Court Opinion

ID: 9547891
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:53:52.334205+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:11.559514
License: Public Domain

WALTERS, Chief Judge (concurring in part, dissenting in part). I agree with the results reached by the majority on the counts discussed in Paragraphs A, B, D, E, and F. I do not agree with the majority’s criticism stated under Paragraph C regarding the pleadings in this case and feel it is unjustified, since ours is not a code pleading jurisdiction. New Mexico’s only requirement is that the pleadings be short and plain. Rule 8(a) N.M.R.Civ.P., N.M.S.A.1978. I disagree with the majority’s disposition of Count IV of the complaint for the following reasons: Our U.J.I. (Civil) Nos. 14.2-14.5, N.M.S.A. 1978, impose “ordinary care” standards against anyone who might be considered a “supplier” of a product. In other words, the supplier is subject to a claim of negligence. With but few exceptions, the Instructions of Chapter 14 on “Products Liability” are couched in terms of “ordinary care.” It is manifest from the instruction in that chapter that “products liability” is not automatically synonymous with “strict liability” in New Mexico. The application of strict liability upon a supplier, however, according to Instruction No. 14.6, is limited to those who are “in the business of putting a product on the market.” Under Instruction 14.11, one who is not a manufacturer shares in the liability of the manufacturer of a defective or unreasonably dangerous product if he is a supplier “in the chain of distribution” of the product. Under the common, ordinary meanings of “supplier” and “chain of distribution,” I cannot agree that the ultimate purchaser of a product can be considered to have “supplied” or “distributed” that product so as to come within the embrace of the strict liability rules. If he could, there would be no end to those defendants — business and non-business people alike — who would be swallowed in the theory of strict liability. I can foresee automobile owners being held strictly liable to expense-sharing passengers for defective automobile designs which cause injury; contractors who purchase defective equipment being held strictly liable to operators of the equipment who are injured while using the equipment; businessmen being held strictly liable to an employee who gets hurt by an office paper-cutting machine. In my opinion, those owners of equipment were never intended to be considered “suppliers” or “in the chain of distribution” when the product was not obtained for the purpose of “marketing” the product, any more than a boarding house or motel owner should be held to have intended to “market” his sofa or gas heater when he furnished a room for rent. Stang v. Hertz Corp., 83 N.M. 730, 497 P.2d 732 (1972), expressly approved language from an Arizona opinion, that “the doctrine of strict liability was evolved to place liability on the party primarily responsible for the injury occurring, that is, the manufacturer of the defective product.” (Quoting from Lechuga, Inc. v. Montgomery, 12 Ariz.App. 32, 467 P.2d 256 (1970) with emphasis added.) Stang extended “party primarily responsible” to retailers and lessors in the business of selling or leasing the defective product. Rudisaille v. Hawk Aviation, Inc., 92 N.M. 575, 592 P.2d 175 (1979), cited by the majority, is not a similar case. Hawk Aviation leased airplanes whose only purpose was to be able to fly. When, because of an unreasonably dangerous condition, an airplane cannot maintain flight, it is the very product leased that fails. A motel room is not leased solely to provide heat; an apartment is not leased solely to furnish a sofa to the tenant. Those are not the products in which a landlord deals; they are merely incidentals to the principal business of the landlord. I am unable to equate renting a motel room with putting a gas heater on the market, notwithstanding California’s apparent solitary position on this kind of extension of the strict liability doctrine. New Jersey refused to impose strict liability on a landlord in Dwyer v. Skyline Apartments, Inc., 123 N.J.Super. 48, 301 A.2d 463, 467, aff’d 63 N.J. 577, 311 A.2d 1 (1973), because to do so would place an “unusual and unjust burden on property owners.” I see no acceptable authority to enlarge the scope of strict liability principles to defendants Livingston for a design defect which would or could be traceable to the manufacturer or distributor who placed the product on the market. In my view, the Livingstons are not suppliers, but are purchasers of a product perhaps manufactured, and undoubtedly distributed, by Montgomery Ward. Montgomery Ward might well be liable in strict liability if the heater was defective; the Livingstons might well be liable for negligence in maintaining a defective placement design if that can be proven. There is, in my opinion, a question of fact of the Livingstons’ negligence in maintenance and repair. But just as defendant was in the business of furnishing food rather than plate glass windows in Lay v. Vip’s Big Boy Restaurant, Inc., 89 N.M. 155, 548 P.2d 117 (Ct.App.1976), the defendants Livingstons here were in the business of furnishing sleeping quarters, not gas heaters. They, no more than Vip’s, should be held subject to strict liability for a product purchased by them for use in their business. The heater was removed from the stream of commerce when it was purchased and installed. Ergo, the Livingstons are not “suppliers.” Summary judgment on this Count IV should be affirmed.