Opinion ID: 776872
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Jarvis's Proof of Negligent Design

Text: 36 The district court erred in requiring proof of a specific defect in the Aerostar's cruise control and in not considering Jarvis's circumstantial evidence of a defect. The malfunction in the design of the Aerostar that Jarvis has alleged is that it suddenly accelerated, opening full throttle without Jarvis depressing the accelerator pedal, and that her efforts to stop the vehicle by pumping the brakes were unavailing. If Jarvis's six-day-old Aerostar performed in this manner, a jury could reasonably conclude that it was defective when put on the market by Ford, and that the defect made it reasonably certain that the vehicle would be dangerous when put to normal use, as required by the first two elements of the jury charge regarding negligent design. Although Ford argued that the accident was caused instead by driver error, this theory would have been rejected if the jury had believed Jarvis's testimony that she had her feet on the brake and not on the accelerator, as Ford claimed. The final element of the negligence charge asking whether Ford breached its duty of care, required a balancing of the likelihood of harm, and the gravity of harm if it happens, against the burden of the precaution which would be effective to avoid the harm. Micallef, 384 N.Y.S.2d 115, 348 N.E.2d at 577. Construing the evidence in Jarvis's favor and crediting her version of events, a reasonable jury could find that Ford breached its duty of care. Even accepting as true that sudden acceleration in the 1991 Aerostar would occur, at most, very infrequently when measured against all Aerostar ignition starts, the consequences of sudden acceleration could easily be catastrophic, the design of which Jarvis complains has no particular utility to balance its potential for harm, and, according to Jarvis's expert, the malfunction in the cruise control could be avoided by an inexpensive switch that would shut off power to the cruise control when not in use. 37 A different case would be presented if Jarvis had been found unconscious in her overturned Aerostar, with no memory of or witnesses to the accident. In such a case, Jarvis would have to rely more heavily upon scientific evidence to demonstrate that the accident was caused by sudden acceleration. Our decision in Fane v. Zimmer, Inc., 927 F.2d 124 (2d Cir.1991), relied upon by the district court, makes this precise distinction. The plaintiff in Fane needed to show, at the very least, that the plaintiff's internal injuries occurred after a medical device implanted in the plaintiff's hip broke. Id. at 131. Unlike Jarvis's in accident, we noted in Fane that no one observed the accident in this case; and no one knows for sure how it happened. Id. Here, Jarvis offered testimony which a reasonable jury could believe to the effect that the Aerostar's sudden acceleration, not driver error, was the cause of her accident. 7