Hansen v. Crown Controls Corp.

512 N.W.2d 509, 181 Wis. 2d 673, 1993 Wisc. App. LEXIS 1550
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedDecember 7, 1993
Docket92-3214
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 512 N.W.2d 509 (Hansen v. Crown Controls Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hansen v. Crown Controls Corp., 512 N.W.2d 509, 181 Wis. 2d 673, 1993 Wisc. App. LEXIS 1550 (Wis. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

FINE, J.

Crown Controls Corporation and International Insurance Company, Crown's excess-liability insurer, appeal from a judgment against them. The judgment was entered on a jury verdict awarding damages to the plaintiffs for injuries sustained by Mark L. Hansen when the dockboard on which he was driving a forklift truck collapsed. Crown, which manufactured the forklift truck, asserts that the trial court erred: (1) in formulating its jury instructions and the special verdict; (2) by not ordering a new trial because of alleged juror misconduct; and (3) by not ordering a new trial because of the alleged perverse nature of the verdict. We affirm. 1

*681 I.

A dockboard is a metal plate that bridges the gap between a loading dock and a truck trailer so that goods may be moved between the loading dock and the trailer. Hansen was injured when the dockboard involved in this case collapsed. The forklift truck he was operating at the time required the operator to stand rather than sit. When the dockboard collapsed, the forklift tumbled off. Hansen's left leg, which did not remain within the safety of the cab compartment, was crushed by the falling forklift. The plaintiffs claimed that Crown was at fault because the forklift cab did not have a door, which, they argued, would have protected Hansen's leg from injury. 2

The trial court accepted plaintiffs' argument that the damage to Hansen's leg should be treated as an "enhanced injury" that was distinct from the injuries that he received from the fall alone. Accordingly, the trial court, over Crown's objections, instructed the jury that if it determined that Crown and either of the parties responsible for the dockboard were at fault in connection with their products, the jury should decide the percentage each party's fault contributed to the so-called "enhanced injury," the injury to Hansen's leg. 3 *682 Although the jury determined that both of the parties responsible for the dockboard were at fault, the jury found that Crown alone was responsible for Hansen's leg injury.

II.

A. "Enhanced Injury" Theory.

Crown argues that by submitting to the jury plaintiffs' "enhanced injury" theory, the trial court improperly "prevented an allocation of fault among all substantial factors leading to [Hansen's] injuries." Crown's contentions of error are without merit.

A jury's specific apportionment of causation for separately-produced injuries makes sense and is consistent with Wisconsin law.

Liability based on enhanced injury has been recognized in Wisconsin cases, .... These include second collision or crashworthiness cases, seat-belt cases, and successive tort-feasors in medical malpractice cases. In all these situations, the successive tort-feasor was alleged to have enhanced or aggravated the plaintiffs injuries, but was not alleged to have caused the initial accident or damage. In these situations, the successive tort-feasor is not jointly liable for all the injuries to the claimant, but only for those injuries caused by the tortious conduct over and above the damage or injury that would have occurred as a result of the accident absent the successor tort-feasor's conduct.

Farrell v. John Deere Co., 151 Wis. 2d 45, 60-61, 443 N.W.2d 50, 54-55 (Ct. App. 1989) (footnotes omitted).

*683 In Farrell, the plaintiff was first injured when his arm was drawn into a corn picker. Id., 151 Wis. 2d at 56, 443 N.W.2d at 53. Farrell's legs and other arm were then pulled into the machinery. Ibid. In his action against Deere, the manufacturer of the corn picker, Farrell claimed two separate mechanisms of injury. First, he claimed that Deere's failure to equip the corn picker with an interlock device caused his initial entanglement. Id., 151 Wis. 2d at 57, 443 N.W.2d at 53. Second, he claimed that the injuries to his legs and other arm were caused by Deere's failure to outfit the picker with a device that would stop the machine in an emergency. Ibid. Over Deere's objection that there was but one occurrence, the trial court permitted the jury to consider the legs-and-other-arm claim, the so-called "enhanced-injury" claim, separately from Farrell's entanglement claim. Id., 151 Wis. 2d at 61, 443 N.W.2d at 54. This allowed the jury to compare Farrell's contributory negligence with Deere's fault on each claim, rather than as to the occurrence as a whole. Id., 151 Wis. 2d at 57-58, 443 N.W.2d at 54-55. We affirmed, seeing "no reason in logic or law why application of enhanced injury law should be precluded merely because the successive tort-feasor is alleged also to have tortiously caused the initial accident." Id., 151 Wis. 2d at 62, 443 N.W.2d at 55. 4

A defendant is not liable for its negligence unless that negligence was a substantial factor in producing plaintiffs injury as a natural and probable conse *684 quence. See Johnson v. Misericordia Community Hosp., 97 Wis. 2d 521, 561, 294 N.W.2d 501, 521 (Ct. App. 1980) (" [0]ne who negligently creates a dangerous condition cannot escape liability for the natural and probable consequences of an act although an act of a third person contributes to the result."), aff'd, 99 Wis. 2d 708, 301 N.W.2d 156 (1981). Stated another way, although in a metaphysical sense all things have a cause, the "substantial factor" test denotes something more, namely, "that the defendant's conduct has such an effect in producing the harm as to lead the trier of fact, as a reasonable person, to regard it as a cause, using that word in the popular sense." Merco Distrib. Corp. v. Commercial Police Alarm Co., Inc., 84 Wis. 2d 455, 458-459, 267 N.W.2d 652, 654 (1978); see also Austin v. Ford Motor Co., 86 Wis. 2d 628, 639, 273 N.W.2d 233, 237-238 (1979) (reason for one-car accident not necessarily "cause" of driver's death resulting from accident).

This case, even more than Farrell, concerns separate acts of alleged tortious conduct — the acts of the parties responsible for the dockboard were separate from anything Crown did or failed to do in connection with the forklift truck.

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Related

Tanner v. Shoupe
596 N.W.2d 805 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1999)
Sanchez v. Crown Equipment Corp.
141 F.3d 1178 (Ninth Circuit, 1998)
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546 N.W.2d 522 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1996)

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512 N.W.2d 509, 181 Wis. 2d 673, 1993 Wisc. App. LEXIS 1550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hansen-v-crown-controls-corp-wisctapp-1993.