Opinion ID: 1169308
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: material alterations

Text: Appellees claim on appeal that the uncontradicted exhibits which they attached to their summary judgment motion showed that the scraper had been materially altered prior to the accident. Therefore, according to appellees, they were entitled to summary judgment on all three causes of action as a matter of law. The district court based its grant of summary judgment, at least in part, upon this ground. In its order the court concluded [t]hat counsel for the Plaintiff admitted during the argument to the Court that the machine in question had been altered prior to the accident. We agree with appellee's general proposition that material or substantial alterations of a product after sale may constitute a defense to all three causes of action. Even if a product is defective, unmerchantable or negligently manufactured, the seller may not be liable for a plaintiff's injuries which are caused by unforeseeable alterations in the product rather than the original defects. See Annot., 41 A.L.R.3d 1251 (1972). In the context of strict liability, this defense has been explicitly condified in Restatement, Second, Torts § 402A(1)(b) which provides that a manufacturer or seller is liable under 402A only if his product is expected to and does reach the user or consumer without substantial change in the condition in which it is sold. In negligence and warranty claims the material alterations defense is raised under the rubric of intervening or superseding cause. See generally W. Keeton, Prosser and Keeton on Torts § 102, at 710-712 (1984); Comment, Substantial Change: Alteration of a Product as a Bar to a Manufacturer's Strict Liability, 80 Dickinson L.Rev. 245, 264 (1975). Our difficulty with appellees' material alteration contention is factual, not legal. While we accept appellees' uncontradicted assertion that the scraper was altered, [11] we do not think that appellees' exhibits eliminated all dispute regarding the materiality of those alterations. Appellees' summary judgment exhibits do not demonstrate how appellant actually slipped from the scraper and do not show what safety devices might have prevented the fall. And there is nothing in the record indicating that the safety devices which were removed would have been adequate to prevent the fall even if they had been left intact. Material alterations, like other issues of proximate cause, are ordinarily `left to the jury for its factual determination.' McClellan v. Tottenhoff, Wyo., 666 P.2d 408, 414 (1983); Karabatsos v. Spivey Company, 49 Ill. App.3d 317, 7 Ill.Dec. 158, 364 N.E.2d 319, 323 (1977). Appellees failed to establish the materiality of the alterations as a factual issue, so summary judgment on these grounds could not be granted as a matter of law, even though appellant failed to offer his own exhibits. See Gibbs v. General Motors Corporation, Tex., 450 S.W.2d 827, 829 (1970). The district court's dismissal of appellant's second cause of action for breach of warranty is affirmed. The dismissal of the first and third causes is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.