Opinion ID: 1722787
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether Van Zetten Was Entitled to a Directed Verdict.

Text: In addition to its claim that there is no evidentiary support that it negligently designed the auger, Van Zetten contends that all other specifications of negligence against it which were submitted to the jury lacked evidentiary support. Based on this contention it argues that the trial court erred in not granting its motion for directed verdict at the close of the evidence. We disagree with this contention. One of the theories under which the claim against Van Zetten was submitted to the jury involved alleged negligence in failing to take reasonable steps to correct the mesh shield as a part of a factory recall program. Exhibits admitted without objection by Van Zetten included two letters to it from Westfield. The first letter advises that: You may have noted that grain augers have changed considerably over the past few years, especially in the area of safety shielding. This is due largely to groups such as OSHA, ASAE, and FIEI who have conducted studies relating to safety practices on the farm. We have... incorporated their recommended safety shields into our grain augers. .... It seems that now when an end user receives injuries on a grain auger, they will immediately sue anyone connected with the manufacture, sale, or assembly of said auger. It does not matter that the auger involved may be an older machine manufactured prior to the date when safety shielding was adopted by the industry as a whole. To avoid further lawsuits, our company has decided to make available safety shield packages for all augers sold ... since 1969. We will contact owners of Westfield augers ... offering safety packages at our cost price. This retrofit program will not only protect us but will also protect yourselves in possible future lawsuits .... What we need from you is the name and address of persons you have sold Westfield grain augers.... Please check your invoices and mail to us just as soon as possible the name and address of the customers for these augers. The president and general manager of Westfield testified that the foregoing letter was mailed to dealers in June of 1975. When Van Zetten did not respond to the above letter it was sent a follow up inquiry which stated: We wrote you sometime ago asking you for the name and addresses of persons who had purchased Westfield grain augers ... from your firm. To date we have not received your reply. To protect ourselves and our valued dealers, we are offering safety packages for Westfield augers sold in the past. Please forward a list of your customers' names and addresses for grain augers... sold by your firm.... We feel this is the best way to avoid costly lawsuits and also help keep liability insurance premiums down. Questions of negligence, contributory negligence, and proximate cause are ordinarily for the trier of fact and even when the facts are not in dispute, if reasonable minds might draw different inferences from the evidence a question of fact is engendered. Casey v. Koos, 323 N.W.2d 193, 198 (Iowa 1982); Meade v. Roller, 212 N.W.2d 426, 429 (Iowa 1973). Judged by this standard we believe the evidence in the present case presents a jury issue concerning Van Zetten's negligence. In viewing the evidence most favorably to the plaintiff we believe that the jury could have found that Van Zetten should have been alerted by these letters that there was some danger to the users of Westfield augers if they were utilized with the original safety shields. While the thrust of these letters was a warning against lawsuits, damage actions do not ordinarily occur in the absence of injuries sustained in the use of the product. The jury could find that a reasonably prudent dealer, in Van Zetten's situation, would have cooperated in the manufacturer's recall campaign in order to reduce a perceived risk to users of the product. We have recognized that the real basis of negligence is not carelessness, but behavior which should be recognized as involving an unreasonable danger to others. Rinkleff v. Knox, 375 N.W.2d 262, 268 (Iowa 1985); Evans v. Howard R. Green Co., 231 N.W.2d 907, 913 (Iowa 1975). The jury could infer that had Van Zetten supplied Guiter's name to Westfield this would have produced a chain of events resulting in a safety shield welded in place on the auger at the time it was sold to plaintiff's employer. We conclude that these several inferences, if drawn by the jury, are sufficient to support a finding that Van Zetten was negligent in failing to cooperate in the recall procedure and that such negligence was a proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries. The trial court did not err in denying Van Zetten's motion for directed verdict.