Court Opinion

ID: 9678483
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:21:02.062234+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:04.900205
License: Public Domain

CAMPBELL, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result, but the future consequences of certain expressions and pronouncements in the majority opinion compel me to express my dissent.
General Motors’ contention that the trial court erred in failing to include in its definition of unreasonably dangerous both alternatives of the so-called bifurcated definition should be unequivocally rejected by a simple declaration of the obvious, unassailable principle that when a finding of either of two alternatives supports a ground of recovery or defense, the party asserting such ground of recovery or defense has the unquestionable right to waive a finding of either of the alternatives and rely solely on the other. To intimate possible error in this regard by resort to the harmless error rule can only result in confusion of the bar and bench.
In overruling this Court’s prior decisions by discarding the Restatement’s definition of unreasonably dangerous, the majority opinion fails to give due cognizance to the underlying policy and purpose of strict liability in tort, merges strict liability into negligence liability, and for all practical purposes abolishes strict liability in tort as to defective design. Liability for negligence is imposed for violation of a legal duty to exercise the care of an ordinary prudent person under the same or similar circumstances. Strict liability in tort of a manufacturer who places a defective product in the stream of commerce is imposed, not for violation of a duty to exercise due care, but because public policy favors imposition of the burden of a defective product upon the manufacturer instead of the consumer. The public interest in human safety requires the maximum possible protection for the user of the product; the manufacturer is in a better position to know the potential dangers in the product and test for and guard against same while the consumer generally must and does rely on the manufacturer’s skill, knowledge and warnings of unexpected dangers; and, generally the manufacturer is in a better position to bear the loss from a faultless but dangerous product than is the consumer. James, General Products — Should Manufacturers Be Liable Without Negligence?, 24 Tenn.L.Rev. 923 (1957); Prosser, The Fall of the Citadel (Strict Liability to the Consumer), 50 Minn. L.Rev. 791 (1966); Keeton, Products Liability — Some Observations About Allocation of Risks, 64 Mich.L.-Rev. 1329 (1966). This Court recognized the distinction between the theories of negligence and strict liability by stating in Gonzales v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., 571 S.W.2d 867, 871 (Tex.1978):
*854“ . . . The care taken by the supplier of a product in its preparation, manufacture, or sale, is not a consideration in strict liability; this is, however, the ultimate question in a negligence action. Strict liability looks at the product itself and determines if it is defective. Negligence looks at the acts of the manufacturer and determines if it exercised ordinary care in design and production.”
The Restatement’s definition also recognizes this distinction by focusing solely on the contemplation of danger by the consumer without any implication of the manufacturer’s contemplation or considerations. Apart from causation, the only finding necessary for strict liability under the Restatement is that the product was dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by the ordinary consumer who purchases it, with the ordinary knowledge common to the community as to its characteristics. The Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A. This simply means, that by reason of the manufacturer’s superior knowledge of a product’s characteristics, if a danger beyond the contemplation of the ordinary consumer exists, the manufacturer must alter the product or warn the user to the extent necessary to bring such danger within his contemplation. When a jury is merely asked if a product, its condition or design is unreasonably dangerous, without the above definition, the question can only be interpreted by a jury to mean “more dangerous than it would have been had the manufacturer acted as a prudent manufacturer.” Such is even more conclusive when specific negligence issues are also submitted because reasonable care is defined as “the care which a person of ordinary prudence would use under like circumstances.” Edmiston v. Texas & N. O. R. Co., 135 Tex. 67, 138 S.W.2d 526 (1940). This is made even more obvious by the majority’s instruction, that is a part of the definition, “taking into consideration the utility of the product and the risk involved in its use.” Utility, risk, economics, etc., are mere evidence on the issue of a manufacturer’s negligence in marketing the product or failing to remove or lessen the danger therein, and to instruct the jury to consider such evidentiary factors compels the jury to determine the issue solely on fault or non-fault of the manufacturer. Furthermore, such instruction by implied exclusion limits the jury’s evidentia-ry consideration solely to utility and risk and by reason of the clause “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence” the jury will usually decide the case on whether utility outweighs the risk. Though a product bears a danger that could be removed for a few pennies, its use would generally outweigh the risk.
I would not merge strict liability of a manufacturer into a mere negligence issue but would maintain the distinction between these two separate theories of liability as has the Restatement and our prior decisions in McKisson v. Sales Affiliates, 416 S.W.2d 787 (Tex.1967); Darryl v. Ford Motor Company, 440 S.W.2d 630 (Tex.1969); Pittsburg Coca Cola v. Ponder, 443 S.W.2d 546 (Tex.1969); Crocker v. Winthrop Lab., 514 S.W.2d 429 (Tex.1974); General Motors v. Simmons, 558 S.W.2d 855 (Tex.1977); Miller v. Bock Laundry, 568 S.W.2d 648 (Tex.1978); Armstrong Rubber v. Urquidez, 570 S.W.2d 374 (Tex.1978); Gonzales v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., 571 S.W.2d 867 (Tex. 1978); Signal Oil & Gas v. Universal Oil Products, 572 S.W.2d 320 (Tex.1978). In my opinion no satisfactory reasons have been advanced to support our departure from these decisions.
The bifurcated definition of unreasonably dangerous pronounced by this Court in General Motors Corp. v. Hopkins, 548 S.W.2d 344 (Tex.1977), improperly permits the jury to find negligence or strict liability in one disjunctive question and I agree with the majority that such definition should be expressly overruled.
Lastly, the majority opinion states its new form of jury submission to be hereafter effective in the trial of design defect strict liability cases but does not state whether the new method of submission shall apply or not apply to other factual situations within the former ambit of strict liability in tort. Such ambiguity will place practitioners and jurists in a state of limbo *855in the trial of all strict liability cases having alleged defects in addition to or other than those of design. The form of submission given by the trial court in this case, in exact conformity to that of The Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A, was authored to cover and does in fact cover every factual situation within the purview of strict liability in tort and should be declared by this Court to be the proper submission in Texas.
For the above reasons, I dissent from the respected views of the majority as to the stated particulars.
SAM D. JOHNSON, J., joins in this concurring opinion.