Bic Pen Corp. v. Carter Ex Rel. Carter

251 S.W.3d 500, 51 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 783, 2008 Tex. LEXIS 412, 2008 WL 1765550
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedApril 18, 2008
Docket05-0835
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 251 S.W.3d 500 (Bic Pen Corp. v. Carter Ex Rel. Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bic Pen Corp. v. Carter Ex Rel. Carter, 251 S.W.3d 500, 51 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 783, 2008 Tex. LEXIS 412, 2008 WL 1765550 (Tex. 2008).

Opinion

Justice MEDINA

delivered the opinion of the Court,

in which Chief Justice JEFFERSON, Justice HECHT, Justice O’NEILL, Justice WAINWRIGHT, Justice BRISTER, Justice JOHNSON, and Justice WILLETT joined.

Six-year-old Brittany Carter was severely burned when her five-year-old brother, *503 Jonas, accidentally set fire to her dress with a J-26 model BIC lighter. Janace Carter, acting as Brittany’s next friend, sued BIC Pen Corporation claiming Brittany’s injuries resulted from manufacturing and design defects in the J-26 lighter. The jury found for Carter, awarding three million dollars in actual damages and two million dollars in exemplary damages. 1 The court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment as to the design defect claim, but did not address the manufacturing defect claim. 171 S.W.3d 657, 662.

BIC brings six issues on appeal: (1) whether Carter presented legally sufficient evidence of causation; (2) whether federal law preempts Carter’s claims; (3) whether Carter proved either a design or manufacturing defect; (4) whether BIC acted with malice; (5) whether the trial court erred in giving a spoliation instruction; and (6) whether the trial court’s judgment awarded excessive interest. Because we conclude that federal law preempts the design defect claim, we reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and remand to the court for it to consider the remaining issues.

I

The J-26 lighter is subject to the federal standards for child-proof lighters and must be certified as compliant by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“the Commission”). 15 U.S.C. § 2053(a) (2008). The Commission is an independent regulatory commission created under the Consumer Product Safety Act (“CPSA”) of 1972 and charged with “protecting] the public against unreasonable risks of injury associated with consumer products,” “developing] uniform safety standards for consumer products,” and “promoting] research and investigation into the causes and prevention of product-related ... injuries.” Id. § 2051(b)(1), (b)(2), (b)(4).

After evaluating data showing that disposable lighters posed a significant risk of harm to the public, the Commission adopted regulations requiring disposable lighters to be child-resistant and setting a protocol for testing a lighter’s child resistance. See 16 C.F.R. § 1210.4. The regulations set forth specific requirements for compliance. Id. §§ 1210.3, 1210.4. The first requirement for lighters is that they must “be resistant to successful operation by at least [eighty-five] percent of the child-test panel when tested in the manner prescribed by § 1210.4.” Id. § 1210.3(a). Other requirements are that each lighter must: (1) “[r]eset itself automatically after each operation of the ignition mechanism,” (2) “[n]ot impair safe operation of the lighter when used in a normal and convenient manner,” (3) “[b]e effective for the reasonably expected life of the lighter,” and (4) “[n]ot be easily overriden or deactivated.” Id. § 1210.3(b)(l)-(4).

The regulations then set out the testing protocol. Id. § 1210.4. A lighter passes the Commission’s test for child resistance if no more than fifteen percent of children tested under the protocol can operate the lighter. Id. § 1210.3(a). Each test panel consists of one hundred children divided into six groups of fifteen to seventeen children, with each group using one of six “surrogate lighters.” Id. § 1210.4(c)(1), (c)(2). A surrogate lighter looks like an actual lighter, but emits a signal when operated rather than producing a flame. Id. § 1210.2(f). If at least ninety percent of the one-hundred-child test panel cannot operate a surrogate lighter after two five-minute attempts, the lighter passes. See id. § 1210.4(h)(1). If the lighter does not pass, testing is conducted with another one *504 hundred randomly selected children. Id. The lighter passes if it cannot be operated by at least eighty-five percent of the two hundred children. Id. § 1210.4(h)(2). The Commission’s test protocol is performance based, meaning the Commission does not set specific standards for each lighter, but rather charges manufacturers with designing lighters that meet the child-resistance standards. See Safety Standard for Cigarette Lighters, 58 Fed.Reg. 87,580-81 (July 12, 1998) (codified at 16 C.F.R. pt. 1210).

Before receiving a certificate of compliance from the Commission, manufacturers must provide the Commission with a complete description of the child-resistant features of the lighter and all related dimensions and force requirements. 16 C.F.R. § 1210.15(b)(1), (b)(2). BIC has adopted five design characteristics that collectively establish child resistance in a disposable lighter: (1) the distance that the shield (or guard) at the top of the lighter must move; (2) the force needed to depress the shield; (3) the distance that the fork mechanism must move to release butane; (4) the force needed to depress the fork, or “fork force”; and (5) the force needed to produce a spark by rotating the sparkwheel, or “sparkwheel rotation force.”

The J-26 lighter underwent qualification testing in 1994, 2 with six surrogates representing the range of forces intended for use in the J-26. See id. § 1210.4(c)(1). Ninety percent of the children tested could not operate the surrogates. Only three of the surrogates could be operated by any child: three out of seventeen children operated Surrogate Two, one out of seventeen children operated Surrogate Four, and six out of sixteen children operated Surrogate Five. The Commission issued a certificate of compliance because only ten of the one hundred children were able to operate the entire group of surrogates; thus, the average of the surrogates as a whole was ninety percent child resistant.

II

The United States Constitution provides that the laws of the United States are “the supreme Law of the Land; ... any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” U.S. Const, art. VI, cl. 2. Thus, when a state law conflicts with federal law, it is preempted and has no effect. Maryland v. Louisiana, 451 U.S. 725, 747, 101 S.Ct. 2114, 68 L.Ed.2d 576 (1981); Mills v. Warner Lambert Co., 157 S.W.3d 424, 426 (Tex.2005). State laws may conflict with federal laws and be preempted in three ways. See Great Dane Trailers, Inc. v. Estate of Wells, 52 S.W.3d 737, 743 (Tex.2001).

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251 S.W.3d 500, 51 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 783, 2008 Tex. LEXIS 412, 2008 WL 1765550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bic-pen-corp-v-carter-ex-rel-carter-tex-2008.