Opinion ID: 1408211
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: clean with damp cloth and small amount of soap.

Text: Looking at all disputed facts and inferences, reasonable minds could reach different results on whether this information provided an adequate warning. The court of appeals succinctly set forth the necessary requirements for an adequate warning. We therefore adopt its analysis and agree that this issue presents a question of fact, to be resolved by the trier of fact. House, 886 P.2d at 551 (citing DeBry v. Valley Mortgage Co., 835 P.2d 1000, 1004 (Utah.Ct.App.1992)). Second, after reviewing the testimony presented at the hearing and in depositions, we also agree with the court of appeals that it is disputed whether Lt. House received the Armour information booklet or brochure. Moreover, no member of the SWAT Team could recall, specifically, whether they ever saw such a brochure. Id. Therefore, we cannot hold that as a matter of law defendants satisfied their duty to warn.
Defendants finally argue that the court of appeals erred in (1) allowing a heeding presumption to assist plaintiff in meeting her burden on the issue of causation and (2) concluding that there was a material issue of fact regarding whether defendants' failure to warn was the proximate cause of Lt. House's death. In any failure to warn claim, a plaintiff must show that the failure to give an adequate warning in fact caused the injury; i.e., that had warnings been provided, the injured party would have altered his use of the product or taken added precautions to avoid the injury. See Barson v. E.R. Squibb & Sons, Inc., 682 P.2d 832, 836-37 (Utah 1984). But `if the event which produced the injury would have occurred regardless of the defendant's conduct,' then the failure to provide a warning is not the proximate cause of the harm and the plaintiff's claim must fail. House, 886 P.2d at 552 (quoting Lunt v. Mount Spokane Skiing Corp., 62 Wash.App. 353, 814 P.2d 1189, 1194 (1991)). Defendants contend that plaintiff cannot show that Lt. House would have altered his conduct had a warning been given because (1) Lt. House did not know that he would be faced with rifle fire; (2) the arrest plan minimized any exposure to gunfire, and Lt. House would therefore have been in the same position no matter what he believed about the capabilities of his vest; and (3) no one would intentionally expose oneself to any type of fire because of the inherent limitations in the coverage of any body armor. The court of appeals, however, held that on the basis of statements by members of the SWAT team about their and Lt. House's expectations of his vest and by applying a rebuttable presumption that Lt. House would have `heeded' or followed an adequate warning had one been provided, material issues of fact remained regarding whether appellees' failure to warn was the proximate cause of Lt. House's death. Id. at 552-53. Although the court of appeals did not specifically determine whether Mrs. House produced sufficient evidence from which a jury could infer that Lt. House would have heeded a warning, we agree with the court of appeals that the application of a heeding presumption was appropriate under these circumstances. The court of appeals, following the majority of jurisdictions, held that in cases in which it cannot be demonstrated what the plaintiff would have done had he or she been adequately warned, the plaintiff should be afforded a rebuttable presumption that he or she would have followed an adequate warning had one been provided. Id. at 553. In reaching this result, the court of appeals relied both on the position stated in the Restatement (Second) of Torts [6] and on policies underlying strict liability for unreasonably dangerous products. We find their rationale to be persuasive: `The heeding presumption ... serves to reinforce the basic duty to warn  to encourage manufacturers to produce safer products, and to alert users of the hazards arising from the use of those products through effective warnings.' Id. (quoting Coffman v. Keene Corp., 133 N.J. 581, 628 A.2d 710, 718 (1993)). Defendants argue, however, that a heeding presumption is inappropriate in cases where the danger is unavoidable rather than preventable. See Thomas v. Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., 949 F.2d 806, 813-14 (5th Cir.1992) (holding that heeding presumption should apply only to preventable risk warnings where there is choice of using product safely or unsafely, not to unavoidable risk warnings where choice is not between safe and unsafe use but between using or not using product). However, the injury in Thomas occurred when the plaintiff suffered numerous seizures after taking the medication Accutane. Seizures were found to be a side effect of Accutane that only a few users suffered. The Fifth Circuit held that a heeding presumption was not appropriate under these circumstances because it could not be presumed that if the doctor or patient had known of this risk, they would have decided not to prescribe or take the medication. Id. The facts in the instant case are different. If Lt. House had been warned about the specific limitations of his vest, then, unlike the medication user, he could have taken other precautions besides foregoing the use of his vest. For example, absent adequate warnings, Lt. House may have felt more confident than he should have and may have taken additional risks which, had he known the true limitations of his vest, he would have minimized or avoided. Consequently, we cannot say that the danger of a rifle bullet's penetrating Lt. House's vest was a truly unavoidable risk. Defendants, however, argue that even if we do accept and apply a heeding presumption, they have proffered enough evidence to rebut this presumption as a matter of law. We disagree. Defendants first argue that neither Lt. House nor the arrest plan anticipated rifle fire. However, this is at least a disputed issue of fact which must be resolved by a jury. The court of appeals found that the risk of encountering rifle fire was known. House, 886 P.2d at 553 n. 7. Even if rifle fire was not expected, this still does not refute the notion that Lt. House generally would have acted more cautiously when actually exposed to fire. Second, defendants argue that because the arrest plan minimized to the greatest extent possible any exposure to hostile fire, any warning about the limitations of Lt. House's vest would not have made any difference in the arrest plan or in Lt. House's actions. We disagree. Although the arrest plan may have tried to minimize exposure, this does not show that Lt. House could not have also taken added precautionary measures. As plaintiff points out, Lt. House could have changed his posture slightly to further minimize exposure. Moreover, we cannot say that if the SWAT team had known of the vest's limitations, a different arrest plan would not have been formulated. Finally, we likewise cannot agree with defendants' assertion that because Lt. House knew of the limited coverage of the vest, he must be presumed not to have intentionally exposed himself to any gun fire in the first place; any warnings regarding rifle fire, they argue, would not have changed his actions in any case. In light of the differing testimony regarding Lt. House's perception of his vest's capabilities, we cannot decide as a matter of law that he would not have changed his conduct had he known the actual limitations of the vest. We agree with the court of appeals that there are too many disputed material issues of fact for this question to be resolved by summary judgment.
Although the court of appeals remanded the case for further proceedings as against defendants Lawco and Armour, it affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant DuPont. In reaching this conclusion, the court of appeals relied primarily on case law holding that a bulk supplier of raw materials which are not themselves inherently dangerous has no duty to warn ultimate users of the manufactured product. House, 886 P.2d at 554 (citing, among others, Veil v. Vitek, Inc., 803 F.Supp. 229, 234-37 (D.N.D.1992) (bulk supplier of raw material not inherently dangerous has no duty to warn consumer of finished product)). Accordingly it found that because the undisputed facts showed that DuPont merely supplied the KEVLAR fibers which would then be woven into ballistic fabrics according to the design specifications of the individual vest manufacturers, DuPont was solely a bulk supplier of KEVLAR and thus had no duty [or] opportunity to warn the ultimate vest user about the levels of protection afforded by vests woven from KEVLAR. Id. at 553-54. Plaintiff, however, claims that this holding constituted error because DuPont was more than a mere bulk supplier of the KEVLAR; it was actively engaged in testing, advertising, and promoting the body armor made out of KEVLAR. In support of her argument, plaintiff refers to (1) DuPont's involvement in the Personal Protective Armor Association (PPAA), which, among other things, developed labeling and testing standards for vest manufacturers; (2) DuPont's funding of studies, including three conducted by The Brand Consulting Group to study police officers' attitudes and their understanding of soft-body armor; and (3) DuPont's funding of promotional advertising such as a poster depicting a bullet bouncing off the chest of a super hero. However, the facts show that DuPont did not substantially engage in any of these activities until the mid-1980s, a few years after Lt. House received his vest. [7] Thus, at the time Lt. House received his vest, DuPont did not have an opportunity or any duty to warn of the limitations of the Armour vests. As a result, we hold that the court of appeals correctly affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment as to DuPont.