Court Opinion

ID: 9664091
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:02:45.291854+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:02.039434
License: Public Domain

OTIS, Justice
(dissenting).
I cannot agree that a manufacturer may be held liable for the willful, intentional and calculated risk taking of a mature and intelligent adult who was, or should have been, fully aware of the dangers to which he was exposed. This plaintiff was seriously injured when he ignored all of the conspicuous warnings with which he was familiar and refused to follow the manufacturer’s directions.
It is impossible to design a safety device which is so foolproof it cannot be circumvented by an ingenious and impatient operator. We are not here considering an injury to an immature and inexperienced or illiterate farmer. As my brother Kennedy points out, plaintiff was “24 years of age, familiar with the harvester from having used it many times over a couple of years at least, and aware of the warnings on the harvester and in the manual.” Even if plaintiff had not seen and read the warnings to “Keep away from rolls unless power is off * * * Be careful * * * When mechanism becomes clogged, disconnect before cleaning * * * Keep hands, feet and clothing away from power-driven parts”, it is difficult to imagine a more obvious danger than exposed rollers with teeth rotating at 46⅜ inches per second.
We have a duty to impose some limits on a manufacturer’s obligation to prevent foolhardy behavior. It is one thing to anticipate latent dangers lurking in the use of unfamiliar and potentially dangerous equipment by unsophisticated householders or children who are by nature curious. It is quite another to anticipate and prevent those who have had long experience with inherently dangerous machines from deliberately risking life and limb by ignoring open and obvious hazards in order to save a few moments of their time.
The effect of this proposed decision is to relieve the user of dangerous equipment from responsibility for his own safety if he can show (a) that it is more convenient to take the risk than to avoid it, and (b) that the manufacturer did not produce a machine which made it impossible for the user to outwit the engineers who designed the built-in safety devices.
To hold that a manufacturer is liable for failing to anticipate every misuse or abuse of its product imposes an impossible burden on industry which I cannot endorse.
I would hold that plaintiff’s degree of comparative negligence exceeded that of defendant as a matter of law and would reverse.