Court Opinion

ID: 9722763
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:49:31.555181+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:39.826752
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
The grain drying machine manufactured by defendant-appellee was designed and constructed so as to operate in conjunction with auxiliary loading and unloading equipment. In fact, the drying machine is useless unless operated in tandem with such other equipment, as without it, it would simply dump grain out onto the ground. *839The machine is therefore equipped with an electrical control box which is designed to govern the operation of auxiliary equipment. The machine and its auxiliary equipment can be operated in either an automatic or manual mode. The design of the circuitry in this control box is such that when auxiliary unloading equipment such as the elevator which came on without warning and cut off the plaintiff’s leg is connected to proscribed terminals on the box, and the drying machine is being operated in the automatic mode, a signal is sent out to the auxiliary equipment to start up without also sending out a signal that the machine is in the automatic mode. Whether the absence of a warning device of this sort rendered the drying machine defective as unreasonably dangerous, and whether plaintiff who was operating an auxiliary elevator when it suddenly and unexpectedly started up was within the class of persons that the defendant manufacturer should have reasonably foreseen as being subject to the harm were questions which should have been submitted to the jury.
I would therefore reverse and remand for a new trial.