Court Opinion

ID: 9687620
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:39:32.091995+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:29.403292
License: Public Domain

TERNUS, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the majority opinion and agree that the judgment in favor of Massey-Ferguson should be affirmed. Although Hughes complains that the record did not support submission of a state-of-the-art defense, he did not object to the proposed state-of-the-art instruction. That instruction, I believe, was unnecessarily broad. I write separately to convey my belief that we should take this opportunity to more narrowly define “state of the art” in a way that distinguishes this affirmative defense from the elements of the plaintiffs ease.
State of the art is a confusing concept as one commentator has aptly pointed out:
And what about “state of the art”? “State of the art” is a chameleon-like term, referring to everything from ordinary customs of the trade to the objective existence of technological information to economic feasibility. Its meanings are so diverse and so easily confused that the wise course of action, I think, is to eschew its use completely.
John W. Wade, On the Effect in Product Liability of Knowledge Unavailable Prior to Marketing, 58 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 734, 750-51 (1983). The suggestion to abandon state of the art as a distinct concept is tempting. However, that alternative is not available to us in design defect cases because the legislature has codified state of the art as an affirmative defense in Iowa. See Iowa Code § 668.12 (1993).1
Section 668.12 is problematic for two reasons. First, it does not contain a definition of the term “state of the art.” Second, the statute makes state of the art an affirmative *299defense that the defendant must plead and prove. Thus, it is left to the court to define “state of the art” so as to give the defendant the benefit of this defense as envisioned by the legislature. However, at the same time we must be careful that we do not define the term so broadly that the affirmative defense subsumes the plaintiffs case, thereby shifting the burden of proof to the defendant.
I believe the majority has done just that. By injecting considerations of safety, economics and practicality into state of the art, this defense has become nearly indistinguishable from the concept of negligence or in the case of strict liability, the concept of unreasonably dangerous, elements we have traditionally required the plaintiff, not the defendant, to prove.
An understanding of this problem is most easily gained by first examining what the plaintiff must prove in a products liability case alleging a design defect.2 Although tibis-is a negligence case, I consider both negligence and strict liability theories since any definition of state of the art we use here would presumably apply in a strict liability case as well.
In proving liability under a negligence theory, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant failed to design the product “to be reasonably safe when used in a reasonably foreseeable manner.” Hillrichs v. Avco Corp., 514 N.W.2d 94, 97 (Iowa 1994) (emphasis added). Safety and any other factor reflecting on the reasonableness of the defendant’s conduct are components of the plaintiffs case under a negligence theory.
In proving liability under a strict liability theory, the plaintiff must prove that a design defect made the product unreasonably dangerous. Fell v. Kewanee Farm, Equipment Co., 457 N.W.2d 911, 918 (Iowa 1990). Proof of unreasonableness requires the jury to balance the utility of a product against the risk of its use. Id. In deciding whether the risks outweigh the utility, the jury may consider the availability of “a safer alternative design.” Chown v. USM Corp., 297 N.W.2d 218, 220-21 (Iowa 1980); Keith Miller, Design Defect Litigation in Iowa: The Myths of Strict Liability, 40 Drake L.Rev. 465, — (1991) (“One of the more critical factors courts consider in their design risk-utility analysis is proof an alternative product design is available.”). See Fell, 457 N.W.2d at 918 (fact question on unreasonably dangerous element of plaintiffs case generated in part by evidence that a safer design existed at the time the product was manufactured).
The Chown court’s definition of the unreasonably dangerous element is enlightening:
In a design case, the risk-utility analysis involves the balancing of “the gravity of the danger posed by the challenged design, the likelihood that such danger would occur, the mechanical feasibility of a safer alternative design, the financial cost of an improved design, and the adverse consequences to the product and to the consumer that would result from an alternative design.”
Chown, 297 N.W.2d at 220-21 (quoting Barker v. Lull Eng’g Co., 20 Cal.3d 413, 143 Cal.Rptr. 225, 237, 573 P.2d 443, 455 (1978) (emphasis added)). Thus, safety, economics and practicality are factors to be considered in determining whether the plaintiff has met plaintiffs burden of proof.
