Hector PACHECO; Maria Pacheco, Appellees, v. the COATS COMPANY, INC.; Hennessy Industries, Inc., Appellants

26 F.3d 418

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• Decided: July 15, 1994
• Docket: 93-1791
• Status: Published

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

MANSMANN, Circuit Judge.

Hector Pacheco was severely and permanently injured when the tire he was removing or about to remove from a Coats 40-40 tire changer exploded and launched from the tire changer table top, striking his left elbow with such kinetic force as to irreparably shatter his elbow. Pacheco and his wife, Maria, brought a diversity products liability action against the Coats Company and Hennessy Industries on the theory that the “launch-pad effect” which caused his injury constitutes a design defect which renders the Coats tire changer unsafe for its intended use. The alleged defect centers on the condition of the changer table top to act as a thrust surface, not unlike any other table top or flat surface. The Pachecos do not assert a defect in any active phase of the machine’s function, or that the machine itself caused the tire to rupture.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of the Pachecos for $325,000. The defendants appeal from a denial of their motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, now known as judgment as a matter of law. We must decide whether there is substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict on the questions of product defect and proximate causation.

I.

Hector Pacheco, a 42-year-old self-employed automobile mechanic, had just completed a tire change using a Coats 40-40 tire changer and was about to lift the tire from the surface of the machine, when the tire suddenly and violently exploded. The tire and tire rim were thrust from the surface of the tire changer and one or both of them apparently struck Mr. Pacheco’s left elbow, causing the total irreparable disintegration of the elbow bone. Pacheco has undergone several surgical procedures, including an elbow transplant and ultimately a replacement of the natural bone joint with a prosthesis, which may require future revision, and suffers a loss of arm function as well as the loss of his employment capacity as a mechanic. The manufacturers of the tire and tire rim have not been identified. The Pachecos commenced a strict product liability action against the manufacturers of the Coats 40-40 tire changer, ie., the Coats Company and Hennessy Industries (“Coats”).¹

The overwhelming evidence at trial converged to establish that the tire explosion caused Mr. Pacheco’s injury, although some controversy centered on the exact positioning of Mr. Pacheco’s arms at the time of the explosion, and whether the injury was necessarily the result of contact with the trajectile. The evidence further tended to prove to a high degree of certainty that the explosion resulted from a tire bead failure which occurred after the completion of the tire changing process. Thus the parties agreed that a defective tire, and not the Coats 40-40, caused the explosion which injured Mr. Pacheco. Mr. Pacheco’s theory of defective design product liability, however, is based on evidence that the table top of the Coats 40-40 served virtually as a “launching pad” against which the ruptured tire bead reacted, resulting in the intensely powerful thrust of exploding tire material. Moreover, substantial evidence showed that at the time of Mr. Pacheco’s accident, this type of scenario was foreseeable, that Coats was long aware of the serious risk of bodily harm associated with working with compressed air and the tire inflation process, that such risk could have been significantly reduced through feasible product design modifications, and that Coats failed to “design out” the product defect.

At trial it was shown that in past years Coats’ engineers had conducted a number of tests which examined the “launch effect” of exploding tires reacting to its tire changer table top. In particular, the “Strang test,” named after the engineer who carried it out in 1966, concluded that the shape of the machine’s table surface affects its potential to serve as a “launching pad” when a tire resting on it explodes. Although the Coats employee charged with overseeing safety programs for the company testified that this test was incomplete, was conducted solely for the purpose of drafting warning labels and operating instructions, was inconclusive as to design implications, and was superseded by subsequent studies undertaken by Coats, the weight of the evidence clearly established that, from the 1960s, Coats was aware of the phenomenon of ruptured tire beads striking the table top and launching upwards. The evidence further showed that other tests carried out by Coats’ employees, including the “Gottsholl test” in the 1970s and the “Maeln-nelli test” of 1987, studied the height that a tire was lifted off a platform when it exploded, and demonstrated that elevating the tire above the platform minimizes an exploding tire’s upward thrust.

