Opinion ID: 2831507
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Timpte and Martinez

Text: The Court relies heavily on Timpte, in which we held that a product’s risks did not outweigh its utility as a matter of law. The plaintiff in Timpte, Gish, was injured when a gust of wind blew him off of the top of a dual-hopper trailer, onto which he had climbed to grab a malfunctioning silo downspout. 286 S.W.3d at 308. Gish alleged that the trailer was defectively designed because (1) the rail around the trailer’s open top, on which he was trying to stand when he fell, was only five inches wide, and (2) the ladder that he had climbed, which was intended for access to an observation deck that sits below the rail, should not have had the top two rungs that he used to access the top of the trailer. Id. at 308–09. Timpte did not involve a jury trial; we held that the manufacturer was entitled to summary judgment. As is the case here, we concluded in Timpte that the evidence established that the utility of the trailer’s top rail design was “undeniably very high.” Id. at 313. Also as here, the risk of falling was “obvious,” the product warned users not to engage in the conduct that the plaintiff was engaged in at the time of his injury, and the relevant risk “stem[med] only from the risk that a user w[ould] ignore both [the] warnings and open and obvious dangers.” Id. at 312–14. But what is present in this case that was not present in Timpte is evidence that ordinary users would commonly misuse the product despite the warning and apparently obvious dangers. We mentioned in Timpte that Gish had climbed up on the trailer “on several other occasions when the downspout would not lower,” but we made no reference to any evidence that anyone other than Gish had ever done so. Id. at 308. While the evidence in Timpte thus could establish only that the risk was “extremely 20 low” and “very slight,” id. at 313–14, the evidence of other users’ common misuse of the Genie lift could establish that the risk was relatively high, given the availability of a safer alternative design, or at least permit a reasonable juror to conclude it was. This case, therefore, is more analogous to Martinez, in which the plaintiff was seriously injured when he attempted to install a 16-inch tire on a 16.5-inch rim. 977 S.W.2d at 332. He did this in spite of the fact that the tire bore a “prominent warning label containing yellow and red highlights and a pictograph of a worker being thrown into the air by an exploding tire.” Id. As here, the product’s label prohibited the specific conduct the plaintiff was engaged in at the time of his injury and warned that such conduct could result in serious injury or death: DANGER NEVER MOUNT A 16” SIZE DIAMETER TIRE ON A 16.5” RIM. Mounting a 16” tire on a 16.5” rim can cause severe injury or death. . . . ... NEVER inflate a tire which is lying on the floor or other flat surface. ... NEVER inflate to seat beads without using an extension hose with gauge and clip-on chuck. . . . NEVER stand, lean or reach over the assembly during inflation. ... Failure to comply with these safety precautions can cause the bead to break and the assembly to burst with sufficient force to cause serious injury or death. Id. “Unfortunately, Martinez ignored every one of these warnings.” Id. The issue was the same in Martinez as it is here: “whether a manufacturer who knew of a safer alternative product design is liable in strict products liability for injuries caused by the use of its product that the user could have avoided by following the product’s warnings.” Id. at 331. We concluded that the answer was yes, observing that the defendant acknowledged at trial “that 21 warnings are an imperfect means to remedy a product defect,” just as Curtin did in this case. Id. at 336. We agreed with the Restatement that warnings and safer alternative designs are merely “factors, among others, for the jury to consider in determining whether the product as designed is reasonably safe.” Id. at 337. We specifically noted that “[t]he jury heard firsthand how an accident can occur despite the warning label, and how a redesigned tire would have prevented that accident.” Id. “Unless the subject matter is solely for experts,” we concluded, “jurors are capable of forming their own opinions from the record as a whole.” Id. at 339. Just as in Martinez, the jurors in this case were capable of forming their own opinions based on the evidence. They did so, and they did not all agree. Ten members of the jury found that the risks of Genie’s lift outweigh its utility, making it unreasonably dangerous and thus defectively designed. But they did so thoughtfully, assigning only 55 percent of the responsibility for Matak’s death to Genie, while assigning 20 percent to the church, 20 percent to Matak’s employer, and 5 percent to Matak himself. Because some evidence supports the jury’s findings, we are bound by the law to respect its decision.