Court Opinion

ID: 9647392
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:34:43.369493+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:48.811945
License: Public Domain

GARRISON, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the principal opinion and write separately only with reference to Synergy’s second point relied on. The principal opinion concludes that failure of-the trial court to give the requested Instruction C withdrawing “[t]he issue of the Defendant’s failure to properly train Lonnie Culp” was not error.
Culp was not an employee of Synergy and therefore this is not a case in which Synergy has vicarious liability for his conduct. Likewise, Plaintiffs did not submit the case on a negligence theory. Rather, this case was submitted on a theory of strict liability— failure to warn. As I understand the principal opinion, the failure to train Culp could have been relevant to that issue. I agree. In Donahue v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 866 F.2d 1008 (8th Cir.1989), the court said:
... even a bulk supplier must provide adequate instructions to the distributor next in line or ascertain that the distributor is informed as to the nature of the product and is in a position to convey the information so that the ultimate consumer is apprised of the dangerous propensity of the product.
Id. at 1012. 3 American Law of Products Liability 3d § 33:28 (John D. Hodson et al. eds., Rev. 1993) states:
A supplier who sells to an intermediary in bulk ... can discharge its duty to warn ultimate users (including employers) if it *37-43provides adequate instructions to the distributor next in line or ascertains that the intermediary is adequately trained, is familiar with the properties of the product and safe methods of handling it, and is capable of passing on the information so that the ultimate consumer is apprised of the dangerous propensity of the product.