Court Opinion

ID: 9471716
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:39:35.435804+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:32.920576
License: Public Domain

SETH, Chief Judge,
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent. The majority concludes that the modifications to the six-year-old mower made by the government, should be disregarded, and would apply tort standards and tort doctrines. Reading the record in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, I disagree. The plaintiff was awarded one million dollars for the loss of three fingers from his left hand and for punitive damages. '
The government made two material alterations to the mower, either of which should constitute grounds for a directed verdict for the defendant on the strict liability claim under applicable doctrines. First, the mower’s belt guards had been removed. At trial an issue was whether the mower’s blades had cut Mr. Saupitty’s fingers or whether his hand had become entangled in the swiftly moving belt and his fingers severed when they were pulled into contact with the belt’s pulley. The majority accepts the plaintiff’s assertion that his fingers were cut by the mower blades. The plaintiff testified that he had disengaged the mower’s blades before starting down the hill. The majority assumes that the disengagement was unsuccessful because “his expert testified that the model of mower involved in the accident had a history of failing to disengage the blades when the operator placed the blade control in neutral.” However, that theoretical possibility was directly refuted by Mr. Saupitty’s own testimony that the blades were off and had stopped rotating. In these circumstances it is hard to understand why theory and not the actual facts were used. If the blades had indeed stopped turning, then the only other possibility was that Mr. Saupitty’s fingers were severed when they were caught in the belt. Since the belt guard had been removed by the government after it bought the mower it must be concluded that a material alteration had occurred preempting strict liability.
The government also removed the mower’s brakes sometime during its six years’ use of the machine. That removal necessitated stopping the mower by pulling it into reverse. The machine could not even be otherwise slowed down because both the brakes and the throttle control had been removed. The degree of efficiency of the brakes before they were removed is not necessarily pertinent because although inefficient they nevertheless would have provided an alternative to the necessity of throwing the mower into reverse. In any event, the brakes originally on the mower met the standards for the industry. The plaintiff did not show that he had to stop the mower to avoid an accident. The mere slowing of the machine by use of the brakes could *661easily have prevented the accident. Their removal must constitute a material alteration. The proof of the plaintiff on both the brake and belt guard removals did not meet the requirements of Stuckey v. Young Exploration Co., 586 P.2d 726 (Okl.1978), or Seay v. General Elevator Co., 522 P.2d 1022 (Okl.1974), to permit the trial judge to submit the case to the jury.
Even were strict liability to be imposed in this case, there is no evidence whatever in the record to support an award of punitive damages.
Since the defendant did not raise a contract specification defense, we cannot consider it on appeal.
I thus dissent.