Court Opinion

ID: 9467247
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:42:41.882254+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:14.805838
License: Public Domain

PELL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
While the existence of proximate cause in a strict liability case is ordinarily a question of fact for determination by the trier of fact, here it appears to me that there was a complete absence of proximate causation and that the court properly should have directed a verdict for the defendant. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
The facts are simple and basically are not in dispute. Wyant, an experienced operator, was driving the crawler on an incline without having ever tested the brakes which turned out to be not operative through no fault of Case. Wyant was backing down the incline and had reached a point where he was to go forward up the incline. He shifted gears out of the reverse position and the motor died, again through no fault of Case. He applied the brakes which did not function. The crawler continued to descend. The crux of this lawsuit is that the failure of Case to include a parking gear proximately caused the crawler to continue downhill.
Even if experts thought crawlers of this type should have had a parking gear, although no other manufacturer of such equipment had ever included such a gear, the purpose of the gear would have been that of holding the equipment in a stopped position, not for braking to a stop a heavy, cumbersome moving crawler. A parking gear, whatever its practical purpose might have been, would not have been designed for braking any more than it is for a much less heavy automobile.
The majority decision, in effect, makes the manufacturer an insurer against any injury occurring to an operator. I do not understand this to be the law of Illinois.