McConnell v. Union Carbide Corp.

937 So. 2d 148, 2006 WL 1750384
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 28, 2006
Docket4D04-4329
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 937 So. 2d 148 (McConnell v. Union Carbide Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McConnell v. Union Carbide Corp., 937 So. 2d 148, 2006 WL 1750384 (Fla. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

937 So.2d 148 (2006)

William McCONNELL and Elizabeth McConnell, Appellants,
v.
UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION, Appellee.

No. 4D04-4329.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

June 28, 2006.
Rehearing Denied October 6, 2006.

*149 James L. Ferraro and David A. Jagolinzer of Ferraro & Associates, P.A., Miami, for appellants.

Natalie S. Whiteman and Lawrie E. Demorest of Alston & Bird, LLP., Atlanta, GA, for appellee.

FARMER, J.

In this asbestosis case, plaintiffs went to trial on their strict liability, failure to warn claim. They requested that the court give the standard products liability jury instructions for failing to warn of serious risk of harm when a dangerously defective product is used as intended. See Fla. Std. Jury Inst. (Civ.) PL4-PL5 (2004) (FSJI). Defendant objected on the grounds that FSJI PL4-PL5 did not apply, contending that Florida law does not recognize a manufacturing or design defect from "uncontaminated raw" material incorporated into a manufactured product. Defendant argued that "raw" asbestos is not a product capable of being defectively manufactured or designed for products liability purposes. In agreeing with defendant, the trial court cut off any discussion of the issue and instead gave a non-standard jury instruction requested by defendant. After a verdict for defendant, plaintiffs appeal. We reverse for a new trial.

During the 1970s and 1980s, William McConnell worked as a carpenter for drywall businesses in Florida and Alabama. His job involved applying a joint compound, called "Ready-Mix," onto drywall and then sanding it after it had hardened. Ready-Mix was manufactured by Georgia-Pacific and included an ingredient called "Calidria Asbestos" which is made, marketed and sold by Union Carbide (Carbide). The facts showed that Carbide milled raw asbestos into the product used in the manufacturing of Ready-Mix. In its marketing literature for Calidria Asbestos, Carbide stated:

"Calidria Asbestos is produced by a proprietary manufacturing process that yields unusually high fiber content and more complete fiber liberation from the natural bundles. As a result, Calidria Asbestos goes up to twice as far, pound for pound, as commercial grades of asbestos containing large amount of other filler materials that have no specific desirable effects on tape joint compound properties."

The McConnells alleged that he did not know—and was never informed—that Ready-Mix contained health-hazardous asbestos. They alleged that as a consequence of sanding the Ready-Mix, he unknowingly *150 released and inhaled asbestos fibers manufactured, sold, and distributed by Carbide, which caused him to develop asbestosis. They alleged that Carbide's product was unreasonably dangerous when used as intended, that it reached him essentially unchanged, and caused him serious personal injury. They adduced evidence in support of all these allegations.

In objecting to plaintiffs' request to instruct the jury with FSJI PL4-PL5, Carbide argued that this was not a products liability case because, as it contended, "raw" asbestos was simply incapable of being defectively manufactured or designed. Agreeing with Carbide, the court summarily ended any argument in response by plaintiffs, stating rather peremptorily and without further elaboration: "This is not a defect case. This is not a products liability case." In short, the court refused to hear plaintiffs' arguments on entitlement to FSJI PL4-PL5. Instead, at Carbide's request, and over the objection of plaintiffs, the trial judge gave the following instruction:

"In order to find Union Carbide strictly liable, the Plaintiff must prove that Union Carbide sold a defective product by failing to adequately warn of a particular risk that was known or noticeable in light of the generally recognized and prevailing best scientific and medical knowledge available at the time of sale of the product, and in light of the level of education and knowledge of the danger of Union Carbide's customers such as Georgia Pacific." [e.s.]

We must differ with the trial judge as to the nature of the issue presented here. This is a products liability case. From Carbide's own words, Calidria Asbestos was produced by its own proprietary manufacturing process and is then sold to Georgia-Pacific. In fact, as we have seen, its own marketing touted the product as being designed to go "twice as far" as other "commercial grade Asbestos." There was evidence that the intended use of Carbide's Asbestos—and the Ready-Mix product into which it had been added—routinely involves sanding the joint compound after it has been applied to drywall and permitted to harden. Its intended use thus contemplates the liberation of asbestos into the air where it can be inhaled. The fiber bundles in the asbestos are liberated by the sanding, effectively increasing the level of harmful dust ordinarily associated with asbestos. The evidence showed that Carbide's milled Calidria Asbestos product reached an ultimate user like plaintiff McConnell without any essential change affecting its deleterious properties. There was ample evidence to go to the jury on the claim of a defective product without warnings.

The dangerous propensities of asbestos are well known. We take judicial notice that Florida law outlawed the use of asbestos-based fiber materials in any public building started after September 30, 1983.[1] The danger caused by asbestos products is not unique to this case or even Florida.[2] Indeed, even if it were true that *151 the Calidria Asbestos marketed by Carbide had been in its "raw" form, that fact would be meaningless in Florida, where the statute prohibiting the product encompasses even its most elemental form.[3] It reflects the understanding that asbestos is intrinsically dangerous and can cause asbestosis, a life-threatening disease.

To be sure, Carbide's argument that the Calidria Asbestos substance it sold to Georgia-Pacific was merely "raw material" is utterly betrayed by its own marketing literature. Calidria Asbestos had an "intended design" by Carbide. A product so designed may properly be deemed "defective" within the meaning of Florida products liability law. And even if the product distributed by Carbide could be thought merely raw material, we fail to understand how its unreasonably dangerous incorporation into a product distributed commercially for use in the building trades, without required warnings, would insulate it from strict liability theory. The substance is dangerous to users whether in its "raw" form or, as here, processed into a higher commercial grade. We therefore conclude that Carbide's Calidria Asbestos is a product for products liability purposes.

In determining whether plaintiffs were entitled to have the jury instructed under FSJI PL4-PL5, we rely on and follow Force v. Ford Motor Co., 879 So.2d 103 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004). Force held that a plaintiff in strict liability action in Florida is entitled to an instruction on the "consumer expectations" test originating in section 402A, RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS.[4]Force held:

"Under the consumer-expectation theory a product is defectively designed if the plaintiff is able to demonstrate that the product did not perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used in the intended or reasonably foreseeable manner."

Force, 879 So.2d at 106.

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Bluebook (online)
937 So. 2d 148, 2006 WL 1750384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcconnell-v-union-carbide-corp-fladistctapp-2006.