Court Opinion

ID: 9618665
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:15:19.166939+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:34:02.256690
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COMPTON and JUSTICE WHITING,
dissenting in part.
We agree with the majority that the trial court properly entered summary judgment in behalf of the defendant Fontaine. We disagree, however, with the majority’s conclusion that summary judgment should not have been entered for General Motors.
The motion for judgment alleges that:
[Njear the top of the ramp and several feet from the edge thereof, the ramp began to crumble from beneath the Truck, and the Truck toppled and flipped backward down the steep side of the ramp for a distance of approximately sixty (60) feet.
*529In our opinion, this allegation is insufficient to allege a foreseeable use or misuse of the dump truck. Contrary to the majority, we do not think this is an allegation of the possibility of a “rollover” in the use of the truck as a dump truck. Rather, we read this allegation, coupled with the other allegations described by the majority, as a claim that the truck should have been manufactured to withstand a collapse of the ground beneath the truck, projecting the truck “down the steep side” of a 60-foot ramp.
The accident described in the pleading is one that could have happened to any vehicle next to such a ramp; nothing in the pleading indicates that the truck’s use as a dump truck had anything to do with the collapse of the ramp. Accordingly, we read the allegation as one seeking to charge General Motors with the duty of supplying an accident-proof vehicle. And, as the majority notes, there is no such duty upon General Motors.
The majority concludes that a “rollover” qualifies as a “misuse” of this vehicle. In Featherall v. Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., 219 Va. 949, 252 S.E.2d 358 (1979), the Court said, when there was an allegation of negligent failure to warn, the manufacturer of a product will be subject to liability if it knows or has reason to know that the chattel is or is likely to be dangerous for the use for which the chattel is supplied. Id. at 966, 252 S.E.2d at 369. The Court held the manufacturer of a pressure regulator “could have reasonably foreseen the danger which was inherent in the product when sold, that is, that the regulator would likely be used not as manufactured but without the locknut, given the facility with which the nut could be removed from the instrument.” Id. Continuing, the Court stated that, as to the manufacturer, “misuse was foreseeable.” Id.
As we have just pointed out, the claim that the plaintiffs truck turned over because earth crumbled beneath it is not an allegation of a foreseeable misuse of the truck as a dump truck. In Featherall, the pressure regulator was supplied by the manufacturer with the locknut affixed to an adjusting screw. The nut performed a distinct safety function and, along with the screw, could be easily removed from the device. The fact that the regulator would likely be used without the locknut was a foreseeable misuse of the product, giving rise to a duty to warn. That situation is entirely unlike the present case, in which nothing involving the use of the truck as a dump truck had anything to do with the collapse of the ramp, as we have stated.
*530According to the majority’s reasoning, a jury should be permitted to decide that foreseeably a truck could be negligently driven into water, thus requiring the manufacturer to equip the vehicle with pontoons to avoid injury to occupants.
Thus, we would affirm the judgment of the trial court in all respects.