Opinion ID: 565172
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Bulk Seller/Sophisticated Purchaser Defense

Text: 28 As a defense in failure to warn products liability actions, the Mississippi Supreme Court has adopted the learned intermediary doctrine. Wyeth Laboratories, Inc. v. Fortenberry, 530 So.2d 688 (Miss.1988). The learned intermediary doctrine, in its Mississippi application, provides that a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals is not required to warn an ultimate user of the propensities and dangers of the use of a drug, but instead may rely upon an intermediary--the prescribing physician--to inform her patient of these propensities and dangers. 29 Reasoning that Wyeth Laboratories signalled the Mississippi Supreme Court's intention to expand the available defenses in a failure to warn action, the district court ruled that Mississippi's highest court would adopt the bulk seller doctrine and that this doctrine shielded Chevron from liability to the plaintiffs. 9 This doctrine provides that a bulk seller--one who sells a product to another manufacturer or distributor which in turn packages and sells the product to the public--is required only to warn the intermediate distributor, and not each individual consumer, that the product is dangerous. Jones v. Hittle Service, Inc., 219 Kan. 627, 549 P.2d 1383 (1976). 30 An underlying assumption of the bulk seller doctrine is that the bulk seller may rely on an informed distributor to pass information concerning the dangers of the product to the consumer. Under the bulk seller doctrine, however, the bulk seller's reliance upon the intermediate distributor must be reasonable. The bulk seller, therefore, fulfills its duty to the ultimate consumer only if it ascertains (1) that the distributor to which it sells is adequately trained, (2) that the distributor is familiar with the properties of the product and the safe methods of handling it, and (3) that the distributor is capable of passing this knowledge to the consumer. Jones, 549 P.2d at 1394. 31 While the district court is perhaps correct that Mississippi would adopt the bulk seller doctrine, the court did not properly conclude that the doctrine requires summary judgment in Chevron's favor. The bulk seller doctrine is, after all, an affirmative defense. At trial, Chevron would bear the ultimate burden of proof on the elements of the bulk seller defense. For summary judgment to be appropriate, therefore, Chevron must demonstrate that the evidence in the record so conclusively establishes each element of the bulk seller doctrine that there is no genuine issue of material fact. Lavespere, 910 F.2d at 178-79. Chevron has not satisfied this requirement. There is a genuine issue of material fact whether Chevron fulfilled its obligation to ascertain that Liquid Air, the distributor to which it sold the propylene, was adequately trained and familiar with the properties of the gas. 32 The only evidence that the district court cited to support its conclusion that Chevron fulfilled its obligations under the bulk seller doctrine was the Chevron MSDS. This document, however, did not insure that Liquid Air was adequately trained to handle propylene gas. Moreover, the MSDS did not provide Liquid Air information concerning all the critical qualities of propylene; for instance, Liquid Air officials admitted that they were unaware of the propensity of propylene to cause nasal fatigue. Because there is a genuine issue of material fact whether Chevron's reliance on Liquid Air was reasonable, the district court improperly granted summary judgment in Chevron's favor on the basis of the bulk seller doctrine. 33 A second doctrine which Chevron advances as a defense is the sophisticated user doctrine. This doctrine, which the district court unfortunately confuses with the bulk seller doctrine, provides that a manufacturer or distributor of a product is not liable for a failure to warn the user of a particular danger that the user knows or reasonably may be expected to know exists. Grady v. American Optical Corp., 702 S.W.2d 911, 915 (Mo.Ct.App.1985). In the instant case, the ultimate users of the product in question--Little and Carter--at least arguably were not sophisticated. There is sufficient evidence that the decedents did not fully appreciate the dangers of propylene because they were not adequately warned. Accordingly, even if the Mississippi Supreme Court adopted the sophisticated user doctrine, the applicability of the doctrine in the instant case is a jury question. 34 Chevron proposes that this Court conclude that Mississippi would fuse the sophisticated user doctrine and bulk seller doctrine. It claims that the district court properly excused Chevron from liability to the plaintiffs because Liquid Air should have known and been able to warn the decedents that propylene gas caused nasal fatigue. Chevron offers no authority, however, to support its proposed fusion of these two disparate doctrines. On the contrary, in Donahue v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 866 F.2d 1008 (8th Cir.1989), the Eighth Circuit already has rejected a similar proposal under Missouri law, reasoning that the fusion of the sophisticated user and bulk seller doctrines would undercut traditional strict liability analysis. Id. at 1012-13. We find that the same conclusion applies to Mississippi law. The Mississippi law of products liability does not authorize the fusion of the sophisticated user and bulk seller doctrines and, consequently, does not support the summary judgment that the district court granted in Chevron's favor.