Mr. Pacheco’s attorney argued from the findings of Coats’ own studies that a reduction in the launch pad effect through a redesign of the tire changer would be feasible. Dr. Alan Milner, a professional engineer and consultant with a special expertise in the area of tires and tire explosions, testified on behalf of Mr. Pacheco that modifications to the Coats 40-40 model could reduce the kinetic energy of an explosion by 98%. He proposed a hypothetical redesign whereby the table surface of the tire changer would be reduced to the size of the tire rim and elevated 6-/6” from any surrounding surface so as to dissipate the energy emitted from an explosion. As a theoretical matter, this would reduce the upward thrust of an exploding tire to a mere fraction of what it would be if the tire bead were in contact with the table top at the time of explosion. Mr. Pacheco’s attending physician, as well as an accident reconstructionist and biomedical engineer, testified that a substantial reduction in the upward thrust of an exploding tire would have reduced Mr. Pacheco’s injury.

Coats’ safety program overseer countered that as a practical matter, the effects of a thrust surface cannot be reduced by diminishing the size of the thrust surface, and that a reduction in the launch effect can only be achieved if the launch surface is eliminated. Because he thought it was not possible to design a tire changer without a table top, or so impracticable as to make it virtually impossible, he testified that the proposed hypothetical redesign would not be practically feasible. Coats’ witness discredited the proposed redesign as being merely conceptual and lacking the scrutiny of the various engineering disciplines required to complete a product design. He further asserted that the proposed redesign would create a false sense of security and would itself create new ergonomic problems while not eliminating either the risk of tire explosion or the risk of serious injury from such explosion.

■ Mr. Pacheco testified that he was aware of the potential danger of the tire explosion, and that he was also aware of the warning labels placed by Coats on the tire changer. The parties agreed that an exploding tire would react identically whether it exploded off of the table top of the Coats 40-40 or off of virtually any other flat surface, such as a floor. The parties agreed that the Coats 40-40 did not cause the explosion. The pivotal factual dispute at trial concerned whether the flat table top of the Coats 40-40 constitutes a defective design, whether a redesign would have been feasible, and whether the failure to implement a redesign was a substantial cause of Mr. Pacheco’s injury.²

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Mr. Pacheco on the issues of whether the tire changer was defective and whether the defect was a proximate cause of Mr. Pacheco’s injuries. In' accordance with the jury’s responses to the special interrogatories, the district court entered judgment in favor of Mr. Pacheco in the amount of $300,000, and in favor of Mrs. Pacheco in the amount of $25,000 on her claim for loss of consortium. The Coats Company and Hennessy Industries timely moved pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50 for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or alternatively, for a new trial pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59. They withdrew their Rule 59 motion; the district court denied their Rule 50 motion in an order dated July 20, 1998. Notwithstanding its acknowledgement that the trial produced conflicting evidence as to whether the Coats 40-40 was defective in design, the court found substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict as to all the issues. The Coats Company and Hennessy Industries timely appealed the district court’s final order.

Reviewing the record in a light most favorable to the non-moving party, we must ascertain de novo whether the record contains sufficient evidence to sustain the jury’s verdict. See, e.g., Chuy v. Philadelphia Eagles Football Club, 595 F.2d 1265, 1273 (3d Cir.1979) (in banc).

II.

Mr. Pacheco’s personal injury case was brought under the laws of Pennsylvania for defective products. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has adopted § 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts³ to govern strict product liability claims. Webb v. Zern, 422 Pa. 424, 220 A.2d 853, 854 (1966). We review well-settled principles of Pennsylvania law regarding this section.

A.

Section 402A imposes strict liability for injuries caused by defective product design. See Lewis v. Coffing Hoist Div., Duff-Norton Co., 515 Pa. 334, 528 A.2d 590, 592 (1987) (citations omitted). In Azzarello v. Black Bros. Co., 480 Pa. 547, 391 A.2d 1020 (1978), the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania set forth the legal standard for defective design strict liability claims. The court held that before such a claim is submitted to a jury for factual determinations, the court itself must resolve the legal question of risk allocation. Id. 391 A.2d at 1025-27; see also Griggs v. BIC Corp., 981 F.2d 1429, 1432-33 (3d Cir.1992) (the first step of a strict liability defective product claim requires a judicial determination as a matter of law where the risk of loss shall fall). A judicial determination that Pennsylvania social policy allocates the risk away from the manufacturer in a strict product liability case is tantamount to a judicial conclusion that the product is not defective.

