Court Opinion

ID: 9471737
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:39:55.034033+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:33.198598
License: Public Domain

WEICK, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. The gist of plaintiff’s action was that the front-end pay-loader trucks manufactured by the defendant, International Harvester Company (International) and purchased by Grace from International’s dealer, were defectively designed in that they did not come equipped with overhead guards, which plaintiff contends would have prevented the accident.
*1137The answer for this is that Grace’s order provided detailed specifications for the loaders it was purchasing, which specifications were accepted by International and did not include any overhead guards. These guards were treated by International as accessories or optional equipment and could have been purchased by Grace for an additional cost of $500 per unit. Since Grace ordered 11 units, it would have been required an additional expenditure of $5,500. In its order, Grace, the customer, specifically did not request overhead guards on any of the 11 front-end loaders which it purchased from International, yet the plaintiff seeks to blame International for not supplying them, which would be in violation of the provisions of the order. International could not have collected the purchase price of the overhead guards if it had supplied them when not ordered. International was never advised of the uses which Grace would make of the loaders. It would seem that the plaintiff should blame Grace for not ordering the overhead guards and not International, which would have violated its sales agreement by supplying unordered items. A photograph of the payloader is appended hereto (A. 979a).
American National Standards for Powered Trucks, ANSI, B56.1-1969, which were admitted to be applicable, expressly provides in Section 421 as follows:
421 Overhead Guard
High-lift Rider trucks shall be fitted with an overhead guard unless the customer otherwise requests ... It is impractical to build a guard of sufficient strength to withstand the impact of a falling capacity load since such a guard would constitute a safety hazard because its structure would be so large that it might interfere with good visibility, and would weigh so much that it might make the truck top-heavy and unstable. (Emphasis added).
Grace, the customer, otherwise requested by not ordering that any of the 11 loaders be equipped with overhead guards. No proof was offered to the effect that even if the loader had been equipped with an overhead guard, that it would have withstood the heavy crushing load falling upon the decedent and prevented his injury and death. Also, as hereinafter shown, the decedent was misusing the equipment at the time.
This appeal presents only questions of Ohio law as the controlling facts were un-controverted.
A.
The Facts
Plaintiff-Appellant’s decedent was employed as a laborer at the Findlay, Ohio, fertilizer plant of Grace. He had worked there for several years, both before and after military service. The last period of employment was for approximately two years, ending with his death on November 14, 1975.
The fertilizer plant of Grace was a big operation, and great quantities of fertilizer were stored in very large bins. The bins were filled with fertilizer to a height of eighteen feet or more. As fertilizer was needed, it was shovelled out of the bins by front-end loaders. It was not unusual for the stored fertilizer to become so firmly compacted in the bins that it had to be blasted with dynamite before it could be shovelled out. When the fertilizer became compacted, it would often present a sheer vertical face. Such a face could, and-often did, collapse, if an attempt was made to shovel the fertilizer out without blasting. The employees were aware of this hazardous condition, and were instructed not to enter the bins with front-end loaders to work on such vertical faces, but did not always obey these instructions, even though they were aware of them.
On November 14,1975, early in the morning, the decedent was using a front-end loader manufactured by the defendant which was one of a number of machines that had been ordered by Grace from defendant through a dealer. It had been delivered in May of 1974 to Grace’s plant at Findlay, and used there since. It was built *1138to Grace’s specifications, according to the instructions on Grace’s purchase order.
The loader had no overhead shield or guard,, although the defendant supplied such guards as optional equipment to purchasers of its loaders. The shields manufactured by defendant conformed to all safety standards for such shields. The undisputed evidence showed that it is not possible to use shields on all front-loaders, because such loaders are designed to be used in cramped quarters where the shields would encounter obstruction, as well as in open places where they would not. The evidence was also undisputed that the defendant had no knowledge, and was not informed by Grace or by the dealer who sold the machines, of the purposes for which they were to be used.
