Court Opinion

ID: 9467018
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:35:53.513136+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:06.496620
License: Public Domain

TATE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
Summary judgment was inappropriate under the showing made. The defendant Beech was aware that pilots sometimes forgot to disengage gust locks before taking off from the ground; that at least three fatal accidents had occurred because of such failures; that Beech had in fact designed a failsafe gust lock system to avoid such accidents that was available, but not installed, on this plane; that the National Transportation Safety Board has recognized this risk, because of its investigation of fatal accidents; and that the NTSB has indicated that corrective action is required with regard to gust locks of the type here involved.
As I construe the majority opinion, it does not concede, even for purposes of summary judgment, that a trial jury could have found upon such evidence that Beech’s negligence, if any, contributed to the accident. In my opinion, the majority errs in this regard and in deciding this jury issue as to negligence and causation.
Further, I am unable to agree with the majority’s conclusion that, in any event, the summary judgment dismissing the plaintiff pilot’s claim was appropriate on the theory that, because he forgot to disengage the gust lock (and was aware of the hazard thus created), his negligence was the sole proximate cause of the accident.
Under the Florida comparative negligence system, the negligence of the pilot is not necessarily the sole proximate cause of the accident.1 Under Florida law, a manufacturer may be liable for an injury resulting from its failure to guard against foreseeable carelessness, even though the victim’s own carelessness (fault) in encountering the undue risk thereby created is a contributory cause of the accident (thereby reducing the damages awarded, but not defeating recovery). Auburn Machine Works Co., Inc. v. Jones, 366 So.2d 1167 (Fla.1979). As that decision notes, reversing summary judgment and holding it to be for the jury to determine the effect of the victim’s fault in similar circumstances:
*895We . . . hold that the obviousness of the hazard is not an exception to liability on the part of the manufacturer but rather is a defense by which the manufacturer may show that the plaintiff did not exercise a reasonable degree of care as required by the circumstances. We also conclude that the principles of comparative negligence apply where this defense is raised. [364 So.2d at 1167]
The patent danger doctrine protects manufacturers who sell negligently designed machines which pose formidable dangers to their users. It puts the entire accidental loss on the injured plaintiff, notwithstanding the fact that the manufacturer was partly at fault. This is inconsistent with the general philosophy espoused by this Court [citations omitted]. [366 So.2d at 1171]
In West we concluded that contributory negligence is available in determining the apportionment of the negligence of the manufacturer of the alleged defective product and the negligence of the consumer, and we emphasized that the ordinary rules of causation and the defenses applicable to negligence are available. [366 So.2d at 1172]
Accordingly, we reject the patent danger doctrine and conclude that it does not create an absolute exception to liability on the part of the manufacturer, and we hold that the district court correctly refused to apply this doctrine as an absolute bar to recovery. We approve the decision of the Second District reversing the summary judgment and holding that material issues of fact are presented, including the proximate cause of [the plaintiff] Jones’ injuries. [366 So.2d at 1172]

. Even under ordinary contributory negligence law, where the defendant’s negligence is founded on its failure to protect against the foreseeable carelessness of a victim, its liability is not necessarily defeated when a victim suffers injury through the heedlessness that the defendant’s actionable duty was designed to prevent. Restatement of Torts, 2d, Sections 302(a), 302A, 480, 482(1) (1965).