Kloepfer v. Honda Motor Co.

898 F.2d 1452, 1990 WL 23933
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedMarch 12, 1990
DocketNo. 88-1652
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 898 F.2d 1452 (Kloepfer v. Honda Motor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kloepfer v. Honda Motor Co., 898 F.2d 1452, 1990 WL 23933 (10th Cir. 1990).

Opinion

BARRETT, Senior Circuit Judge.

Robert Vernon Kloepfer and Cindy Klo-epfer (Kloepfers) appeal from an adverse jury verdict and judgment thereon following a one month trial. The Kloepfers initiated this product liability action after their six-year-old son Brandon was killed while riding as a passenger on a Honda three-wheeled all-terrain vehicle (ATV) owned and operated by his uncle, Kevin Pearson. Brandon was riding without a helmet in front of his uncle on the ATV. As they proceeded up a steep hill, the ATV overturned and Brandon suffered fatal injuries.

The Kloepfers sued American Honda Motor Company, the manufacturer of the ATV, the distributor of the ATV, and the research and design entities that developed the ATV. The Kloepfers based their action on theories of negligence, strict liability, false advertising, negligent failure to warn, strict liability for failure to warn, train and advise how to operate the vehicle, and for violation of the reporting requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Act.

Defendants-appellees (Honda) defended on the basis that the ATV was not defectively designed and that its advertisements were not misleading. Honda also asserted that: the ATV was being operated in total contravention of warnings and instructions affixed to it in that Pearson had placed an unhelmeted passenger on the ATV and climbed an obviously dangerous hill, and the throttle cable of the ATV had been dangerously and improperly altered by Pearson and this drastically undermined his ability to control the vehicle.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Honda on all counts. Kloepfers’ motion for a new trial was denied by the district court.

[1454]*1454On appeal, the Kloepfers contend that: (1) the court erred in failing to respond to a question from the jury; (2) the special verdict form was improper; (3) the court erred in excluding certain evidence; (4) the court erred in refusing to allow specific questions of Cindy Kloepfer; (5) the court erred in admitting post-accident riding activities of Pearson; (6) the voir dire was improper; and (7) Honda’s defense counsel created reversible error by numerous instances of gross misconduct.

I.

Kloepfers contend that it was reversible error for the trial court to refuse to give additional instructions to the jury. The special verdict form submitted to the jury included Interrogatory 8 which provided:

Did Honda fail to use reasonable care to adequately warn and instruct the user of the 1984 Honda 200X of non-obvious risks or dangers associated with the use of the vehicle?

During deliberations, the jury inquired of the court: “Do the words, the user, refer to all users or to Kevin Pearson specifically?”

After receiving this inquiry, the following colloquy transpired in chambers:

Mr. Maack (counsel for Honda): Your honor, I know that the evidence is in and the arguments have been made, that it probably wouldn’t be wise to try and amend the form. I think we could just say that you have received the instructions and the special verdict form and therein lies your instructions and therein lies your task.
Mr. Slobodin (counsel for Kloepfers): I don’t agree at all, your honor. I think that it should be made clear.... And I think that the jury should be told ‘users’ And I think that it is very clear and I feel strongly about that. I have had a lot of objections to this form.
The Court: Well, I know you did, Jack. But let me say this, Mr. Slobodin. I indicated to you that I would like to use the plaintiffs form if possible. If the form was inadequate, that you prepare one overnight and have it here the next morning. When I came the next morning there was no form. Now that is the problem that I was faced with. And it seemed to me that this was as good a verdict form as I had.
Mr. Slobodin: Well, what I think we tried to do was to modify their form and it just didn’t work out too well as far as modifications. But that is what I recall I tried to do was to modify the form.
The Court: Well, I think I am going to suggest that we say to them that they have the evidence. They have the instructions and it is for them to draw what conclusions that they wish from that and that goes both ways.
Mr. Slobodin: All right.
Mr. Slobodin: Well, I feel that it should be “users” but I made my feelings known.

R., Vol. XL at p. 2857.

After discussing the jury’s question with counsel, the court responded to the jury as follows:

You have the evidence. You have the instructions. You are free to draw what conclusions you deem appropriate therefrom.

Id. at p. 2858.

Kloepfers contend that the court’s statement was erroneous because it is “clear under the law that warnings for instructions for the use of products apply to persons foreseeably endangered by the products use.” (Brief of the Appellants at p. 9). As such, Kloepfers contend that the court should have instructed the jury that the term “user” was to be changed to “users” and that the court’s failure to so instruct gave rise to reversible error.

Honda responds that the court’s response was proper inasmuch as the jury had been properly instructed on Kloepfers’ negligent failure to warn claims in Instructions 351 and 382. Honda argues, that if [1455]*1455the “instruction given sufficiently covers the case so that a jury can intelligently determine the questions presented, the judgment will not be disturbed because further amplification is refused,” quoting Investment Service Co. v. Allied Equities Corp., 519 F.2d 508, 511 (9th Cir.1975). We agree.

When examining a challenge to a jury instructions we review the record as a whole to determine whether the instructions “state the law which governs and provided the jury with an ample understanding of the issues and the standards applicable.” Big Horn Coal Company v. Commonwealth Edison Co., 852 F.2d 1259, 1271 (10th Cir.1988), quoting Ramsey v. Culpepper, 738 F.2d 1092, 1098 (10th Cir.1984). We thus consider all that the jury heard and, from the standpoint of the jury, decide “not whether the charge was faultless in every particular but whether the jury was misled in any way and whether it had understanding of the issues and its duty to determine these issues.” Big Horn Coal Co., supra, at p. 1271, quoting Durflinger v. Artiles, 727 F.2d 888, 895 (10th Cir.1984), quoting Alloy Int’l Co. v. Hoover-NSK Bearing Co., 635 F.2d 1222 (7th Cir.1980).

Applying these standards to the facts herein, we hold that the district court did not err in refusing to further instruct the jury on Interrogatory 8.

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Bluebook (online)
898 F.2d 1452, 1990 WL 23933, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kloepfer-v-honda-motor-co-ca10-1990.