Opinion ID: 1400724
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Flexo Folder Gluers

Text: There is no evidence in the record concerning Weyerhaeuser's sales of used FFGs before 1986. There is some dispute concerning the frequency with which Weyerhaeuser sold used FFGs thereafter. The parties submitted documents from Weyerhaeuser's WEYPAC accounting system, which inventoried the items sold through the IRB from 1986 to 2006. According to Jaramillo, the WEYPAC documents show that during that time, Weyerhaeuser sold around 60 FFGs in the United Statesan average of about 3 per yearand that these sales generated revenues of about $6.4 millionan average of about $107,000 per machine. Jaramillo maintains that these numbers do not account for all of the FFGs sold by Weyerhaeuser during this time. Weyerhaeuser asserts that Jaramillo misinterprets the WEYPAC documents and includes in his count machines that are not FFGs. Weyerhaeuser contends that the proper number is about 19 machines sold in the United States in the last 25 years, an average of less than one machine per year. In addition, there is evidence that Weyerhaeuser owns patents related to technology used in FFGs, and that the company maintains relationships with FFG manufacturers. It has occasionally made recommendations to manufacturers about how to improve FFG design, including with regard to safety features. When it has detected safety issues with an FFG, the company has also sometimes suggested that the manufacturer install a new safety mechanism in the machine in question. Specifically relevant to this case, older FFGs have open architecture, which means that they have open spaces between operating sections that a person can enter while the machine is in operation. Closed architecture machines, in contrast, do not permit such entry. To make open architecture machines safer, a safety mat or an interlocking device may be installed to stop the machine automatically if a safety gate leading to one of the open spaces is accessed. Weyerhaeuser has added interlocking devices to some of its open architecture FFGs or had the manufacturer do so.
The FFG that injured Jaramillo was an open architecture machine manufactured around 1964 by S & S Manufacturing (S & S), a Brooklyn-based company that went bankrupt around 1986. The FFG was sold new to the General Foods Company, which used the machine in a cereal plant in Battle Creek, Michigan from about 1964 until 1971. Weyerhaeuser purchased the machine from General Foods in 1971 for about $36,500, and installed it in its Lynchburg, Virginia box plant. Weyerhaeuser added a vacuum transfer system and installed a solid state drive and motor. In 1984, Weyerhaeuser also conducted a rebuild of the machine, replacing all worn parts. It made no changes to the safety mechanisms installed by S & S in the original manufacture. Weyerhaeuser's total investment in the machine was around $282,000. The machine was still functional in 1986fifteen years after its purchase by Weyerhaeuser and more than twenty years following its manufactureand Weyerhaeuser had it running two shifts per day. Weyerhaeuser nevertheless decided to sell the machine through the IRB to Glenwood, a Yonkers-based company, for about $70,000. The machine was disassembled in Virginia by a Glenwood employee, transported to Yonkers, and reassembled at the Glenwood plant. The parties were unable to locate the invoice from the 1986 sale. The heading of a sample IRB sales invoice from 1986, however, states that equipment is SOLD AS IS, WHERE IS, WITH ALL FAULTS. According to the deposition testimony of former Weyerhaeuser employee Walter Paulson, this meant that potential buyers were invited to inspect IRB products to decide if they wanted to buy them in the condition in which they were displayed. Paulson testified also that most of the time IRB sales were done as-is, where-is, and that the company never warranted anything, guaranteed anything. Accordingly, while there is little direct evidence of the conditions of the sale, the existing evidence indicates that the machine was sold as is, where is and without any express warranties. [1]