Court Opinion

ID: 9710513
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:11:03.501636+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:57.289099
License: Public Domain

DEL SOLE, Judge,
dissenting:
Because I believe the majority has incorrectly decided issues pertaining to the admissibility of evidence, I dissent.
In this case, Husband was injured while operating a machine manufactured by Appel-lee. Husband admits that he never read the operator’s manual, but Appellants attempted to have the manual admitted into evidence. The trial court refused concluding the manual’s description of the machine’s operation was irrelevant. Husband was cross-examined concerning the warning posted on the side of the machine alerting operators to read the operator’s manual. Husband denied concern for the fact that his employer never gave him the manual to read. Then, Appellants tried to have the contents of the manual admitted into evidence and the trial court denied the request. Although Appellants’ expert testified that the lack of an interlocking safety switch made the product unsafe, Appellants were precluded from introducing evidence of a subsequent modification incorporating such a switch into the design of the machine. The jury specifically found that the machine was not defective.
First, I do not believe that the trial court erred in excluding the manual from evidence because plaintiff testified he never read it. In fact, I agree with the trial court that under the circumstances, the operator’s manual is irrelevant.
*416The law furnishes no test of relevancy, but tacitly refers it to logic and general experience. Evidence is admissible which tends to make the fact at issue more or less probable or intelligible or to show the origin and history of the transaction between the parties and explain its character. Gregg v. Fisher, 377 Pa. 445, 454, 105 A.2d 105, 110 (1954). Relevant evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice or confusion. Sprague v. Walter, 441 Pa.Super. 1, 656 A.2d 890 (1995).
A trial judge has broad discretion regarding the admission of potentially misleading or confusing evidence. Id. The trial court’s function in determining whether to admit potentially misleading or confusing evidence is to balance the alleged prejudicial effect of that evidence against its probative value, and it is not for the appellate court to usurp that function; “prejudice,” for purposes of this rule, does not mean detrimental to a party’s case, but rather, undue tendency to suggest a decision on an improper basis. Id.
The majority concludes that Appellants should have been permitted to introduce the operator’s manual to prove that reading the manual would not have prevented the accident. However, that is not - the issue in this case. Rather, in this case, liability rests if there is a defect in the product which caused injury to the user. Introduction of the operator’s manual is not probative of whether the product was defective. Nor was there any dispute that the machine lacked an interlock switch. Given this evidence, the jury specifically found that there was no defect in the machine.
Likewise, I am convinced the majority is in error regarding the admissibility of the subsequent design addition of the interlock device. The majority concludes that the trial court erred in failing to allow Appellants to introduce evidence of the later modification to the machine.
Because defectiveness is determined at the time of distribution, evidence of a subsequent change to the machine is irrelevant. There was considerable expert testimony presented by Appellants concerning the status of the product at the time the product left the hands of the distributor. Appellants’ expert testified that it was technologically feasible at the time of manufacture for Appellee to have made the machine safer by incorporating an interlock device into the machine. The argument was rendered that the lack of the interlock made the machine defective. See N.T. 7/12 & 13/1995, pp. 306-316. Since the question of feasibility of the interlock device was exhaustively presented to the jury, the subsequent design modification is irrelevant to the issue before the court.
The majority confuses the facts and issue by stating: “The fact that appellee later incorporated the interlock was a subsequent repair that should have been admitted in this products liability action under the general rule announced in Matsko.” Opinion at p. 414. However, the true facts establish that there was no subsequent repair to the machine, but instead a subsequent change in product design. This court in Connelly v. Roper Corp., 404 Pa.Super. 67, 590 A.2d 11 (1991) distinguished the Matsko case from subsequent design change cases stating that in Matsko the “issue was not design changes to the unit, but post-accident manufacturer recall of the unit which injured plaintiff.” Id. 590 A.2d at 13. Consequently, the majority’s reliance upon Matsko is misplaced. Rather, I, like the trial court, would follow this court’s decision in Connelly and hold that where a plaintiff establishes that relevant safety features were available at the time of a product’s sale, subsequent design improvements made after the sale of the product are not relevant on the question of the existence of a defect in a products liability case. Here, Appellants were not prevented from showing that the interlock device was available when the machine was sold. The only limitation imposed by the trial court was that Appellants could not present evidence of the subsequent addition of the interlock device to the product design.
Finally, in its analysis the majority has failed to establish that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to admit the operator’s manual and the addition of the interlock device into evidence. Nor has the majority shown that the trial court exercised judgment that was manifestly unreasonable, or *417the result of partiality, prejudice, bias, or ill-will. Commonwealth v. Claypool, 508 Pa. 198, 495 A.2d 176 (1985). Commonwealth v. Lane, 492 Pa. 544, 424 A.2d 1325 (1981). Therefore, I believe the trial court’s decision to exclude the operator’s manual and the subsequent design modification should be affirmed.