Lee v. CNH America, LLC

746 S.E.2d 243, 322 Ga. App. 766, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 2449, 2013 WL 3388737, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 605
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJuly 9, 2013
DocketA13A0696
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 746 S.E.2d 243 (Lee v. CNH America, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lee v. CNH America, LLC, 746 S.E.2d 243, 322 Ga. App. 766, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 2449, 2013 WL 3388737, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 605 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Boggs, Judge.

In this product liability action, Hazel Lee, the wife and executrix of Robert Lee, appeals from a defense verdict in favor of CNH America, LLC, and CNH Italia (collectively “CNH”).1 Mrs. Lee contends on appeal that the trial court erred in charging the jury on assumption of the risk, misuse of a product, and spoliation. She also asserts that the trial court erred by allowing an OCGA § 9-11-30 (b) (6) defense witness to give expert opinion testimony. Based upon the “any evidence” standard of review on appeal, the trial court did not err [767]*767in its charges, and Mrs. Lee cannot demonstrate prejudice resulting from the alleged opinion testimony offered by the defense witness. We therefore affirm.

The record shows that a new tractor manufactured by the defendants was delivered to Robert Lee on April 30,2007. Three days later, on May 3, 2007, his wife found his body trapped between the elevated cultivator and the rear tractor wheel with the engine running. The evening before Mr. Lee’s death, he called his brother-in-law and told him that he loved his new tractor, that “the lift was all the way up or all the way down,” and asked him to “come that Saturday to try to help him figure out what it was.” Evidence presented at trial showed that Lee had owned three or four tractors for over thirty-five years before purchasing the CNH tractor, was mechanically inclined, and “could fix anything.”

The tractor included a “lift-o-matic” feature (also called “the fast raise/fast lower system”) that allowed the operator to flip a single switch to quickly raise or lower any attached implement. This switch was located on the right side of the operator’s seat. The tractor also included a height limit adjustment knob that was used to adjust the preset height at which an attached implement would raise when the lift-o-matic switch was in the “fast raise” position. This knob was located on the rear of the tractor behind the operator’s seat. In order to adjust the preset height, the operator would have to get out of the operator seat and go behind the tractor “in between the tractor and the implement.” If the height limit adjustment knob is loosened while the tractor is running and the lift-o-matic switch is in the fast raise position, the implement will instantly raise to its full height.

It is undisputed that Lee read the operator’s manual for the tractor “every night” and that he received a copy before the tractor was delivered. The operator’s manual contained numerous warnings about turning the tractor engine off before servicing or adjusting the tractor or its implements. Additionally, the portion of the manual addressing the height limit adjustment feature instructed the operator to place the lift-o-matic feature in the fast lower position and to “switch off the engine” before loosening the knob. If the lift-o-matic feature had been placed in fast lower or the engine had been turned off, Lee would not have been crushed during any attempt to adjust the knob while standing between the implement and the tractor. Finally, a sticker on the right rear fender of the tractor stated: “Lift raises or drops completely when fast raise/lower lift control is operated. Do not stand on the implement or in between implement and tractor while operating fast raise/lower lift control or injury may result.” The jury heard evidence that, two months after Lee’s death, CNH changed the [768]*768warning on its tractor and in its manual “related to the height limit adjustment feature and being back there with the engine running.”

The salesperson who sold the tractor to Lee testified that when he delivered the tractor, Lee asked him to explain the fast raise and lower system. The salesperson explained the proper procedure and demonstrated it “half a dozen or more times” before asking Lee to “do it two or three times.” When “demonstrating the proper procedure to adjust the height limit function,” the salesperson “instruct[ed] him to turn the engine off before loosening the knob.” The salesperson did not tell Lee he would be exposing himself to danger or risk if he failed to turn the engine off because Lee had “been around tractors and equipment all his life” and it would have been insulting to tell him something he already knew. According to the salesperson, the risk of going between the tractor and the implement when the engine was running was “open and obvious” and one which he believed that Lee understood. After spending almost two hours with Lee, the salesperson believed that Lee knew how to use the lift-o-matic and height limit control features properly and that Lee understood that the engine should be off when the height limit was adjusted. Each time the salesperson or Lee practiced adjusting the height control in the back of the tractor, he turned the engine off before doing so.

While CNH’s counsel asked Lee’s counsel to inspect the tractor on July 5, 2007, less than two months after the accident and before any lawsuit had been filed, their request was refused, and they were not allowed to do so until August 2009, over two years after Lee’s death and four months after Mrs. Lee filed her complaint. In the intervening period, the tractor was inspected by two consultants on behalf of Mrs. Lee, and her son operated the tractor during the inspection, doing “what they told me to do.” During his testimony at trial, the son denied that he or the consultants turned any knobs behind the tractor. On February 2, 2009, the tractor was transferred to Benedict Engineering in Florida and stored in unknown conditions. On July 13, 2009, the tractor was moved to Weil Wrecker in Birmingham, Alabama and stored in an enclosed building that may not have had climate control.

During his inspection of the tractor in August 2009, John Bucher, a product performance specialist with CNH,2 obtained permission from plaintiff’s representative before loosening the height adjustment knob. Bucher testified at trial that “[t]he first time I went to [769]*769loosen the knob I made the comment, wow, it’s tight and I couldn’t loosen it,. . . it was extremely tight.” He assumed that the cam may have been paint stuck which “would eliminate the possibility that Mr. Lee loosened the knob and the lift came up.” When he later learned from the dealer that the cam was loosened before delivery, he eliminated the paint stuck theory.

The record shows that Bucher testified in his deposition about the following “possibilities” of what may have happened to Lee: (1) “Lee was behind the tractor and the engine was running, someone else could have been on the seat and could have hit the fast raise/lower or could have raised the position lever”; (2) “[w]hile Lee was behind the tractor, he could have reached up over the rear of the tractor and stood on the three-point hitch arm and reached up over the tractor and either latched or unlatched the fast raise/lower into the raised position ... and maybe lost balance and fell off and ... at that point, the whole three-point hitch was coming up the whole way”; and (3) “[t] here’s a possibility that he chose to keep the engine running and went back there and tried to adjust the height limit control.” At trial, Bucher testified that scenario number 3 could not happen if the knob was as tight at the time of the accident as it was during his inspection.

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746 S.E.2d 243, 322 Ga. App. 766, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 2449, 2013 WL 3388737, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 605, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lee-v-cnh-america-llc-gactapp-2013.