Court Opinion

ID: 9847347
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:58:07.494202+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:07.589692
License: Public Domain

Dore, J.
(concurring) — I find that the trial court's refusal to give plaintiff's proposed instruction 10 was prejudicial error; however, because the case is being remanded for retrial, I concur.
Each party to a lawsuit is entitled to have his theories of the case given to the jury if evidence to support them has been presented. Egede-Nissen v. Crystal Mt., Inc., 93 Wn.2d 127, 606 P.2d 1214 (1980). Here, instructions given on products liability were 6, 12 and 13. None of these instructions informed the jury that defendants could be held liable under products liability law even though the *619manufacturer was free of all negligence in the manufacture and sale of its product. Lack of such an instruction prevented plaintiff from making a meaningful distinction for the jury between negligence and products liability.
Instructions 7 and 8 explained to the jury that defendants could be liable in negligence if they fell below the standard of care of the ordinary prudent person. There was no instruction, however, which informed the jury that this standard should not be carried over to consideration of plaintiff's products liability claim. Plaintiff's proposed instruction 10 would have remedied this problem as it provided:
You are instructed that a company that sells or supplies a product that is not reasonably safe in some manner for the user of said product, is subject to liability for harm thereby caused to the user. This law applies although the seller has exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale of the product.
Such an instruction, while not necessary where the jury is instructed only in products liability, becomes essential when both negligence and products liability theories are submitted to the jury. The reason being that the jury may become confused when both theories are presented:
[Instructing on both theories under these circumstances has a great potential for confusion. For the court must inform the jury, on the one hand, that they may find liability under strict tort principles, even though the manufacturer exercised reasonable care and complied with the prevailing knowledge and standards of the time, while on the other hand, the negligence theory requires the jury to be instructed that the manufacturer has breached a duty to plaintiff only where it knew or reasonably should have known of the particular hazard involved and failed to furnish adequate warning thereof.
Little v. PPG Indus., Inc., 19 Wn. App. 812, 821, 579 P.2d 940 (1978), aff'd as modified, 92 Wn.2d 118, 594 P.2d 911 (1979).
Without proposed instruction 10 the jury was incompletely instructed as to the necessity of a warning for the *620use of the Bobcat. A manufacturer has a duty to warn of dangers necessarily involved in the use of its product. See, e.g., Terhune v. A.H. Robins Co., 90 Wn.2d 9, 577 P.2d 975 (1978); Teagle v. Fischer & Porter Co., 89 Wn.2d 149, 570 P.2d 438 (1977). Here, the decedent was not given the instruction manual or oral instructions concerning the danger involved in raising the lift arms more than chest high. The only warnings printed on the Bobcat were (1) "carry LOAD LOW", (2) "FASTEN SEATBELT BEFORE OPERATING", and (3) "DO NOT LEAVE LOADER WITH ENGINE RUNNING OR LIFT arms raised." An important question for the jury was whether these warnings were adequate. See Haysom v. Coleman Lantern Co., 89 Wn.2d 474, 573 P.2d 785, 93 A.L.R.3d 86 (1978). Instruction 13 alone, in my view, did not make that clear to the jury. Instruction 13 stated that
A manufacturer, distributor and renter has a duty to warn of any condition which renders a product not reasonably safe for a foreseeable use. There is, however, no duty to warn of obvious or known dangers.
Where a warning is required, it must be adequate so that if followed, the product would be reasonably safe for use. The warning must be appropriate in view of the seriousness of any danger involved to reasonably advise of the consequences of improper use. Such a warning must be in a form which reasonably could be expected to catch the attention of, and to be understood by the ordinary user.
This instruction, without being supplemented by plaintiff's proposed instruction 10, is misleading because the jury is not told that the use of the Bobcat is unsafe without an adequate warning. Plaintiff's proposed instruction 10 would have clarified this confusing instruction. On retrial the trial court should instruct the jury on the substance of proposed instruction 10, to explain the differences between *621liability based on negligence as distinguished from products liability.
Brachtenbach, J., concurs with Dore, J.