Hathcock v. HANKOOK TIRE AMERICA CORP.

330 S.W.3d 733, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 10032, 2010 WL 5133519
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 17, 2010
Docket06-10-00001-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 330 S.W.3d 733 (Hathcock v. HANKOOK TIRE AMERICA CORP.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hathcock v. HANKOOK TIRE AMERICA CORP., 330 S.W.3d 733, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 10032, 2010 WL 5133519 (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

OPINION

Opinion by

Chief Justice MORRISS.

In August 2004, Emily Roddy was driving at highway speed in a late model pickup truck on which had been mounted in the left front position a model Z36, load range C, light truck radial tire manufactured in 1997. On board were her children, Alexa and Hunter Hathcock. The tire “bl[e]w out the side,” causing Roddy to lose control of her vehicle and hit a tree, to devastating results. Roddy died at the scene of the accident, seven-year-old Hunter passed away at the hospital, and five-year-old Alexa survived with debilitating injuries.

The tragedy resulted in claims of defective design and manufacture against manufacturer Hankook Tire America Corporation and Hankook Tire Company Limited (collectively, Hankook) filed by the children’s father, Keith Hathcock (Hathcock). At trial, Hathcock’s expert Troy Cottles espoused several design-defect theories, including the absence of a nylon cap ply, a narrow top steel belt, a thin belt wedge, and inadequate skim stock. As to the claimed manufacturing defect, Cottles claimed the tire contained trapped air and had steel belt irregularities and poor bonding, as evidenced by stress risers, oxida-tive degradation, rubber reversion, and linear patterns. Hankook’s defense was that the tire was seven years old, had been chronically underinflated, and had sustained a “dramatic” impact 2,000 to 3,000 miles before the accident. After a four-week trial, Hankook won the jury’s verdict.

Hathcock complains on appeal that the evidence was factually insufficient to support the jury’s verdict that there was no manufacture or design defect. He also argues that the trial court erred in excluding evidence of “use of nylon cap plies in non-speed rated tires,” of government regulations enacted after the tire was made, and of a comparison of the tire’s defects to defects found in Firestone tires. Hath-cock also suggests the trial court erred in admitting testimony of two of Hankook’s allegedly untimely designated witnesses and in allowing testimony from the publication “The Pneumatic Tire,” sponsored by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration.

We affirm the judgment of the trial court, because (1) factually sufficient evidence supports the verdict; the trial court was within its discretion in (2) excluding evidence regarding nylon cap plies, (3) excluding evidence regarding FMVSS 139, (4) excluding evidence regarding Firestone tires, (5) admitting testimony from Han-kook’s timely designated witnesses; and (6) no error appears regarding evidence from the publication “The Pneumatic Tire.”

(1) Factually Sufficient Evidence Supports the Verdict

When considering a factual sufficiency challenge to a jury’s verdict, we must consider and weigh all of the evidence, not just that evidence which supports the verdict. City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802, 827 (Tex.2005) (citing Mar. Overseas Corp. v. Ellis, 971 S.W.2d 402, 406-07 (Tex.1998)). We will set aside the judgment only if it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that it is clearly wrong and unjust. Id. (citing Ellis, 971 S.W.2d at 407; Cain v. Bain, 709 S.W.2d 175, 176 (Tex.1986)). Because we are not a fact-finder, we will not pass [737]*737on the witnesses’ credibility or substitute our judgment for the jury’s, even if the evidence would clearly support a different result. Id. (citing Ellis, 971 S.W.2d at 407).

Accident reconstructionist Danny Phillips testified that the tragedy was caused by the “disablement” of the left front tire. He confirmed that Roddy was travelling under the speed limit of seventy miles per hour.

The detreaded Hankook tire was a model Z36, load range C, light truck, high flotation radial tire1 manufactured in 1997 in Daejeon, Korea. The first claimed design defect discussed by expert Cottles was lack of a nylon cap ply, which “is a nylon layer that would be the last layer on the tire before the tread that’s really meant to hold all the rest of the tire all together.” Cottles explained that, if the belts are wrapped in nylon:

it’ll resist so that when you cure the tire, it shapes up in a mold it’s already intentioned and there are a lot of patents on that that talk about pretensioning the belts with the nylon. So that throughout the use of the tire, whatever range of speed you’re using, this is helping cinch the belts down and keep them from wanting to fly loose from each other.

Cottles did not claim that every tire without a nylon cap ply was defective, but that, “[i]f [the] tire’s going to fail in tread separation mode without a nylon cap ply, then the technology of nylon cap plies is known in the industry to improve that performance.” He testified before the jury that the nylon cap ply was a technology available in 1997 and was economically feasible, since the cost would be between thirty cents to one dollar per tire.

Next, Cottles criticized belt irregularities. He testified:

Items that I saw here that I’m critical of from design of the tire are that the top belt is very narrow to the contacting area of the tire. Sort of from my training design 101 is you want this top belt to basically take up all of the stress and strain that can cause flex and heat stress and strain out at the shoulders. So, you want that belt .to encompass the contacting area or the width of the tire.

Cottles claimed that a safer alternative design would have included a wider top belt. He also told the jury that the tire had inadequate skim stock and that a thicker belt wedge would improve durability by “dissipat[ing] the heat stress and strain that occurs at the belt edges, which is the highest area of heat stress and strain in most tires.”

As for manufacturing defects, Cottles “noted that trapped air was in the presence of that belt skim from the time it was manufactured.” He explained that the “oxidative degradation of the belt skim between the two belts” was evidence that “the bond has failed in an area of the tire which makes it weaker and more susceptible to separate.” The oxidation occurred, he said, also in part due to inadequacy of the skim stock, which contained “enough antioxidant in it to sustain it and let it wear out before that occurred.” Cottles testified that a gap in the belt splice was, according to testimony of Hankook witness Eun Pyo Hong, an irregularity that did not meet specification standards. Cottles believed that the tire was improperly cured because, “If you pulled something apart that’s been properly cured, you’d have a random tear structure to the tear. Here, [738]*738this comes off and there’s no tear.” He concluded, “The tire is defective by both manufacturing and design defects.”

Hankook’s strategy was to focus on the condition of the seven-year-old tire. Rod-dy’s husband, Marion Shane Roddy, had owned the truck four months before the accident. He testified that, to make sure “none of the tires were low,” “I just walked by and kicked the tires. I never just put a gauge on it.” He knew nothing of the condition of the tires before he inherited the truck from his father.

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Bluebook (online)
330 S.W.3d 733, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 10032, 2010 WL 5133519, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hathcock-v-hankook-tire-america-corp-texapp-2010.