Opinion ID: 765768
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The district court's six-part prima facie case

Text: 33 Citing Owens, Prentis, and Reeves, the district court characterized the Michigan law on design defect as requiring Hollister to produce evidence that shows: 34
35 (2). that the likelihood of occurrence of her injury was foreseeable by the manufacturer at the time of distribution of the product; 36 (3). that there was a reasonable alternative design available; 37 (4). that the available alternative design was practicable; 38 (5). that the available and practicable reasonable alternative design would have reduced the foreseeable risk of harm posed by defendant's product; and 39 (6). that omission of the available and practicable reasonable alternative design rendered defendant's product not reasonably safe. 40 Hollister argues on appeal that this test held her to a higher burden than the risk-utility test employed by the Michigan courts. In particular, she states that Michigan's analysis is, in fact, no more than a complicated way of expressing the concept of reasonable care. Although it is true that the Michigan risk-utility test is a way of determining whether manufacturers exercise reasonable care in their design decisions, it is also true that Hollister had to meet the requirements set forth in Owens, Prentis, and Reeves in order to survive summary judgment. 41 Our review of the district court's test and its opinion leads us to the conclusion that the district court laid out the same elements of a prima facie design-defect case that the Michigan courts require. Steps one and two of the district court's test--the foreseeability of serious injury and the likelihood that injury would occur-- simply restate the following language in Reeves: a showing of . . . the likelihood of occurrence of the type of accident . . . and the severity of injuries sustainable from such an accident. 439 N.W.2d at 329. 42 Steps three, four, and five required Hollister to present evidence that a reasonable design alternative was available, that it was practicable, and that it would have reduced the risk of the accident at issue in the case. These requirements simply reiterate the second half of the Reeves test, requiring a showing of alternative safety devices and whether those devices would have been effective as a reasonable means of minimizing the foreseeable risk of danger. Id. 43 Step six, stating that the product must be unreasonably dangerous without the alternative design that was available and practicable, expresses the requirement in Owens that the absence of the alternative design be the cause of the injuries. See Owens, 326 N.W.2d at 379 (holding that the plaintiff had failed to show the reasonableness of requiring a seatbelt in part because there was no evidence that it was practicable for forklift drivers to use a seatbelt in performing their tasks). We therefore conclude that the district court applied the correct test in adjudicating Dayton-Hudson's motion for summary judgment. 44 C. Hollister failed to establish a prima facie case of design defect 45 Hollister's case basically rests upon the test conducted by Dr. Hall in which the exemplar fabric and 14 other fabric samples were dragged across a burner set at between 1106 and 1160 degrees. Dayton-Hudson points out that a General Electric engineer stated that the stove in Hollister's apartment would burn at between 1500 and 1800 degrees when on the high setting (where it was set at the time the paramedics entered Hollister's apartment). Hollister states that Dayton-Hudson'sexpert was talking about new stoves, and that a used stove such as that in Hollister's apartment might burn at a lower temperature. She provides no support for this assertion, however, nor any justification for failing to conduct the test at the higher temperature. 46 In the absence of conditions more like those in Hollister's apartment, the utility of Dr. Hall's test is questionable. Because it was unknown at the close of discovery whether the alternative fabrics would burn on contact with a much hotter burner, it is impossible to say whether such fabrics would have reduced the risk of the accident at issue here. According to Dayton-Hudson, for example, wool has an ignition temperature of over 1,100 degrees, which is right at the upper limit of Dr. Hall's test. As the district court noted, Hollister's own expert stated that he could not articulate the exact effect on flammability of the changes Hollister claims would make the shirt safer. Although he asserted that changing the denier thread thickness of the fabric would have made it less flammable, Dr. Hall said that he would need a crystal ball to predict the extent of the change on flammability. 47 Furthermore, the district court correctly concluded that Hollister had presented no evidence whatsoever as to the availability of alternative fabrics when the shirt was manufactured, the cost of manufacturing the shirt with such fabrics, or the effect of a fabric change upon the wearability, durability, or appearance of the fabric. Hollister's failure to submit such evidence is similar to the situation in Owens, where the plaintiff offered no information as to the practicability of a seatbelt on a forklift. See 326 N.W.2d at 379. 