Opinion ID: 437443
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Foreseeability and Duty to Warn

Text: 26 Chevron next argues that, even if Ferebee's pulmonary fibrosis was caused by paraquat exposure, Chevron had no knowledge until this case that long-term dermal absorption of paraquat could induce pulmonary fibrosis; accordingly, Chevron claims, it cannot have been charged with a duty to warn against a danger that was not foreseeable at the time Ferebee was exposed to paraquat. Chevron is correct that its duty to warn is limited to dangers that it knew or should have known about during the time Ferebee was exposed to paraquat. See Chambers v. G.D. Searle & Co., 441 F.Supp. 377, 381 (D.Md.1975), aff'd, 567 F.2d 269 (4th Cir.1977). The conclusion which Chevron would have us draw from this principle, however, is not correct. The jury could have found that, as of July 1979, the last date on which Ferebee sprayed paraquat, Chevron's knowledge of the link between dermal paraquat exposure and lung disease was sufficient to require a more detailed label than that which the company provided. 27 In assessing Chevron's argument, it is necessary to consider the label which Chevron did provide. That label contains several warnings about the danger of skin exposure to paraquat. For example, the label in large bold letters states: DANGER CAN KILL IF SWALLOWED HARMFUL TO THE EYES AND SKIN 28 The label also states that, in case of skin contact, the area exposed should be washed immediately and that contaminated clothing may have to be removed. The label further notes that prolonged contact will cause severe irritation and that repeated contact may increase the danger of absorption. 29 The label thus does inform the user that spilling paraquat on the skin may cause immediate and perhaps severe skin irritation. Yet nowhere does the label persuasively suggest that users whose skin comes into contact with the herbicide should be concerned about other possible consequences of skin exposure--particularly the specter of long-term lung disease culminating, perhaps, in death. (The label does note that repeated contact may increase the danger of absorption, but there is no hint of the dangers that may attend absorption). The jury certainly could have concluded that, absent a more specific warning about the relationship between skin exposure and lung disease, the average reader of the label who got paraquat onto his skin would presume that, once no immediate and acute injury occurred, the user was safe and need not take further precautions--such as seeing a doctor, having x-rays taken, or ceasing use of the pesticide. 30 Moreover, there can be no doubt that Chevron did by 1979 have sufficient information regarding the general link between dermal paraquat exposure and lung disease that the company could have been charged with a duty to provide this more specific warning. First, Chevron does not dispute the fact that, since the early 1960's, it has been known that paraquat exposure can lead to fibrotic lung disease. Second, expert witnesses for both sides agreed at trial that, once paraquat enters the body, it selectively attacks the lungs. Finally, the medical literature and the company's own incident reports catalogued cases in which dermal exposure to paraquat in some cases caused almost immediate death and in other cases caused rather immediate lung problems. For example, by 1976 Chevron had learned of an incident in Israel in which a man was accidentally sprayed with a jet of paraquat on his face, nose, mouth and hands; the man recovered after showing some signs of pulmonary involvement. In April of 1976 Chevron learned of a New Guinea man who had his back painted with paraquat and died two days later. That same year, Chevron was informed of a 29-year-old worker from Malaysia who spilled paraquat on his lap and scrotal area and died ten days later. These are but a few of the examples submitted to the jury of cases in which dermal paraquat exposure caused serious injury, including lung disease and death. 31 Chevron seeks to distinguish these incidents and to establish compliance with its duty to warn by arguing that these incidents all involved immediate internal complications resulting from dermal paraquat exposure, whereas Ferebee suffered from delayed and prolonged pulmonary fibrosis. Chevron argues that it had no information that prolonged exposure to paraquat could cause a chronic illness like Ferebee's or that such illness could continue long after exposure to paraquat had ceased. But the fact that the injuries of which Chevron knew occurred much more quickly than the prolonged illness through which Ferebee suffered is no answer to Chevron's complete failure to warn that any such injuries, whether immediate or latent, could result from dermal exposure to paraquat. Had Chevron warned that dermal exposure could induce lung disease, the company conceivably might not have had the more focused duty to warn against the particular form and nature of the disease that Ferebee contracted. Absent a general warning about the relationship between such exposure and lung complications, a relationship about which the jury could reasonably have concluded Chevron had substantial knowledge, Chevron cannot escape its duty to warn by asserting that it had insufficient knowledge of the particular way in which Mr. Ferebee's lung disease came about. The label gave no indication at all that skin exposure could produce lung disease of any sort, a failing upon which the jury could ground liability. 32 Chevron next argues that, if Ferebee indeed died from chronic paraquat exposure of his skin, his case is so unique as to make him a hypersensitive plaintiff against whose injuries Chevron is not obligated to guard, see Chambers, supra. Once again, however, Chevron has attempted to define its duty at too specific a level. If paraquat caused Mr. Ferebee's illness, and the jury could reasonably conclude that it did, there is nothing to suggest that another individual in Ferebee's position would not also have been likely to contract the disease. The jury was entitled to find it reasonably foreseeable that illness of the general type from which Mr. Ferebee suffered--fibrotic lung disease leading to death--could be caused by dermal exposure to paraquat. That cases exactly like Mr. Ferebee's, involving dilute solutions of the herbicide and chronic rather than acute injury, had not previously been called to Chevron's attention does not attenuate the company's duty to warn against the general danger of lung disease and death attributable to dermal exposure to paraquat. See generally Billiar v. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co., 623 F.2d 240, 246 (2d Cir.1980) (If the injury is reasonably foreseeable, however, even if rare, the seller cannot rely on its history of good fortune to exempt itself from liability.). As a matter of law, we cannot hold it so unforeseeable that dermal paraquat exposure could lead to serious lung disease and death that Chevron was insulated from any duty to warn against such a possibility. 33 Chevron also claims that all cases of dermal paraquat exposure producing serious injury were accompanied by skin lesions which were present either before or after the injury. Ferebee's skin was admittedly intact before exposure and he testified in deposition that he never experienced a rash or any form of cracking or burning sensation. It is unclear whether Chevron raises this point to negate causation or foreseeability, but in either case, the point is unpersuasive. If the argument goes to causation, it is again answered by credible expert testimony that paraquat did cause Mr. Ferebee's injuries. If Chevron's argument instead is that it had no notice that paraquat exposure to intact skin could lead to serious injury, that argument is belied by the numerous cases in which paraquat absorption through previously intact skin led to nearly immediate death. See supra pp. 1537-1538. Accordingly, Chevron cannot, by pointing to the fact that Ferebee's skin was intact at the time of exposure, avoid the jury's conclusion that the company knew or should have known that dermal exposure to paraquat could cause serious lung disease or death. 34