Court Opinion

ID: 9635949
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:10:58.730901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:39.374285
License: Public Domain

CROW, Presiding Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the portion of the scholarly principal opinion adjudicating Erickson’s appeal (18155). I respectfully dissent in the portion adjudicating Plaintiff’s appeal (18157). To me, the cases on which Plaintiff relies to support his contention that he made a submissible case against Erickson for punitive damages are too dissimilar to be persuasive here.
In Menaugh v. Resler Optometry, Inc., 799 S.W.2d 71 (Mo. banc 1990), an optometry company allowed an unlicensed person to provide optometric care that only a licensed optometrist could legally render. That was the basis for the holding by the Supreme Court of Missouri that a jury could find conduct manifesting complete indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of others. Id. at 73.
As observed in the principal opinion, nothing in the instant case suggests a mechanic installing a Roper pump is required to be licensed. Friggle had been an Erickson mechanic seven years when he installed Nikki’s pump. He had started at grade “C” and risen to grade “B.” He testified without contradiction that he had installed “around 15” pumps. Plaintiff directs us to no evidence indicating Friggle installed any pump incorrectly except Nikki’s.
In Blum v. Airport Terminal Services, Inc., 762 S.W.2d 67 (Mo.App.1988), the 18-year-old employee had received only one week of training in fueling aircraft instead of the customary two. The night he made the fatal error was his first on duty alone. Id. at 69. The training he had received did not include instruction about the catastrophic effect of putting jet fuel in piston aircraft. Additionally, the safety checklist and instructions furnished him mentioned nothing about preventing misfueling, even though it had been a recognized problem in aviation for many years. Id. at 74.
Here, as noted above, Friggle was an experienced mechanic who had evidently installed some 15 similar pumps without mishap. While he did not run a post-installation test to determine whether the pressure relief device functioned properly, he did run the pump to ensure it worked (which it did).
Stojkovic v. Weller, 802 S.W.2d 152 (Mo. banc 1991), cited by Plaintiff, involved a drunken driver who ran a red light at a busy intersection, caused an accident, then fled the scene. No such criminal conduct exists here.
Schroeder v. Lester E. Cox Medical Ctr., 833 S.W.2d 411 (Mo.App.1992), also cited by Plaintiff, is discussed in detail in the principal opinion. What appears there need not be repeated. However, there are significant differences between Schroeder and the instant case.
In Schroeder, a pharmacist used an instrument to prepare a vital medication for a patient undergoing heart surgery. The manufacturer’s manual cautioned the operator to observe the instrument to make sure an adequate fluid transfer occurred. Instead, the pharmacist performed other tasks while the instrument was preparing the medication. Had the pharmacist watched the instrument, she would have seen the malfunction, thereby preventing the fatality.
Here, Friggle was not operating an instrument that produced a critical medication for a surgical patient. He was installing a mechanical device on a tractor. *749There is no evidence he gave the task anything other than his full attention or best effort, or that he slighted the job in haste to finish it. While he did not read instruction manuals before installing pumps, he had read “specifics” in the manuals and had received oral instructions on how to put them on.
The facts here are closer to Sledge v. Town & Country Tire Centers, Inc., 654 S.W.2d 176 (Mo.App.1983). A mechanic, in replacing rear axle bearings on a motor vehicle, failed to pack some of them with grease. This caused excessive heating of the axle, which resulted in it breaking. The vehicle left the highway and crashed, injuring a passenger. She sued, recovering actual and punitive damages. On appeal, the Eastern District of this Court reversed the punitive damages, saying:
[The passenger] bases [her] argument upon the knowledge of the mechanic that improper lubrication could result in overheating and axle breakage and that with such knowledge he failed to consult a manual which gave the correct method of lubrication of this vehicle. But the only evidence in the record is that the mechanic believed, from his experience and from his visual inspection of the axle and bearings that the method he utilized was the correct one. His actual or constructive knowledge that injury could occur if he was negligent was an element of defendant’s duty. It does not supply the knowing violation of that duty necessary to support punitive damages. The mechanic utilized a method he believed to be correct; he was negligent in so doing but he did not knowingly act improperly nor was he indifferent to or in conscious disregard of plaintiffs safety.
654 S.W.2d at 182.
Plaintiff asserts Erickson's mechanics should have discovered the improper positioning of the pressure relief device when Plaintiff reported difficulties with the pump prior to the accident.
Plaintiff testified that the first time he used the pump to unload liquid cargo, the “overclamps on the hose connectors were trying to vibrate open.” He reported this to Erickson and was told to “wire them down.”
The second time he used the pump, Plaintiff experienced the same problem. He took the tractor to Erickson’s shop, where mechanics installed a “bleed valve” on the pump. Plaintiff maintains that in doing so, the mechanics should have noticed the pressure relief device was “backwards.”
While the failure to detect the improper positioning of the pressure relief device may have constituted negligence, we fail to see how the oversight demonstrates complete indifference to, or conscious disregard for, Plaintiff’s safety. On the contrary, the evidence manifests a good faith effort to correct the problem Plaintiff reported about the pump. Asked the mechanics’ explanation for installing the bleed valve, Plaintiff testified:
... they thought maybe when you open the rear valves on the tank and you allow product into your hoses, that pushes a volume of air up to the pump, that it might be air locking the pump, and if you open the bleed valve you could bleed the air out until you got product and then shut it off and you wouldn’t have any air.
While the bleed valve was the wrong remedy, it was nonetheless a conscientious attempt to solve the problem.
In sum, the evidence demonstrates Frig-gle made a mistake in positioning the pressure relief device on the pump, and his error was not detected by other Erickson mechanics when they added the bleed valve.
In Menaugh, 799 S.W.2d at 75, the Supreme Court of Missouri cautioned:
... the uniform tenor of the recent eases is that punitive damages are to be the exception rather than the rule, and that they are to be confined to cases in which the evidence supports the award. The phraseology differs in different kinds of cases, but all depend on willful wrongdoing, or recklessness which is the legal equivalent of willfulness.
The trial court here heeded that message, obviously concluding no reasonable *750juror could convict Erickson of such culpability. I agree.
The principal opinion erodes the standard for punitive damages. The line separating conduct manifesting complete indifference to, or conscious disregard for, the safety of others (MAI 10.02 [1988 Revision]) from ordinary negligence is obliterated. Suers are encouraged to seek punitive damages from anyone who fails to exercise ordinary care. Trial courts are compelled to instruct the jury on punitive damages. If awarded, such damages will be insulated on appeal.
I would affirm the judgment in all respects.