48 In fact, Dr. Hall never presented a proposed alternative design at all, because he never specified the construction details of an alternative shirt. His only recommendation was that the weight of the fabric be heavier. Therefore, as a practical matter, there is no proposed alternative to compare to the shirt that Hollister wore at the time of the accident. 49 The lack of a specific proposed alternative is particularly damaging to Hollister's case in light of Dr. Hall's test results. Fabric B in the test, a 100% rayon sample that was heavier than the exemplar fabric, burned as quickly as the exemplar. Fabric C, a second 100% rayon sample that was heavier than the exemplar but lighter than fabric B, did not even ignite. Without exact weight specifications for the proposed alternative shirt, it is therefore impossible to determine the effect that an alternative fabric would have upon flammability. 50 Because Hollister failed to establish a nexus between the manufacturer's choice of fabric and the injury, or the practicability of an alternative fabric, she was unable to demonstrate that the shirt was not reasonably safe. Her burden was all the greater because, as previously stated, the exemplar fabric actually passed the federal flammability test set forth in 16 C.F.R. 1610. She therefore failed to make out a prima facie case of design defect under Michigan law. 51 D. The district court's evaluation of other factors was inconsistent with Michigan law 52 Rather than rest its decision solely on Hollister's failure to meet requirements 3 through 6 of Michigan's risk-utility test, the district court also ruled against her on the alternate grounds of severity (requirement 1), foreseeability (requirement 2), the open and obvious danger doctrine (one of Dayton-Hudson's affirmative defenses), and the alleged misuse of the shirt (another Dayton-Hudson affirmative defense). Because the district court's opinion was published, see 5 F.Supp. 2d 530 (E.D. Mich 1998), and because we find that its rulings on these alternate grounds were erroneous under the circumstances of the case before us, we discuss each of them below. 1. Severity 53 In Part VI.A.1. of its opinion, the district court erred in concluding, as a matter of law, that the severity of Hollister's injuries from a burning shirt was not foreseeable. A 1985 report of the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) states that [o]ver one third of all clothing-related burn victims were hospitalized. This fact becomes dramatic when compared to the 4 percent hospitalization rate for all consumer product-related injuries . . . and the 8 percent reported for all burn injuries. Furthermore, Hollister presented evidence that the fabric in question would ignite on contact with an electric burner and be consumed within seconds. In addition to the test comparing strips of fabric, her videotape shows the flames shooting above the shoulders of an exemplar shirt that her expert burned in its entirety. 54 In Zettle, a panel of this court noted that once the plaintiff had demonstrated a risk of electrocution in the use of a pressure washer, passing the severity test was easier because a likely result of severe electric shock is death. See 998 F.2d at 363. Similarly, incurring severe burns is a likely result of being engulfed in flames. Hollister's demonstration that the shirt would burn quickly, coupled with the CPSC's report on hospitalization from clothing burns, creates a question of fact for the jury on the foreseeability of severity. 2. Foreseeability 55 In Part VI.A.2. of its opinion, the district court erred in concluding, as a matter of law, that the likelihood of Hollister's injury was not foreseeable. Hollister presented the 1985 CPSC report setting forth statistics on injuries resulting from apparel catching fire. The report specifically indicates that kitchen ranges are a common ignition source in accidents involving burning apparel. In fact, the report refers to precisely the type of accident in which Hollister was involved: 56 Kitchen ranges were the second most common ignition source. Ignition occurred most frequently when adults were leaning against or reaching across a range while wearing shirts/blouses, when children were climbing on or playing with ranges while wearing pajamas, and when elderly women were cooking while wearing robes or housecoats. 57 Also included in the report are statistics showing the number of injuries, by age group, that result from shirts' igniting on stove tops. In concluding that Hollister had not presented sufficient evidence regarding the magnitude of the risk involved, the district court noted that the CPSC report was from 1985, four to five years prior to the purchase of the shirt. It did not explain, however, why the date of the report invalidates it as evidence. The district court then analyzed the statistics contained therein and concluded that there would only be 123 injuries per year in Hollister's age group that might match the severity of the injury that she incurred. It concluded, without citation or explanation, that these are small numbers indeed. The district court thus judged the sufficiency of the evidence presented, which is properly a question for the jury, not the court. See Zettle, 998 F.2d at 360.