Court Opinion

ID: 9716317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:34:12.37652+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:43.843989
License: Public Domain

Clifford, J.
(dissenting). With a nod in the direction of Scanlon v. General Motors Corp., 65 N. J. 582 (1974), the majority generously appraises today’s holding as “quite consistent” with that recent effort to restate our formulation of the strict liability in tort doctrine. While the implication is that Scanlon is alive and robust in the fourth month of its life, in reality that decision is left reeling from the wounds inflicted upon it by the Courts’ opinion. I cannot reconcile the two cases.
Here, as there, plaintiff sought to prove a specific defect. Having failed in that effort, he now relies, as did plaintiff in Scanlon, on the alleged malfunction of his automobile in order to show a defect at the time of the accident. This leaves him with the burden of proving that the unidentified defective condition existed while the vehicle was in the control of the defendant. Here, as there, he introduced no direct evidence to that effect but seeks the benefit of the inference, arising from “other evidence” or from his negating of other causes of the accident, that a dangerous condition existed while the defendant had control of the product. See Jakubowski v. Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing, 42 N. J. 177 (1964).
In that regard the following from Scanlon is instructive:
A motor vehicle is not a simple uncomplicated instrumentality. Its parts require periodic maintenance, minor adjustments and occasional major repairs or replacements. A nine-month old station wagon with 4000 miles on it is not the kind of product' as to which human experience tells us an accident such as the one in question does not generally occur in the absence of a defect existing in the hands of the manufacturer. Relating its expected life span, durability and effective operability without maintenance to the age and prior usage of the Scanlon vehicle, we hold as a matter of substantive law that in the circumstances of this case the “other evidence” offered does not justify the drawing of an inference that any defect existed in the hands of the manufacturer or retailer.
*465It is equally clear that plaintiff failed to prove the defendant’s responsibility for the defect by the negation of the other most likely possible causes of the accident. He attempted to do so by means of the testimony of an expert who had not examined the product and who testified in response to a hypothetical question. Quite properly, that hypothetical question contained within it an asserted negation of several possible alternative causes of the accident which would be obvious to a layman, i. e., the ear was not properly maintained and operated. But assuredly other possible causes existed, and given the complex nature of the product, plaintiff should have been required further to outline and discount the most likely of these in focusing upon the specific defect which he embraced. [65 N. J. at 599-600].
The vehicle in question here was six months old with 11.000 miles of wear. If, as a matter of law, the critical inference cannot be drawn when the automobile is nine months old with 4,000 miles on it (the distance travelled is clearly more significant than a vehicle’s age), a fortiori it cannot arise as to plaintiff’s 11,000-mile Lincoln.
And if plaintiff’s effort in Scanlon to negate other causes of the alleged defect fell short of what is required for the reason, among others, that his expert failed to “outline and discount the most likely of these [other causes] in focusing upon the specific defect which he embraced,” then a fortiori where, as here, the experts did not even refer to any other possible causes, much less undertake to discount them, there is nothing for the jury to consider. This car had travelled 5.000 miles since its last dealer checkup. Whatever support the need to add power steering fluid may lend to the plaintiff’s theory of a specific defect in the power steering mechanism, it hardly suffices, either alone or taken with all the other circumstances, to take this case to the jury on the basis of plaintiff’s having negated “other causes of the failure of the product for which the defendant would not be responsible * * Jakubowski, supra, 42 N. J. at 184. Scanlon clearly implies a requirement of expert testimony for successful presentation of this theory in the case of a complex instrumentality such as a motor vehicle. 65 N. J. at 593-594. There was none on this issue in the case sub judice.
*466It is not inflexible devotion to precedent nor sterile application thereof which dictates my view of this case. I recognize that reappraisal and modification of established doctrine is required to the end that healthy development of our law may reflect a response to society’s ever-changing needs. Were there a persuasive reason to abandon our so recently reaffirmed principles in this area of the law, I would not hesitate to join in that venture — nor to rely, if necessary, on that old chestnut, “[t]he matter does not appear to me .now as it appears to have appeared to me then.” Bramwell, B., in Andrews v. Styrap, 26 L. T. R. (n. s.) 704, 706 (Ex. 1872). But the principles of Scanlon do appear to me now to be as valid as they were four months ago. Applying them here would lead me to reverse the Appellate Division and reinstate the judgment in favor of defendant-appellant.
Mountain, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.
P ashman, J., concurring in the result.
For affirmance• — -Chief Justice Hughes, Justices Jacobs, Sullivan, Pashman and Judge Coneord — 5.
For reversal — Justices Mountain and Clieeokd — 2.