In any event, on the day in question, the decedent decided to get a load of fertilizer from a bin in which compacted fertilizer presented a vertical face some eighteen feet high, with a small quantity of loose fertilizer at one corner of its base. The fertilizer in this bin was due to be blasted, or “shot,” to use the employees’ term, but decedent did not wait for the blasting. He went into the bin and ran his front-end loader against the base of the pile of fertilizer, which collapsed, burying the loader, and decedent up to his waist. A large chunk of fertilizer, variously described as from sixteen inches in diameter to three and one-half by two and one-half by two feet, rolled down the collapsing face of the pile of fertilizer and struck the decedent in the right chest. The evidence was totally devoid of any indication of the weight of the chunk of fertilizer.
With some difficulty, the decedent was extracted from the front-end loader. An ambulance had been called about 7:35 A.M. Decedent was conscious but confused. He was taken by the ambulance to the local hospital, entering the emergency room at 8:05 A.M. Within five to ten minutes decedent lapsed into unconsciousness. He died thirty-five minutes after entering the emergency room. An autopsy showed death was the result of internal injuries, including lacerations to the aorta and the liver.
B.
The Trial Judge Properly Directed a Verdict
Plaintiff’s only basis for claiming that the payloader was defective rested on the alleged violation of ANSI Standard B56.1-1969 and the expert testimony of Dr. Guen-ther. The opinion of an expert witness that a product is defective is not determinative. In Orfield v. International Harvester Company, 535 F.2d 959 (6th Cir.1976), this court affirmed a directed verdict for the manufacturer where it was alleged that a bulldozer without a protective canopy was defective. The court held that the opinion of an expert witness that the bulldozer was defectively designed and unreasonably dangerous without a canopy was not determinative and did not require the district court to submit the issue to the jury where his opinion was not supported by the evidence.
In the present case, Dr. Guenther’s opinion warrants very little weight for a number of reasons. He never physically examined the payloader in question; he never spoke with any witnesses; he never visited the site of the accident; and he has no experience with the design, manufacture, or marketing of a payloader. In fact, he failed to comply with his own guidelines in such matters (A. 467-71).
This court has affirmed directed verdicts for manufacturers in the past. E.g. Keet v. Service Machine Company, Inc., 472 F.2d 138 (6th Cir.1972); Gossett v. Chrysler Corporation, 359 F.2d 84 (6th Cir.1966).
C.
Strict Liability Does Not Apply to a Defective Design Claim in Ohio
In Temple v. Wean United, Inc., 50 Ohio St.2d 317, 364 N.E.2d 267 (1977), the Ohio Supreme Court adopted Restatement of Torts § 402A, but limited it to defective products. It reiterated that the general rule in Ohio concerning defective product design is a negligence standard. This court has so construed Temple in Drayton v. Jif-*1139fee Chemical Corp., 591 F.2d 352, 357 (6th Cir.1978).
Subsequent to Judge Young’s opinion in the instant case (February 4, 1981), the Ohio Supreme Court decided Leiehtamer v. American Motors Corporation, 67 Ohio St.2d 456, 424 N.E.2d 568 (1981). Leichtamer extended the strict liability theory to defective design cases. However, Leich-tamer should not be applied retroactively in the instant case, and it is distinguishable on its facts in any event. In Leiehtamer the plaintiff relied on a safety device which proved to be defective; here, there was no safety device present, therefore the decedent could not have been misled as to the dangers involved in operating a payloader without an overhead guard.
In any event, the payloader was not “unreasonably dangerous to the user” within the meaning of Section 402A of the Restatement of Torts. Ohio case law has acknowledged that, in a defective design case, there is no practical difference between strict liability and negligence. The test for an “unreasonably dangerous” condition is equivalent to a negligence standard of reasonableness, therefore a manufacturer has a duty to exercise reasonable care to design a product that will be reasonably safe for its intended use. Jones v. White Motor Corporation, 61 Ohio App.2d 162, 401 N.E.2d 223 (1978). In Anton v. Ford Motor Company, 400 F.Supp. 1270, 1278-80 (S.D.Ohio 1975), the court noted that the elements of “unreasonably dangerous to the user” of Section 402A involve traditional negligence principles concerning the duty of the manufacturer to design a reasonably safe product.
