Court Opinion

ID: 9773700
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:55:29.761914+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:56.536283
License: Public Domain

SEERDEN, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
Because I believe that the trial court’s judgment is correct and should be completely affirmed, I dissent. I would hold that the jury’s rejection of a strict liability design defect theory conclusively negated the elements necessary for Rodriguez to recover under her alternate theory of implied warranty of merchantability.
Rodriguez alleged and attempted to prove at trial that the ear in which she was traveling was not crashworthy, in that the roof structure and restraint systems were defectively designed which caused her injuries to be more serious than they otherwise would have been in this crash. A question was submitted to the jury under the theory of strict liability design defect, asking whether a design defect rendering the car unreasonably dangerous was a producing cause of Rodriguez’s injury. The jury responded negatively to the question.
Breach of the implied warranty of merchantability provides an alternative remedy *775to strict liability in tort with respect to injuries suffered from a defective product which is proven not to be “fit for the ordinary purposes for which such goods are used.” Garcia v. Texas Instruments, Inc., 610 S.W.2d 456, 459-62 (Tex.1980); Tex. Bus. & Com.Code ANN. § 2.314(b)(3) (Vernon 1994). Breach of the implied warranty of merchantability still requires proof of a defect. Plas-Tex, Inc. v. U.S. Steel Corp., 772 S.W.2d 442, 444 (Tex.1989). However, while an implied warranty “defect” means a condition of the goods that renders them unfit for the ordinary purposes for which they are used because of a lack of something necessary for adequacy, a strict liability “defect” means a condition of the product that renders it unreasonably dangerous to persons or property. Id. at 444-45.
In some cases, a product may be unfit for its ordinary purposes without being unreasonably dangerous. For example, a lawnmower which fails to cut the grass may breach the implied warranty of merchantability as being unfit for its ordinary purposes. However, the defect would not fall within the strict liability concept of a design defect because of the absence of any unreasonable danger posed by the defect to person or property. See Nobility Homes of Texas, Inc. v. Shivers, 557 S.W.2d 77, 79-80 (Tex.1977) (strict liability does not apply to a purely economic loss in the absence of physical harm to the person or his property). However, if the only defect alleged under either theory involves the dangerousness of the product, the determination of “defect” for purposes of the strict liability tort may also resolve the issue of “defect” with regard to the implied warranty of merchantability. See Costilla v. Aluminum Co. of America, 835 F.2d 578 (5th Cir.1988).
In the present case, Rodriguez never alleged that the car was defective with regard to its normal function of transporting people and property, but only that it was defective with regard to its crashworthiness. The crashworthiness of a car can only be evaluated in terms of avoiding unreasonable danger to the occupants, whether analyzed directly in terms of a strict liability defect, or indirectly in terms of the product’s fitness for its purpose of avoiding unreasonable danger. The “defect” for purposes of either strict liability or implied warranty must meet the same test. Accordingly, the jury’s finding of no strict liability defect, and therefore no unreasonable danger, with regard to the crashworthiness of the car conclusively negates the implied warranty theory as well.
With regard to causation, I agree with the majority that there is a difference between producing cause and proximate cause. Proximate and producing cause differ in that, while both require a showing of causation in fact, foreseeability is an element of proximate cause, but not of producing cause. Union Pump Co. v. Allbritton, 898 S.W.2d 773, 775 (Tex.1995). In the present case, the less stringent standard of “producing cause” has already been rejected by the jury. Therefore, if the alleged defects were not a producing cause of injury, they could not have met the more stringent test of proximate cause, and the jury’s negative answer to the former standard conclusively negated the latter as well.1
Accordingly, when we apply the jury finding, that no strict liability design defect was a producing cause of Rodriguez’s injuries, to the elements of her implied warranty theory, we must conclude that this theory has also been conclusively negated.
I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.

. The reverse, of course, would not be true. The jury’s negative finding on the more stringent standard of proximate cause would not foreclose a positive finding under the less stringent standard of producing cause.