Court Opinion

ID: 9593491
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:22:42.628769+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:52:37.196225
License: Public Domain

ALMA WILSON, Justice,
with whom OPALA, Chief Justice and KAUGER, Justice, join, dissenting:
Oklahoma’s strict liability theory or remedy of manufacturers’ products liability was fashioned to protect the consuming public from unreasonably dangerous defective products and to discourage manufacturers from marketing defective products. Kirkland v. General Motors Corporation, 521 P.2d 1353 (Okla.1974). The distinctive element of the tort is that the defective product must be unreasonably dangerous to the consumer or the consumer’s property. The majority opinion does not analyze the alleged danger posed by the defective product in this case. Instead, the remedy of manufacturers’ products liability is withheld from the plaintiff because of the kind of damages sought in this case. The line of demarcation between contract law and manufacturers’ products liability cannot be defined by the kind of damages sought. Such a mechanistic approach undermines the foundation of manufacturers’ products liability. Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent.
*983The question certified herein is broad: Can a plaintiff in a manufacturers’ products liability action recover damages for injury to the allegedly defective product itself and consequential economic harm flowing from that injury? This question should be answered within the narrow confines of the relevant facts and the nature of the controversy in which the question arose. 20 O.S.1991, § 1604. The commercial transformer involved in this case exploded. It was a defective product which allegedly posed an unreasonable danger to person and property. The plaintiff now seeks to recover for damages to the transformer and consequential economic loss. Application of Waggoner v. Town & Country Mobile Homes, Inc., 808 P.2d 649, 653 (Okla.1990), herein blinds this Court to the societal need for protection from defective products that suddenly explode, threatening life and property.1
The right to pursue the remedy of manufacturers’ products liability must be determined by focus on the danger posed by the defective product rather than the kind of damages claimed. Allegations of the sudden and life-threatening explosion of the transformer manufactured by defendant, McGraw-Edison, fortuitously without harm to plaintiff’s employees, is sufficient to allow the plaintiff, OG & E, to maintain a manufacturers’ products liability claim.2 *984Today’s outcome shifts the financial burden of life-threatening accidents caused by defective products from the offending manufacturer to the consumer.

. Waggoner involved personal loss due to the deterioration and diminution in value of a defective mobil home. In Waggoner, this Court reversed a jury verdict in favor of the consumers for replacement of the defective mobile home. Notwithstanding the factual differences, the Waggoner rationale is based upon jurisprudence resolving commercial controversies. In reasoning that tort law has not been the traditional remedy for protection of economic expectations, the Waggoner opinion cites Clark v. International Harvester, 99 Idaho 326, 335, 581 P.2d 784, 793 (1978), wherein the plaintiff sought to recover for repair costs, down time, loss of earnings or loss of profits in his custom farming business, because of a defective part of a tractor which caused a reduction in power; and, East River Steamship Corp. v. Transamerica Delaval, Inc., 476 U.S. 858, 106 S.Ct. 2295, 90 L.Ed.2d 865 (1986), wherein the plaintiffs sought to recover repair costs and loss of income or profits in the ship chartering business, because of defective of the turbines which caused a reduction in the power. Waggoner, 808 P.2d at 653. Disregarding the factual differences between the two cases, today the Court finds Waggoner to be dispositive of this commercial controversy. I remain steadfast in my dissent to the Waggoner opinion. Waggoner v. Town & Country Mobile Homes, Inc., 808 P.2d at 656.

