Court Opinion

ID: 9845882
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:29:59.011896+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:24.324038
License: Public Domain

ARNOLD, Judge.
Plaintiff and amicus curiae argue that contributory negligence should not have been available as a defense in this action, and that defendant should have been held strictly liable. It has long been the rule in North Carolina, however, that a manufacturer’s duty to those who use his product is tested by the law of negligence. See Corprew v. Chemical Corp., 271 N.C. 485, 157 S.E. 2d 98 (1967); Wilson v. Hardware, Inc., 259 N.C. 660, 131 S.E. 2d 501 (1963); Fowler v. General Electric Co., 40 N.C. App. 301, 252 S.E. 2d 862 (1979). Any decision that a manufacturer be held strictly liable for injuries resulting from a defect in product design would be a matter of public policy to be decided by the legislature.
Plaintiff also assigns error to the charge to the jury. He argues first that the court erred in failing to give his requested instructions nos. 18 and 19. As to no. 19 we find no error, since there was no evidence to support such an instruction. The plaintiff himself testified that he volunteered to unclog the fine *425opener, and his supervisor testified that it was not plaintiffs job to take care of wrap-ups on the fine opener. The evidence, therefore, would not support an instruction that plaintiff was acting at his employer’s bidding at the time he was injured.
Requested instruction No. 18 would have called to the jury’s attention certain of the surrounding circumstances they could have considered in determining whether plaintiff was con-tributorily negligent, e.g., plaintiff’s age at the time as well as his experience at Carolina Mills, and his knowledge of the fine opener machine. We find no error in the court’s failure to give the instruction as requested, since the parts of No. 18 which the jury could appropriately consider were given in substance in the court’s charge. See 12 Strong’s N.C. Index 3d, Trial § 38.1.
In his next argument plaintiff asserts that the court erred by instructing the jury that the product may be improperly and materially altered, or improperly maintained, by the purchaser so as to relieve the manufacturer of liability for an injury resulting from such improper alteration or maintenance. Plaintiff’s position is that such a material alteration or improper maintenance would be a defense by the manufacturer to an action brought by the purchaser of the machine, or product, but not as to this plaintiff, the user of the machine. The instruction, according to plaintiff, gave defendant manufacturer the improper defense of contributory negligence by the purchaser.
The contested statement of law by the court is correct. Moreover, it was given during the charge as to negligence, an issue which was answered in plaintiff’s favor, not contributory negligence. Thus, no prejudicial error to plaintiff can be discerned.
We do not find that the trial court expressed an opinion or incorrectly summarized the evidence in his charge, as plaintiff contends in his arguments 6 and 9. Nor do we find any prejudicial error in plaintiff’s remaining assignments of error.
No error.
Judge Webb concurs.
Judge WELLS dissents.