Opinion ID: 1481786
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Sophisticated User

Text: At trial, defendants sought to present a sophisticated user defense, under which suppliers of dangerous or defective products are not negligent in failing to warn ultimate users of the product because the supplier reasonably relies on an intermediary who redistributes the product to give the warning. The defendants submit that a jury could find that Bethlehem, as intermediary, had knowledge of the product's danger and was in a better position to warn users than were the suppliers. Judge Marshall A. Levin, on pretrial motion, ruled the sophisticated user defense inapplicable. At trial defendants requested that the jury be instructed on the defense, arguing that the instruction had been generated by evidence admitted on a superseding cause theory. The trial judge, Judge David Ross, refused the instruction. The Court of Special Appeals agreed with Judge Ross, Balbos, 84 Md. App. at 59-66, 578 A.2d at 252-55. So do we. After the Court of Special Appeals decided its Balbos, this Court recognized the sophisticated user defense in Kennedy v. Mobay Corp., 325 Md. 385, 601 A.2d 123 (1992), aff'g 84 Md. App. 397, 579 A.2d 1191 (1990). We did so for the reasons stated by Chief Judge Wilner in his Mobay opinion for the Court of Special Appeals. Mobay followed the majority view on sophisticated user that is implied in Restatement (Second) of Torts § 388 & comment n. [12] The purpose of the sophisticated user defense is to put some restraints on the expanding liability of manufacturers. Modern life would be intolerable unless one were permitted to rely to a certain extent on others' doing what they normally do.... Id., comment n. Under the Restatement view a court focuses on the conduct of the supplier of the dangerous product, not on the conduct of the intermediary. See Note, Failures to Warn and the Sophisticated User Defense, 74 Va.L.Rev. 579, 596-604 (1988). Thus, proof that the intermediary knew that the product was dangerous does not, in and of itself, absolve the supplier of a duty to warn ultimate users. Rather, the finder of fact considers a variety of factors in order to determine whether the supplier reasonably relied upon the intermediary to warn users. Those factors include: (1) the dangerous condition of the product; (2) the purpose for which the product is used; (3) the form of any warnings given; (4) the reliability of the third party as a conduit of necessary information about the product; (5) the magnitude of the risk involved; and (6) the burdens imposed on the supplier by requiring that he directly warn all users. Mobay, 84 Md. App. at 405, 579 A.2d at 1195 (quoting Goodbar v. Whitehead Bros., 591 F. Supp. 552, 557 (W.D.Va. 1984), aff'd sub nom. Beale v. Hardy, 769 F.2d 213 (4th Cir.1985)). The sophisticated user defense is not exclusively available to bulk suppliers of products. See Housand v. Bra-Con Indus., 751 F. Supp. 541, 544 (D.Md. 1990); Singleton v. Manitowoc Co., 727 F. Supp. 217, 225-26 (D.Md. 1989), aff'd, 931 F.2d 887 (4th Cir.1991); Marshall v. H.K. Ferguson Co., 623 F.2d 882, 886-87 (4th Cir.1980); Jacobson v. Colorado Fuel & Iron Corp., 409 F.2d 1263, 1272-73 (9th Cir.1969). Clearly, however, the manner in which the product is supplied to an intermediary is an important factor to consider when determining whether the defendant reasonably relied on the intermediary to warn ultimate users of the product. For instance, when a supplier ships silica sand to a factory in railroad car quantities, it has been held reasonable for the supplier to rely on the knowledgeable management of the factory to disseminate warnings to workers because the supplier had little practical opportunity to warn. Goodbar, supra, 591 F. Supp. at 566-67; see Smith v. Walter C. Best, Inc., 927 F.2d 736 (3d Cir.1990). On the other hand, if the factory purchased the sand in fifty pound bags that were personally handled by the workers, the balance of factors may favor requiring the supplier to place a warning on the bags. Usually inquiries into the reasonableness of conduct are the province of the jury rather than of the court. See Kahlenberg v. Goldstein, 290 Md. 477, 494-97, 431 A.2d 76, 86-87 (1981) (assumption of the risk); Menish v. Polinger Co., 277 Md. 553, 569, 356 A.2d 233, 241 (1976) (contributory negligence); Mass Transit Admin. v. Miller, 271 Md. 256, 259, 315 A.2d 772, 774 (1974) (negligence). In this case, however, Judge Ross properly foreclosed jury consideration of the sophisticated user defense. The defendants point to no evidence or proffered evidence that their own reliance upon Bethlehem as a conduit of warning was reasonable. What they presented was evidence that Bethlehem knew of the danger of asbestos. Defendants do not set forth any evidence or proffered evidence that they knew that Bethlehem knew of the danger. There was no evidence, for example, that any of the defendants or any other asbestos supplier or installer ever warned Bethlehem about asbestos until the 1960s. To the contrary, defendants argued that during World War II Bethlehem possessed confidential information from the government on the dangers of asbestos  information that the suppliers could not have uncovered even if they tried. While this evidence may have been relevant to the defendants' state-of-the-art or superseding-cause defenses, it did not supply the basis for a sophisticated user defense, the focus of which is on the reasonableness of the supplier's conduct. To be entitled to a sophisticated user instruction, suppliers, at a minimum, must have introduced evidence that they warned the intermediary of the danger, see Mobay, 84 Md. App. at 424, 579 A.2d at 1205, or that they knew a warning was unnecessary because the intermediary was already well aware of the danger, see Smith v. Walter C. Best, Inc., 927 F.2d at 741 (reasonable for suppliers of silica sand to rely on intermediary's knowledge of silicosis because of amount of information available on the disease, regardless of whether suppliers actually assured themselves that intermediary knew of the information). In some cases an intermediary's knowledge may be inferred from general publicity about the danger, see id., but that inference must also support an inference that the supplier knew of the intermediary's knowledge. This analysis accords with the position taken in Willis v. Raymark Indus., 905 F.2d 793 (4th Cir.1990). In that case, several plaintiffs sued asbestos manufacturers and suppliers for injuries caused by asbestos exposure incurred while working at a duPont plant. At least one defendant, Celotex, argued for a sophisticated user defense because duPont had extensive knowledge of the dangers of asbestos. Id. at 797. The Court disagreed: Celotex's proffer of proof on this issue, however, does not address one critical point: whether Celotex knew the extent of duPont's knowledge during or prior to the period of the plaintiffs' exposure. Celotex may not escape liability by reconstructing the past to show merely what the employer/purchaser knew. Comment n clearly focuses on what the product manufacturer knew and the reasonableness of its reliance on the employer prior to and during the time the workers were exposed. Moreover, Celotex offers no evidence that it apprised duPont of the dangers of the insulation or that it attempted to ascertain whether duPont could reasonably be relied upon to disseminate information about the dangers of the product. The fact that an employer possesses knowledge of a product's dangers does not extinguish the manufacturer's liability unless the manufacturer can also show that it had reason to believe that the employer was or would be acting to protect the employees. Celotex has made no such showing here. Id.; see also Oman v. Johns-Manville Corp., 764 F.2d 224, 233 (4th Cir.) (en banc) (under Virginia law, when burden of warning is not great, failure to give sophisticated user instruction not error when employer was unaware of danger, and after it became aware, did not convey knowledge to employees), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 970, 106 S.Ct. 351, 88 L.Ed.2d 319 (1985). Although the Fourth Circuit was applying Virginia law in Willis and Oman, Virginia uses the version of sophisticated user implied under Restatement § 388(b) and (c) and comment n, and we find the reasoning in those cases to be persuasive.