. Other courts have addressed the issue of whether damages for injury only to the defective product and/or resultant economic loss may be recovered in a strict products liability action. Most of these cases involved parties in a commercial relationship and a clear majority of the states deny recovery. The approach taken by the minority of states in allowing recovery is best suited to Oklahoma’s manufacturers’ products liability focus on unreasonably dangerous defective products.
Those states which allow recovery of damages to the defective product and/or economic loss only have emphasized: 1) policy considerations, Hiigel v. GM Co., 190 Colo. 57, 544 P.2d 983 (1975); C & S Fuel Inc. v. Clark Equipment Co., 524 F.Supp. 949 (E.D.Ky.1981); and, Thompson v. Nebraska Mobile Homes Co., 198 Mont. 461, 647 P.2d 334 (1982); 2) dangerous nature of the product, Northern Power & Engineering Co. v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., 623 P.2d 324 (Alaska 1981); Russell v. Ford Motor Co., 281 Or. 587, 575 P.2d 1383 (1978); and, Corporate Air Fleet of Tennessee, Inc. v. Gates Learjet, Inc., 589 F.Supp. 1076 (M.D.Tenn.1984); and, 3) sudden and calamitous occurrence, Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District v. Westinghouse Electric Co., 143 Ariz. 368, 694 P.2d 198 (1984); Moorman MFG. Co. v. National Tank Co., 91 Ill.2d 69, 61 Ill.Dec. 746, 435 N.E.2d 443 (1982); and, Star Furniture Co. v. Pulasksi Furniture Co., 171 W.Va. 79, 297 S.E.2d 854 (1982).
Those states which refuse to extend strict products liability to claims for recovery of damage to the defective product only include: Colonial Park Country Club v. Joan of Arc, 746 F.2d 1425 (10th Cir.1984), applying New Mexico law; Frey Dairy v. A.O. Smith Harvestore Products, Inc., 680 F.Supp. 253 (E.D.Mich.1988); County of Westchester v. General Motors Co., 555 F.Supp. 290 (S.D.N.Y.1983); Agristor Leasing v. Spindler, 656 F.Supp. 653 (D.S.D.1987); Wisconsin Power and Light v. Westinghouse Electric Co., 645 F.Supp. 1129 (W.D.Wis.1986); Iowa Electric Light & Power Co. v. Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co., 360 F.Supp. 25 (D.Iowa, 1973); Florida Power and Light v. Westinghouse Electric Co., 510 So.2d 899 (Fla.1987); Clark v. International Harvester Co., 99 Idaho 326, 581 P.2d 784 (1978); Bay State-Spray & Provincetown Steamship, Inc. v. Caterpiller Tractor Co., 404 Mass. 103, 533 N.E.2d 1350 (1989); Sharp Brothers Contracting Co. v. American Hoist & Derrick Co., 703 S.W.2d 901 (Mo.1986); National Crane Co. v. Ohio Steel Tube Co., 213 Neb. 782, 332 N.W.2d 39 (1983); Local Joint Exec. Bd. of Las Vegas v. Stern, 98 Nev. 409, 651 P.2d 637 (1982); Ellis v. Morris, Inc., 128 N.H. 358, 513 A.2d 951 *984(1986); Hagert v. Hatton Commodities, Inc., 350 N.W.2d 591 (N.D.1984); Nobility Homes of Texas, Inc. v. Shivers, 557 S.W.2d 77 (Tex.1977); Washington Water Power v. Graybar Electric, 112 Wash.2d 847, 774 P.2d 1199 (1989); and, Continental Insurance v. Page Engineering Co., 783 P.2d 641 (Wyo.1989).
Six states have unequivocally declared that tort recovery of economic loss has no place in a commercial setting between commercial buyers and sellers. Dairyland Insurance Co. v. GM Co., 549 So.2d 44 (Ala.1989); Kaiser Steel Corp. v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 55 Cal.App.3d 737, 127 Cal.Rptr. 838, 845 (1976) [Under Kaiser Steel, property damage to the product may be recovered in a strict liability action except where the action is between parties who: “(1) deal in a commercial setting, (2) from positions of relatively equal economic strength, (3) bargain the specifications of the product, and (4) negotiate concerning the risk of loss from defects in it.” Aris Helicopters, Ltd. v. Allison Gas Turbine, 932 F.2d 825, 828 (9th Cir.1991).]; McCarthy Well Co., Inc. v. St. Peter Creamery, Inc., 410 N.W.2d 312 (Minn.1987) [Economic loss arising out of commercial transaction is not recoverable under products liability in tort except where personal injury or loss of other property is also sought.]; Spring Motors Distributors, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., 98 N.J. 555, 489 A.2d 660 (1985) [An individual consumer may recover economic loss in a products liability, but a commercial buyer may not.]; Chemtrol Adhesives, Inc. v. American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Co., 42 Ohio St.3d 40, 537 N.E.2d 624 (1989); and, Rem Coal Co., Inc. v. Clark Equipment Co., 386 Pa.Super.Ct. 401, 563 A.2d 128 (1989).