Here, the majority has incorporated these factors into the state-of-the-art defense. The majority relies on evidence that the suggested alternative design was not as safe as the defendant’s design, that the alternate design was impractical and made the product less functional and that the alternate design was costly. These considerations should more properly be factors in the plaintiffs case, not the defendant’s affirmative defense. The result of the majority’s analysis is that the burden of proof has effectively been shifted to the defendant.3
*300I suggest that we limit the scope of the state-of-the-art defense to minimize any overlap with the elements of the plaintiff’s case. The most effective way to prevent overlap is to define state of the art narrowly to mean the level of scientific and technical knowledge existing at the time the product was designed and manufactured. Gary C. Robb, A Practical Approach to the Use of State of the Art Evidence in Strict Products Liability Cases, 77 N.W.U.L.Rev. 1, 5-6 (1982). The defense would focus solely on the technological possibility of an alternate design.
If an alternate design is not technologically possible, it makes sense that the defendant would not be liable for failing to use a design that had not been invented or could not have been made. On the other hand, if an alternate design was possible under the then existing scientific and technical knowledge, the burden should shift to the plaintiff to prove that the defendant should have used the alternate design instead of the design actually used. This analysis, weighing the merits of the product’s design against the merits of the alternate design, is accomplished under the risk-benefit analysis used to determine whether the product is unreasonably dangerous. Our current test for unreasonably dangerous would be modified only slightly to remove as a factor “the mechanical feasibility of an alternative safer design.” The existence of an alternate design would already have been determined in the jury’s consideration of the defendant’s affirmative defense of state of the art. Whether the alternate design is a safer design would be part of the jury’s risk-benefit analysis when it considers “the adverse consequences to the product and the consumer that would result from an alternative design.”
In summary, under the approach I suggest, the court would first instruct the jury to consider the defendant’s state-of-the-art defense. To be successful, the defendant would have to prove that the alternate design suggested by the plaintiff was not possible under the scientific and technical knowledge existing at the time the product was designed and manufactured.4 If the defendant failed in this defense, then the jury would consider whether the plaintiff had proved that the advantages of the alternate design, already determined to be technologically possible, outweighed the disadvantages of the alternate design and should have been preferred over the design used by the defendant. This latter analysis would be made using the Chown factors for unreasonably dangerous as modified above.
Now we must determine the impact of this suggested analytical framework on this case. Hughes argues in substance that the evidence was insufficient to support a state-of-the-art defense because the defendant offered no proof that the alternate designs suggested by Hughes’ expert were not technologically feasible. Thus, Hughes is arguing for a narrow definition of state of the art.
The problem Hughes has in this case, however, is that he did not make this argument when the jury was instructed. Consequently, the jury was instructed that state of the art meant
what technologically and practically could have been done at the time of manufacture, based on the latest scientific knowledge and discoveries in the field, to design, manufacture, and market the combine in a manner that would have prevented the injuries while meeting the consumer’s needs.
(Emphasis added.) This broad definition goes beyond the consideration of mere scientific and technical knowledge. Hughes did not object to this instruction. Consequently, he cannot argue on appeal that the evidence was insufficient to support submission of the state-of-the-art defense as he now narrowly defines it. For this reason, I concur in the majority’s decision to affirm the jury’s verdict.
HARRIS and LAVORATO, JJ., join this special concurrence.

. Hughes did not challenge the applicability of section 668.12 to negligent design cases.

. Although one of the specifications of negligence in this case was based on a failure to warn, the focus of my discussion is on the design defect allegations. I ignore the failure-to-wam specification because under our holding in Olson v. Prosoco, Inc., 522 N.W.2d 284, 291 (Iowa 1994), state of the art is no longer a defense in a negligent failure to warn case.

. I refer to the burden of persuasion, not the burden of producing evidence.

. In the unusual case where no alternative design is suggested by the plaintiff, this definition would have to be slightly modified.