Opinion ID: 163802
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other warning-defect claims

Text: 38 We discuss together Plaintiff's remaining warning-defect claims. Three claims relate to the absence of safety structures which, according to Plaintiff, would prevent unrestrained objects from falling off loaders onto tractor operators. Deere has identified a fundamental shortcoming in these claims—Plaintiff understood the dangers associated with using a front-end loader to transport unrestrained objects. Deere points out, for example, that Plaintiff conceded in his deposition that he knew that if an unrestrained large round bale were lifted in the air, it could roll backwards onto the operator. Further, Plaintiff was familiar with available safety features that guard against the risk of falling objects. These features include not only canopy structures over the tractor, but also equipment such as bale grapples and bale spears, which secure hay bales onto front-end loaders. Given that [t]here is no duty to warn of dangers actually known to the user of a product, Long, 715 P.2d at 1029 (internal quotation marks omitted), Deere contends that it had no duty to warn Plaintiff of the need for protection against falling objects. We agree with Deere and affirm summary judgment in favor of Deere with respect to these three warning-defect claims. 39 The same fate befalls Plaintiff's claim that Deere failed to warn of the need for self-leveling on the front end loader. App., Vol. I, at 30. Plaintiff understood that the loader bucket should be kept level as the loader is raised, in order to prevent the load from becoming unstable and falling. The loader was no more dangerous in this respect than Plaintiff thought it was, so there was no duty to warn him. Kansas law does not require a manufacturer to advise of the availability of a new safety feature when the danger alleviated by the feature is apparent. Plaintiff asserts that he did not see the need for self-leveling, because he did not know that the loader might elevate itself. But this assertion supports only his self-raising warning-defect claim. There was no need for an additional warning regarding self-leveling. See Long, 715 P.2d at 1029.