International Harvester Co. v. Zavala

623 S.W.2d 699, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3982
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 23, 1981
Docket17784
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 623 S.W.2d 699 (International Harvester Co. v. Zavala) 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
International Harvester Co. v. Zavala, 623 S.W.2d 699, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3982 (Tex. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

PEDEN, Justice.

International Harvester Company appeals from a judgment based on jury findings awarding Mr. Pedro Zavala damages of $605,000 in his strict liability suit for personal injuries sustained when liquified petroleum gases escaped through a pressure relief valve on the fuel tank of an International tractor and burst into flames. International was awarded contribution of one half of the $605,000 on its cross-action against the manufacturer of the defective pressure relief valve. Monsanto Company and its subsidiary, Fisher Controls Company (collectively, “Fisher” or “Fisher Controls”).

The accident occurred in 1974 near Se-guin, Texas. The 1953 model International tractor was owned by Zavala’s employer, Mr. George Englar. Its tank, designed to use liquified petroleum gas and to accommodate high pressures, was fitted with an elbow-shaped protrusion with an opening for a pressure-relief valve. The Rego brand valve that was in use at the time of the accident had lodged inside it a screw that was found by the jury to have come from a Fisher valve that had been replaced a short time earlier.

The loose screw from the Fisher valve had apparently rested in the elbow-shaped tube coming from the fuel tank and, when the gas pressure caused the Rego valve to operate, or pop off, the screw was swept into the Rego valve, where it kept the valve from closing. The propane gas contents of the LPG tank were suddenly and totally emptied around Zavala in a field of tall, thick cane, were ignited by some source, and caused the injuries complained of.

The trial jury found, in response to special issues:

1. The location of the pressure relief valve on the tractor made the tractor defective
2. and this was a producing cause of the occurrence.
3. The tractor was made defective by the color of its tank,
4. and this was a producing cause of the occurrence.
*702 5. The tractor was made defective by the absence of insulation between the tractor tank and engine,
6. and this was a producing cause of the occurrence.
7. The screw found in the Rego valve came from the Fisher valve.
8. The Fisher valve was defective when it left the control of Fisher Controls Co.
9. and such defect was a producing cause of the occurrence.
10.The damages findings were:
$100,000 for past physical pain
75,000 for future pain
100,000 for past mental anguish
50,000 for future mental anguish
50,000 for past physical impairment
80,000 for future physical impairment
75,000 for present disfigurement
75,000 for future disfigurement

International does not attack the eviden-tiary basis of the jury’s answers to Special Issues 1, 3, and 5.

International contends that the trial court erred 1) in failing to grant it full indemnity against Fisher Controls, in overruling its motion for new trial, because the evidence of producing cause was legally or factually insufficient 3) in overruling an objection to an improper jury argument, and 4) in refusing to order remittitur of a portion of the damages found by the jury. We affirm.

In its first point of error International contends that it is entitled to full indemnity from Fisher Controls because 1) International’s position is sufficiently analogous to that of a retailer or assembler of a defective part to bring it within the rule of Heil Company v. Grant, 534 S.W.2d 916 (Tex.Civ.App.1976, writ ref’d n. r. e.), and 2) if there were defects in the design of its tractor and if those defects operated as a producing cause of the accident, their operation occurred in an ultra-hazardous environment created by Fisher Controls.

The appellees say there are at least four reasons why International cannot obtain full indemnity from Fisher Controls in this case: 1) Fisher breached no duty to International because International was not a consumer or user of the pressure valve within the meaning of the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A (1965), 2) International sustained only economic loss, not physical harm, 3) International was not an “innocent” retailer or assembler, and 4) International is liable to Zavala on three grounds wholly independent of the valve defect attributable to Fisher.

Indemnity is “the payment of all of plaintiff’s damage by one tortfeasor to another tortfeasor who has paid it to the plaintiff.” General Motors Corp. v. Simmons, 558 S.W.2d 855, 859-60 (Tex.1977); Hodges, Contribution and Indemnity Among Tortfeasors, 26 Tex.L.Rev. 150, 151 (1947), and results in shifting the entire burden of loss from one tortfeasor to another. Contribution, on the other hand, is “the payment by each tortfeasor of his proportionate share of the plaintiff’s damages to any other tortfeasor who has paid more than his proportionate part.” General Motors Corp. v. Simmons, supra, citing Hodges, supra.

The apportionment of damages among strictly liable tortfeasors is governed by Article 2212, the original Texas contribution statute, and the principles enunciated in Palestine Contractors, Inc. v. Perkins, 386 S.W.2d 764 (Tex.1964). General Motors Corp. v. Simmons, supra, at 862. Unlike the latter case, this appeal does not present the problem of comparing percentage causation of a strictly liable manufacturer with a negligent co-defendant; here, both International and Fisher Controls were found strictly liable.

The Texas Supreme Court has held that the common law right of indemnity is no longer available among joint tortfeasors in negligence cases but has expressed no opinion as to whether such holding extends to strict liability cases. B&B Auto Supply, Sand Pit, and Trucking Co. v. Central Freight Lines, Inc., 603 S.W.2d 814, 817 (Tex.1980).

*703 The applicable rule was stated succinctly by the Corpus Christi Court of Civil Appeals in Bell Helicopter Co. v. Bradshaw, 594 S.W.2d 519, 535 (Tex.Civ.App.1979, no writ): “A party who is strictly liable to an injured party is required to indemnify a co-tortfeasor only when the co-tortfeasor has been injured due to a breach of duty owed him by a party strictly liable.” citing General Motors Corp. v. Simmons, supra, at 859-60.

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623 S.W.2d 699, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3982, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-harvester-co-v-zavala-texapp-1981.