If a judicial determination is made that recovery against the manufacturer would be justified as a matter of law, then the court may submit to the jury the question of whether the product was sold in a defective condition as alleged. Griggs, 981 F.2d at 1432-33. The jury may find that a product is defective if “the product left the supplier’s control lacking any element necessary to make it safe for its intended use or possessing any feature that renders it unsafe for the intended use.” Azzarello, 391 A.2d at 1027 (footnote omitted); see also Fitzpatrick v. Madonna, 424 Pa.Super. 473, 623 A.2d 322, 324 (1993) (citing Azzarello); Marshall v. Philadelphia Tramrail Co., 426 Pa.Super. 156, 626 A.2d 620, 626 (1993); Dambacher v. Mallis, 336 Pa.Super. 22, 485 A.2d 408, 420-24 (1984), appeal dismissed, 508 Pa. 643, 500 A.2d 428 (1985). It is not sufficient for liability that the product is shown to be unsafe for a use not intended; rather, a plaintiff must prove that the product is unreasonably dangerous to intended users for its intended use. See Griggs, 981 F.2d at 1433. We have held that the intended use of a product “includes all those which are reasonably foreseeable to the seller.” Sheldon v. West Bend Equip. Corp., 718 F.2d 603, 608 (3d Cir.1983). More recently, we have acknowledged that the term “foreseeability” is associated with the law of negligence and should not be applied in a strict liability analysis. Griggs, 981 F.2d at 1435. Nevertheless, the intended use and user, while primarily an inquiry into the manufacturer’s intent, is measured against an objective standard of reasonableness. If the plaintiff proves that the product was defective, the final requisite under a strict liability cause of action is proof that the defect was the proximate cause of the plaintiffs injury. Griggs, 981 F.2d at 1432; Habecker v. Copperloy Corp., 893 F.2d 49, 54 (3d Cir.1990) (Habecker I ) (causation is essential factor in products liability action).

We note, with regard to the question of risk allocation, that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has already concluded that “the risk of loss for injury resulting from defective products should be borne by the suppliers, principally because they are in a position to absorb the loss by distributing it as a cost of doing business.” Azzarello, 391 A.2d at 1023.

This policy, however, does not make the manufacturer an absolute insurer of any injury caused by its product, and must be applied within the parameters of the manufacturer’s intended use of the product. The district court properly submitted to the jury the question of whether the product was defective — a question which pivots on a finding as to whether the product was being operated by an intended user for an intended use at the time of the accident. In its July 20, 1993 order, the district court held:

... Clearly, there is substantial evidence of record to support a jury finding that the intended use of the tire changing machine includes placing the tire and wheel onto and removing it from the machine before and after the tire changing function has been completed and allowing the wheel and tire to rest thereon before, during, and after the tire is changed. Also, there is substantial evidence to support the jury determination that Plaintiffs use of the machine was consistent with and within its intended use.

We agree. A reasonable jury could properly conclude that the tire changing function includes the mounting and demounting of a tire onto and off of the tire changing machine, and that the Coats 40-40 is engaged in its intended use during these indispensable first and last steps of the tire changing process. Clearly, mounting and demounting the tire was reasonably intended by the seller. Furthermore, Mr. Pacheco was undeniably an intended user of the Coats 40 — 40. The jury viewed evidence that Coats was well aware of the “launch-pad” effect, as well as evidence that a practical and feasible alternative design could greatly reduce the potential for the severity of injury which Mr. Pacheco suffered. Our review of the record supports the district court’s view that the jury had substantial evidence from which it could rationally conclude that the Coats 40-40 was defectively designed for its intended use and that an alternative feasible redesign of the product was reasonably practicable.⁴

B.

