the tire pressure was 42 pounds. When he checked the pressure again, some 42-52 days later, he found the pressure had decreased by one pound, which he stated was a normal occurrence. This led Nonnamaker to conclude that the tire had not been damaged or punctured from something outside the tire, as the tire still retained pressure, but that the tire had been damaged from an element inside the tire. This also led him to the conclusion that bad stock had been used in the manufacture of this tire. ¶ 16. Cooper faults Nonnamaker's testimony because he did not perform a chemical test of the subject tire to determine whether old stock was in fact used in the manufacturing of this tire. However, Cooper also produced a witness who testified about his tests for tire inspection, which were quite similar to the tests done by Nonnamaker and who also did no chemical test. In addition, Nonnamaker's testimony is supported by two witnesses, who were former employees of Cooper. ¶ 17. Cooper criticizes Nonnamaker's testimony because Nonnamaker did not perform any chemical tests of the subject tire. The Tuckiers stated that no back-tests of the tire could be performed after the tire had been made. At oral argument before this Court, counsel for Cooper admitted that there could be no chemical tests of the tire after it had been formed, and this agrees with the statements made by the Tuckiers. No chemical tests or back-testing of the tire could be performed after the tire had been made. [1] ¶ 18. Nonnamaker also testified that by looking at the Department of Transportation number on the tire, he could identify the date the tire was manufactured and that it came from the Cooper Texarkana plant. He testified that the tire was manufactured in the fourth week of January 1992, a period following a holiday shutdown of the plant where stock was allowed to sit, and this further supported his assertion that the tire had been manufactured with bad stock. ¶ 19. Cooper bases the majority of its argument on this issue upon the credibility of two witnesses presented by the Tuckiers, Jimmy Oats and Richard Angell. Cooper states that the testimony of both of these witnesses should not have been allowed because neither had personal knowledge of tire manufacturing at the plant when the subject tire was manufactured in January 1992. However, Oats and Angell both testified that based upon their long-time employment with Cooper, both had personal knowledge of the use of bad stock in the tires. Cooper presented witnesses who testified that this bad stock would have been used by the company prior to the fourth week in January. Cooper also thoroughly cross-examined Oats and Angell as to the status of their employment at the plant in 1992 and about grievances each had filed with Cooper. However, the jury believed the testimony of the Tuckiers' witnesses. The Tuckiers did put on a prima facie case, and this issue is affirmed.