Hansen v. Abrasive Engineering & Manufacturing, Inc.

856 P.2d 625, 317 Or. 378, 1993 Ore. LEXIS 127
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 12, 1993
DocketCC 87-CV-0302-TM; CA A61214; SC S39226
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 856 P.2d 625 (Hansen v. Abrasive Engineering & Manufacturing, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hansen v. Abrasive Engineering & Manufacturing, Inc., 856 P.2d 625, 317 Or. 378, 1993 Ore. LEXIS 127 (Or. 1993).

Opinions

[381]*381VANHOOMISSEN, J.

Plaintiff brought this product liability action in common law negligence against defendant Abrasive Engineering and Manufacturing, Inc., seeking damages for injuries that plaintiff sustained while cleaning a sanding machine that defendant designed and manufactured.1 The jury found plaintiff 60 percent negligent and defendant 40 percent negligent, and judgment was entered for defendant. See ORS 18.470 (comparative negligence standard). Both parties appealed. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial. Hansen v. Abrasive Engineering and Manufacturing, 112 Or App 586, 831 P2d 693 (1992). We allowed defendant’s petition for review. We affirm the Court of Appeals in part and reverse in part and remand the case for a new trial.

We take the facts from the Court of Appeals opinion:

“Defendant designed, manufactured and assisted in installing a 6-head sanding machine at the plant of plaintiffs employer, Bend Millworks. The sander was specifically designed for sanding wood products. During the sanding process, wood pitch and other material would build up, [a phenomenon] known as ‘loading,’ on the sanding belts. Plaintiff had been working for about three months and had been taught employer’s procedure for cleaning the loading. He would open two large doors, which gave access to the sanding heads, partially insert his arm into the machine between two sanding heads and hold a rubber eraser and then a wire brush against the build-up on the sand paper which rotated on the sanding heads. On the night he was injured, plaintiffs glove was pulled by the sanding belt into a nip point between the belt and a pinch roller, essentially sanding off all of his left hand except for his thumb and a portion of his palm adjacent to the thumb.” 112 Or App at 588.

Plaintiffs theory was that his injuries were caused by defendant’s negligence in failing to incorporate machine safety features in the sanding machine consistent with safety rules promulgated under the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Code (OOSHC) and the federal Occupational [382]*382Safety Health Act (OSHA), and with advisory standards promulgated by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The OOSHC and OSHA rules, which require employer compliance, do not obligate defendant, a manufacturer and seller of machinery, to provide the safeguards, and plaintiff made no claim for statutory liability. Although defendant was not required by any statute to comply with the ANSI standards, they formed the predicate for plaintiffs theory as to the standard of care applicable to his common law negligence claim.

Before trial, defendant moved in limine for an order prohibiting plaintiff from making any reference to or offering any evidence of the OOSHC or OSHA rules or the ANSI advisory standards.2 The trial court granted defendant’s motion, reasoning that, because the OOSHC and OSHA rules were not applicable to a manufacturer and therefore imposed no “duty” on defendant, they were not admissible for any purpose. Notwithstanding that ruling, and over defendant’s objections based on lack of relevancy and lack of a proper foundation, the court allowed the jury to consider the ANSI advisory standards on the issue of whether defendant met the applicable standard of care.

Over defendant’s objection that plaintiff had not shown that certain witnesses were “unavailable” as that term is defined in OEC 804(l)(e), the trial court allowed plaintiff to read into evidence portions of transcripts of telephonic depositions of two witnesses who were out of state and unavailable for service of process.

Over plaintiffs objection that the report was hearsay and not admissible under the business records exception, the trial court allowed defendant to read into evidence excerpts from a written report of Dr. Holland, a psychiatrist, who had examined plaintiff at the request of plaintiffs employer and its workers’ compensation insurance carrier as part of the [383]*383employer’s defense of plaintiffs workers’ compensation claim. Dr. Holland did not treat plaintiff. The excerpts included statements made by plaintiff about his anger at himself for letting the accident happen and about his belief that he had failed to be assertive enough to refuse to do the job. The report also contained Dr. Holland’s diagnosis that plaintiffs emotional problems were caused, in part, by an unspecified “personality disorder which undoubtedly preexisted the industrial injury and has contributed a significant element of mal-adaptation to his post-injury course.”

The jury found for defendant. After judgment was entered for defendant, both parties appealed. On plaintiffs appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the jury should have been permitted to consider the OOSHC and OSHA rules in its determination of what standard of care defendant should have been expected to meet and, therefore, that the trial court erred in ruling that the OOSHC and OSHA rules were not admissible for any purpose. The court also held that Dr. Holland’s report was not admissible as a business record and that the trial court therefore erred in permitting defendant to read excerpts from that report to the jury.

On defendant’s cross-appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s rulings that the jury could consider the ANSI advisory standards and that plaintiff could read into evidence portions of depositions of two witnesses who were out of state and unavailable for service of process. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case for a new trial. We allowed defendant’s petition for review.

On review, defendant contends that the Court of Appeals erred in concluding: that the jury could consider the ANSI advisory standards on the issue of whether defendant met the applicable standard of care; that the OOSHC and OSHA rules were improperly excluded at trial; that defendant should not have been permitted to read excerpts from Dr. Holland’s report into evidence; and that the trial court properly allowed plaintiff to read into evidence excerpts of the transcripts of the discovery depositions of two witnesses. We consider each contention in turn.

[384]*384 ANSI Advisory Standards

Defendant contends that the Court of Appeals erred in holding that the trial court properly allowed the jury to consider the ANSI advisory standards on the issue of whether defendant failed to meet the standard of care that defendant owed to plaintiff. Defendant argues that, because the ANSI standards are purely advisory and not binding on anyone, they are not relevant. Plaintiff responds that, although such standards are advisory, they provide some evidence of whether défendant’s conduct met the applicable standard of care.

Determination of the appropriate standard of care is an issue of law. In this case, both parties agree that the general “reasonable person” standard of care applies. Whether a defendant has met that standard of care is an issue of fact, to be determined by the jury. Thus, evidence pertaining to whether defendant’s conduct was reasonable is relevant to the jury’s determination of whether defendant met the reasonable person standard of care.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
856 P.2d 625, 317 Or. 378, 1993 Ore. LEXIS 127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hansen-v-abrasive-engineering-manufacturing-inc-or-1993.