We turn now to the plaintiffs second task — to show that the product defect actually caused the claimed injury. Again we find that Mr. Pacheco introduced sufficient evidence at trial from which a jury could reasonably infer that the Coats 40-40 table top proximately caused Mr. Pacheco’s injury. It is not dispositive to the issue of causation that the Coats 40-40 flat table top was merely a “passive” reactive surface and that the machine itself did not emit the kinetic force which ruptured the tire. Coats is not exonerated by the fact that a defective tire or tire rim contributed proximately to Mr. Pacheco’s injury if the Coats 40-40 design defect was a substantial factor in causing the harm. The jury heard evidence that explosive kinetic energy reacting against a thrust surface created the potential hazard realized in this case. Coats itself testified to the fact that the upward thrust of exploding tire material is caused, at least in part, by “leaping,” ie., when a ruptured tire bead is bounced off of a flat surface. In short, the jury heard sufficient evidence from which it could reasonably conclude that the exploding tire’s contact with the Coats 40-40 table top was a substantial factor causing Mr. Pacheco’s injury.⁵

III.

The district court properly submitted the factual questions of defect and proximate causation to the jury. The evidence of record supports a jury verdict against Coats on the theory that a defect in the design of the Coats 40-40 tire changer was a proximate cause of Mr. Pacheco’s injury, as the district court held in denying Coats’ post-trial motion.⁶

We will affirm the district court’s order of July 20, 1993, denying Coats’ motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

1 . Hennessy Industries is a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation, and Coats is a brand name of Hennessy Industries. Hennessy has been making tire changers under the Coats name since the 1960s.

The manufacturer of the tire which exploded is unknown. Mr. Pacheco testified that the exploded tire was removed from the accident scene by someone other than himself, perhaps the owner, and has not been recovered.

2 . There was also evidence at trial concerning the extent of Mr. Pacheco's injuries and damages. The jury verdict as to damages is well supported by the evidence and is not in itself contested in this appeal.

3 . Section 402A provides:

(1) One who sells any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer or to his property is subject to liability for physical harm thereby caused to the ultimate user or consumer, or to his property, if

(a) the seller is engaged in the business of selling such a product, arid

(b) it is expected to and does reach the user or consumer without substantial change in the condition in which it is sold.

(2) The rule stated in Subsection (1) applies although

(a) the seller has exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale of his product, and

(b) the user or consumer has not bought the product from or entered into any contractual relation with the seller.

4 . The dissenting opinion characterizes the majority holding to be that "prevention or reduction of injuries from exploding tires is an intended use of a tire changer as a matter of law." We wish to clarify that we understand tire changing to be the intended use of the Coats 40-40, but that the Coats 40-40 lacked an element necessary to make it safe for that intended use. The Coats 40-40 lacked safety features which substantial evidence showed could have been reasonably incorporated into its design.

5 . We find it necessary to clarify that the majority holding does not rely on “causation of enhanced injury” in the absence here of "causation of the accident," as the dissent indicates. We acknowledge that the Coats 40-40 did not cause the tire bead to fail. Nevertheless, the bead failure, alone, did not cause the injury to Mr. Pacheco. The accident, or injury, resulted from the convergence of more than one substantial factor, primarily among which were the bead failure and the explosive reaction against the thrust surface of the Coats 40-40. Thus, the Coats tire changer was a substantial, even if passive, cause of the injury.

6 .Coats’ final challenge to the jury verdict attacks the application of the "crashworthiness doctrine” to the facts of the case. In its basic formulation, the crashworthiness doctrine holds an automobile manufacturer responsible for designing and producing a crashworthy vehicle. See, e.g., Huddell v. Levin, 537 F.2d 726, 737 (3d Cir.1976). Coats argues that this doctrine has not and should not be extended to non-vehicle product liability cases. We decline to decide that issue here. While the district court did charge the jury on the crashworthiness theory, there is no evidence that the jury found for Mr. Pacheco under, or exclusively under, that theory. The jury did find that the Coats 40-40 was defective and that the product defect was a substantial factor causing Mr. Pacheco's injury, supporting Mr. Pacheco's § 402A defective product cause of action.