Court Opinion

ID: 9652480
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:24:38.679248+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:51.784718
License: Public Domain

dissenting.
I dissent. The majority, in what could be said to be a res ipsa loquitur approach, holds that so long as the plaintiff presents a case-in-chief free of secondary causes which justify an inference of defect in the product, the case may be sent to the jury on the “malfunction theory” regardless of whether evidence is admitted negating the very essence of the theory. In my view, sending the malfunction case to the jury without first allowing the defendant to move for a ruling on whether, as a matter of law, the defendant’s evidence of secondary causation negates the plaintiff’s claim of malfunction is error. Not providing for a legal determination of whether the plaintiff negated defendant’s evidence of secondary causes (a legal requirement of stating a malfunction case) before sending the malfunction claim to the jury deprives the defendant of his right to *186challenge whether the plaintiff has even stated a cause of action.
A malfunction-theory plaintiff argues, in essence, that while he has no direct evidence that the product is defective, he is prepared to establish that the product malfunctioned, from which the jury may infer that the product was defective. Once the plaintiff has established this, he has stated a prima facie case and his evidence will withstand a motion for non-suit.
The defendant, however, may put in evidence that the malfunction was caused by secondary causes separate and apart from any alleged defect in the product. If the defendant produces such evidence, the plaintiff then must negate it, for the survival of his cause of action depends upon his establishing that nothing outside of the product itself caused the malfunction, since if a “secondary cause” created the malfunction, the product itself was not defective and the products liability claim would fail. In other words, a malfunction-theory plaintiff must negate evidence that secondary causes were responsible for the malfunction.
The question which this raises, however, is what a malfunction-theory plaintiff must do in order to negate such secondary cause evidence. It is my view that the problem of determining whether a malfunction-theory plaintiff has negated secondary causes is analogous to deciding whether to grant a motion for a directed verdict; in both cases the proper inquiry for the court is whether the plaintiff put on evidence which, if believed, negates the claim made on the other side, here that there is evidence of secondary causes of the malfunction.1
*187The plaintiff cannot be called upon to negate evidence of secondary causes absolutely, as Superior Court would have him do, for that would be to place a burden of proof too severe upon the plaintiff, too much in excess of the requirement that the plaintiff must produce a preponderance of evidence in order to prevail.2 Nor can the trial court be called upon to assess the credibility of plaintiffs witnesses or the weight of the evidence, for those are jury functions. But the trial court is in a position to treat the matter as it would treat a motion for a directed verdict, by simply deciding whether plaintiffs evidence, if believed, negates evidence of secondary causes.
I conclude, therefore, that when a defendant has introduced evidence that secondary causes, not a defective product, caused the malfunction, the defendant should be allowed, at the close of all the evidence, to move for a directed verdict, based upon plaintiffs alleged failure to negate the alleged secondary causes. The court should resolve this motion by deciding whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, he has put on evidence which, if believed, negates secondary causes of the malfunction. If he has put on such evidence, he has negated evidence of secondary causes and the case should proceed to the jury on the malfunction theory.
It may be that under the standard proposed herein, in which the defendant’s motion for directed verdict is defeated if the plaintiff’s evidence, if believed, negates evidence of secondary causes, will not change the results in many cases. Nonetheless, a defendant should have the right to move the court to determine whether the plaintiff has met the legal *188requirements of his case before the case is submitted to the jury.
ZAPPALA, J., joins this dissenting opinion.

. A motion for a directed verdict comes at the end of all of the evidence and is either a request for the court to decide a question of law controlling the case, or it is an argument that the opposing party has failed to prove one or more necessary elements of the cause of action. In the latter, a directed verdict may be awarded only where there are no factual questions, no conflicts in the evidence, and no jury question of credibility of witnesses. In other words, when the claim is that the opposing party failed to put on a prima facie case or defense, a court will consider all evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion is directed and will not rule in *187favor of the movant if a jury could reasonably conclude that liability rests with the party making the motion. See 9 Standard Pennsylvania Practice 2d § 58.73 (1982).

. Superior Court’s requirement that a malfunction-theory plaintiff may proceed only when he has eliminated even a jury question as to secondary causes would require a plaintiff’s evidence to be controlling as a matter of law. Any negation of secondary causes less than this would result in a jury question, and would, in Superior Court’s view, result in a defeat of the malfunction-theory plaintiff unless he was able to negate absolutely secondary causes, i.e., disprove them as a matter of law.