Opinion ID: 2432554
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Applying the Law to Allbritton's Claim

Text: This case does not present a question of cause-in-fact. The pump defect clearly was a but for cause of Allbritton's injuries: assuming the truth of Allbritton's allegations, as we must in this summary judgment case, if the pump had not been defective, there would have been no fire, and Allbritton would have gone home uninjured at the end of her shift. Assuming the substantial factor test from Section 432(2) of the Restatement (Second) applies, the pump defect was also a substantial factor in her injury. The pump was the undisputed cause of the fire, which created a crisis at the plant. [3] Because the pump defect was clearly a but-for cause and a substantial factor, the pump defect was a cause-in-fact of Allbritton's injury. But determining that the defect was the cause-in-fact of Allbritton's injuries does not end the inquiry. See Lear Siegler, 819 S.W.2d at 472. We must decide whether the pump defect meets the second prong of both proximate cause and producing cause. In proximate cause, this other element is foreseeability, but it also incorporates policy driven decisions such as when subsequent events will be treated as intervening causes. Powers, supra, at 6-17.1 (2d ed. Issue 1 1993). In this case, the injury to Allbritton was not foreseeable. Allbritton's injuries were the result of a needlessly dangerous shortcut taken after the crisis had subsided. [4] Holding Union Pump liable for Allbritton's failure to use proper care in exiting the area of the fire after the crisis has ended is akin to holding it liable for an auto accident she suffered on the way home, even though the accident probably would not have occurred had she left after her normal shift. Foreseeability allows us to cut off Union Pump's liability at some point; I would do so at the point the crisis had abated or at the point that Allbritton and Subia departed from their usual, safe path. For similar reasons, Allbritton's products liability claimwhich hinges on producing cause rather than proximate causealso fails. As described in Part II(B) above, the other element of producing cause limits Union Pump's liability to the types of injuries that flow naturally from the use of a defective product. Under this standard, liability for a product defect extends only to the damages occurring in a natural and continuous sequence from the use of the defective product, whether to those who use the product or those who are exposed to danger when the defect becomes manifest. There are two potential applications of this standard to Allbritton, both of which lead to the conclusion that the product defect was not the producing cause of Allbritton's injuries. First, Allbritton's injuries did not occur in a natural and continuous sequence from the defect. While the fire was certainly part of such a sequence, as were the efforts to extinguish the fire, Allbritton's injuries occurred after these events had subsided. At the time of her injury, she was simply exiting the area and in doing so unnecessarily chose to take a precarious shortcut across the pipe rack. Under these circumstances, Allbritton's injuries did not flow in a natural and continuous sequence from the pump failure. Additionally, from the facts in this record, it does not appear that Allbritton was within the scope of protection intended by products liability law. Certainly, Allbritton was within such scope when she was directly addressing problems flowing directly from the fire's existence. But when this task was completed, she re-entered the area to check a valve, completed her assignment, and was exiting the area when she was injured. When undertaking such activities, Allbritton was no longer within the scope of the protection of products liability law. Accordingly, Union Pump's liability should not extend to the injuries that she suffered. Regardless of whether the Court agrees with my analysis of proximate and producing cause, by forcing the policy-based limitations on claims into the cause-in-fact analysis without a clear accounting of its reasoning, the Court unnecessarily perpetuates confusion in this fundamental area of the law. For these reasons, I concur in the Court's judgment but do not join its opinion.