Opinion ID: 1722787
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Validity of Design Negligence Claims Submitted Against Van Zetten.

Text: In instructing the jury the trial court submitted a specification of negligence for improper design against both the manufacturer Westfield and the dealer Van Zetten. The jury was advised the plaintiff claimed that both were negligent [i]n failing to properly design the auger intake so as to protect against foreseeable risk of limbs becoming entangled therein during normal use and operation. The jury was asked to determine these claims against both the manufacturer and dealer based on a standard of ordinary care of a reasonably prudent person under the same circumstances. Van Zetten excepted to the instructions permitting the jury to find it negligent for improper design on the ground that such claim was, under applicable law, without support in the evidence. He urges that the giving of such instructions was reversible error. In Wagner v. Larson, 257 Iowa 1202, 1223-24, 136 N.W.2d 312, 325 (1965), we gave tacit approval to the following commentary on design negligence: Design negligence is particularly an area in which it seems difficult ordinarily to find any logical basis for imposing liability upon the retailer in negligence because design certainly in most instances involves questions of specialized knowledge which the retailer cannot be expected to have. L. Frumer & M. Friedman, Products Liability § 18.04 (1960 ed.). We find that the record in the present case is devoid of any evidence from which the design of the auger, if faulty, can be attributed to the dealer Van Zetten. We need not consider whether it might have been proper to submit a negligence claim phrased in terms of the dealer's failure to discover the dangers which the auger, as designed, presented. Clearly the jury should not have been permitted, as it was, to find Van Zetten negligent for directly participating in the design of the auger. This was clearly beyond the sphere of the dealer's involvement as shown by the evidence. Where, as here, the forms of verdict do not reveal the basis on which the jury finds a defendant to be negligent, the submission of a specification which is without support in the evidence requires reversal. Childers v. McGee, 306 N.W.2d 778, 780 (Iowa 1981).