Ford Motor Co. v. Fulkerson

812 S.W.2d 119, 1991 Ky. LEXIS 28, 1991 WL 51386
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedApril 11, 1991
Docket89-SC-797-DG
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 812 S.W.2d 119 (Ford Motor Co. v. Fulkerson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ford Motor Co. v. Fulkerson, 812 S.W.2d 119, 1991 Ky. LEXIS 28, 1991 WL 51386 (Ky. 1991).

Opinions

LEIBSON, Justice.

This is a products liability case. The movant, Ford Motor Company, won at the trial level, but the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded on grounds: (1) the instructions were erroneous; and (2) trial error in excluding evidence of a change in the design of the product. Having granted discretionary review of the Court of Appeals’ decision, we affirm in all respects but one, which we discuss towards the end of this Opinion.

The case arises out of a motor vehicle accident on June 2, 1985, on a two-lane road in southeast Jefferson County. Troy Cilone was driving his 1984 Ford Ranger pickup truck in a northerly direction when his vehicle crossed over the center line into the southbound lane and struck a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction operated by William F. Fulkerson. Cilone was killed and Fulkerson was seriously injured.

Troy Cilone’s estate brought a products liability action against Ford Motor Company claiming a defect in the left front wheel assembly caused it to separate and Cilone to lose control and collide with Fulkerson. Fulkerson (and his wife who sued for loss of consortium) intervened, suing both Ford and Cilone’s estate. Fulkerson stated alternative claims for relief, alleging the collision was caused either by the Ford truck’s losing its wheel or Cilone’s negligence.

At trial and on appeal both Cilone’s estate and Fulkerson contend that the defective condition of the Ford vehicle was the cause of this accident. Their theory is that the wheel of Cilone’s 1984 Ford Ranger separated from the truck at the left front spindle assembly. A passenger in Cilone’s vehicle testified that he recalled a loud noise and a shout from Cilone immediately before he lost control. Substantial physical evidence included various gouge marks and a scrape mark on the roadway surface beginning some 100 feet before the point of impact, and several pieces of the left wheel assembly found south of the impact point, interpreted by plaintiffs’ experts and an accident reconstructionist from the Coroner’s office as proof that Cilone’s left front wheel separated from his truck and then became lodged beneath it as both the truck and wheel slid across the center line towards the oncoming vehicle.

On the other hand, Ford’s theory was that Cilone simply lost control of his vehicle and allowed it to veer into the opposite lane. Ford produced substantial expert testimony to support its view that the Ford truck functioned normally up until Cilone lost control, and that it was the impact which caused the wheel to separate from the truck.

Without regard to whether the left front wheel separated from the 1984 Ford pickup truck before or after the collision, it was uncontroverted that separation occurred at the left front spindle assembly because the spindle stem was still attached to the wheel and had pulled free from the spindle body.

Dr. Alan Johnson, a metallurgical engineer from the University of Louisville, who had examined the spindle parts for the Coroner’s office, concluded, and so testified, that there was a metallurgical defect when it left the manufacturer. As stated above, the accident reconstructionist em[121]*121ployed by the Coroner, testified the spindle stem was defective. In addition to the Coroner’s experts and police, plaintiffs presented two more experts: one, a former Ford employee with experience in testing vehicles for major auto manufacturers, who matched damaged parts of the Ford truck to the scrapes and gouges on the road surface, testified the tire separated from the truck during normal use; and the second, John Stilson, a mechanical engineer who had been employed at Ford for ten years and worked directly with the Ford Ranger, testified to both a manufacturing defect and a design defect as the cause of this occurrence. The manufacturing defect was, supposedly, a poor fit between the spindle stem and the spindle body which allowed air and water to penetrate the joint and corrosion to occur, thus eventually loosening the spindle stem within the spindle body. The design defect was, supposedly, failure to employ a secondary retention device as a fail safe feature in the event the joint between the spindle stem and spindle body should loosen in use.

Ford’s experts identified certain physical evidence from the vehicles and certain marks on the inner race of the spindle body, described as “Brinnell” marks, which in the opinion of these experts indicated the wheel separated from the truck on impact.

Ford used a “heat-shrink” method for retention or bonding the spindle stem onto the spindle body. The spindle body is heated so that its bore hole is expanded. At this point the spindle stem is inserted and the whole assembly is quenched in water so that the spindle body contracts around the spindle stem. This was the only retention feature used by Ford on its 1984 Ranger spindle stem assembly, although a number of different secondary retention features were available at the time. Ford made changes in the spindle stem in 1985 by putting a flare or flange on the inboard end of the stem, which serves to prevent the spindle stem from loosening and pulling out of the spindle body hole if the “heat-shrink” joint should fail. Ford, of course, contends this did not, and cannot, happen so that a secondary retention feature is unnecessary.

John Stilson, plaintiffs’ expert, was permitted to testify as to different design features then available that could have been used to afford a secondary retention feature, but evidence of the design feature that was actually added to the spindle stem in 1985, thus preventing the spindle stem from pulling out even if the spindle stem joint loosened, was excluded. Ford’s expert had testified on deposition the design change was made for reasons of cost and not safety.

First, we consider whether the instructions were prejudicially erroneous. Instruction No. 1 directed the jury to return a verdict for the intervening plaintiff, Fulker-son, against “either ... Ford Motor Company, or ... the Estate of Troy E. Ci-lone, ...” The trial court then presented the products liability issue in Instructions Nos. 2 and 3. Instruction No. 4 stated the duties of Cilone in driving his vehicle. The remaining instructions covered damages, the definition of ordinary care, and the number of jurors required to reach a verdict.

The products liability instructions were as follows:

“INSTRUCTION NO. 2
It is the claim of all plaintiffs, William Franklin Fulkerson and Pauline Fulker-son (hereinafter referred to as Fulker-sons) and Melinda Herrensmith, Adminis-tratrix and Mother of Troy E. Cilone (hereinafter referred to as Herrensmith), that the 1984 Ford Ranger operated by the deceased, Troy E. Cilone (Cilone), was in a defective condition. You will find for all plaintiffs as against the defendant, Ford Motor Company, under this Instruction if you are satisfied from the evidence as follows:
(a) That the left front spindle assembly of the 1984 Ford Ranger operated by Cilone was in a defective condition and unreasonably dangerous;
(b) That such defective condition existed at the time this 1984 Ford Ranger was sold by the defendant, Ford Motor Company;
AND
[122]*122(c) That such defective condition was a substantial factor in causing injury to Fulkerson and death of Cilone.
Otherwise, you will proceed to Instruction No. 4.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
812 S.W.2d 119, 1991 Ky. LEXIS 28, 1991 WL 51386, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ford-motor-co-v-fulkerson-ky-1991.