Comments g and i to Section 402A of the Restatement show that “unreasonably dangerous” means more dangerous than the ordinary consumer would expect. In Orfield v. International Harvester Company, 535 F.2d 959 (6th Cir.1976), this court held that a bulldozer without a protective canopy was not defective or unreasonably dangerous because the plaintiff was an experienced bulldozer operator and was aware of the dangers involved in operating a bulldozer without a canopy. The same applies in the present case. William Birchfield was an experienced payloader operator. He knew that the payloader did not have an overhead guard, and he realized the dangers of ramming a tall pile of fertilizer.
In light of the above, the trial court could come to but one conclusion, that the pay-loader was not unreasonably dangerous under Section 402A, and that International Harvester was not negligent in designing it.
D.
International Harvester Complied With Industry Standards
Judge Young correctly ruled as a matter of law that International Harvester had not violated industry standards concerning overhead guards on payloaders. The overwhelming weight of the testimony at trial established that International Harvester complied with ANSI B56.1-1969.
The standard does not say that an overhead guard must be installed by the manufacturer as standard equipment. What it says is that a manufacturer must fit the equipment with the capacity to have an overhead guard installed at the user’s option. International Harvester complied with this requirement by equipping the payloader with brackets welded to the unit, suitable for mounting an optional overhead guard (A. 568).
Further, the standard expressly relieves the manufacturer of any obligation to install an overhead guard if the customer so indicates. The purchase order submitted by Grace to the International Harvester dealer from whom the payloaders were purchased was for eleven payloaders with standard equipment plus two optional accessories. (A. 31). Nothing was mentioned about overhead protection. The silence of Grace concerning overhead guards could reasonably be construed by International Harvester as an order to delete the guards. Therefore, the standard was complied with.
The payloader was not an assembly line product, but was built to order according to Grace’s specifications (A. 484-85). The cus*1140tom of the industry in 1974 was to rely on the customer to specify the optional safeguards that were to be installed on the unit. A manufacturer is not liable for failing to install an optional safety device on a product that has been manufactured in accordance with the specifications of the purchaser. In Orfield v. International Harvester, 535 F.2d 959 (6th Cir.1976) this court affirmed a directed verdict for the defendant-manufacturer of a bulldozer that was not equipped with an overhead safety canopy. The court concluded that the manufacturer of a bulldozer had satisfied its obligations by making the canopy available as an option and then informing the customer of the availability of the option. We ought to follow our own opinions.
E.
International Harvester Was Not Negligent
Noncompliance with federal or industry standards is not negligence per se.
It is not sufficient merely to prove that the payloader was defectively designed; it must also be shown that the alleged defect was the proximate cause of the fatal accident. In this case, the omission of an overhead guard on the payloader was not the proximate cause of Mr. Birchfield’s injuries. According to the ANSI Standard, Section 504 (page 1137, supra) the overhead guard is not intended to withstand the impact of a falling capacity load. Three witnesses testified that after the cave-in, the firmly compacted fertilizer covered the tires on the payloader, the entire front of it, and filled the cockpit up to Mr. Birchfield’s chest. Given that amount, appellant failed to prove that an overhead guard would have withstood such an impact, and therefore has failed to prove that the absence of the overhead guard was the proximate cause of the fatal injuries.
The negligence of Grace in not ordering overhead protection on the payloader was an intervening and superseding cause of Birchfield’s death. Grace knew the working conditions at the plant, and it knew that payloader operators were given to ramming the piles of fertilizer even though it was dangerous, but it did little or nothing to prevent them from doing this. It had 18 months to inspect the payloader and observe its use from the time it arrived to the time of the accident, but it never ordered any overhead guards. Clearly, the negligence of Grace supersedes any negligence on the part of International Harvester.
Plaintiff’s decedent assumed the risk of injury by his negligent misuse of the pay-loader. He violated company instructions by using it on the compacted fertilizer before it was dynamited. He was aware of the dangers of ramming a tall pile of fertilizer with a payloader, but he did it anyway. The payloader was not designed or intended for that. This misuse precludes appellant’s claim for defective design. Calvert Fire Insurance Company v. Fyr-Fyter, 67 Ohio App.2d 11, 425 N.E.2d 910 (1979).*
I would affirm the judgment of District Judge Young.
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 A motion to Certify the record was overruled by the Supreme Court of Ohio, January 17, 1980.