Court Opinion

ID: 9521504
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:06:28.901527+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:49:52.274410
License: Public Domain

DICKSON, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
The majority opinion correctly observes that the definition of "physical harm" in Ind.Code § 88-1-1.5-2 operates to permit strict product liability recovery for sudden, major damage to property, including resulting economic losses, and that it excludes gradually-evolving property damage and its associated economic losses. However, I disagree with the majority's conclusion that the plaintiffs' damage claim falls outside the "sudden, major damage" definition as a matter of law.
The majority notes the plaintiffs' claim that the tainted feed had a long-term effect on the cows but fails to recognize that there was evidence of immediate and substantial harm. Within the first 24 hours after the plaintiffs' 38 cows began eating the contaminated feed, symptoms of substantial illness appeared and the herd's milk production diminished. While consumption of the bad feed did result in delayed effects (aborted or stillborn calves, refusal to breed, etc.), the decrease in the fair market value of the cows as a breeding and dairy herd occurred immediately upon the plaintiffs' discovery that the cows had ingested contaminated feed, thus substantially impairing the cows' normal capacity to produce an adequate amount of milk or to breed in the future.
At a minimum, these facts demonstrate a question of fact precluding summary judgment on the issue of whether all or part of the plaintiffs' claims result from sudden and major damage. There is substantial merit to the argument that, while not entitled to economic losses from gradually-evolving property damage, the plaintiffs are entitled to seek damages from the sudden loss in fair market value upon discovery that their cows had eaten the contaminated feed. Whether property damage is sudden and major should be a matter for determination by a finder of fact, not a question of law for resolution by the court.
While I disagree with the majority's declaration that the issue of sudden, major damage is a question of law, in all other respects I concur.
DeBRULER, J., concurs.