Miller v. Bock Laundry MacHine Co.

568 S.W.2d 648, 21 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 141, 1977 Tex. LEXIS 305
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 30, 1977
DocketB-6857
StatusPublished
Cited by79 cases

This text of 568 S.W.2d 648 (Miller v. Bock Laundry MacHine Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. Bock Laundry MacHine Co., 568 S.W.2d 648, 21 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 141, 1977 Tex. LEXIS 305 (Tex. 1977).

Opinions

BARROW, Justice.

This is a products liability case. George Miller, Jr., then eleven years old, had his left arm severed at the shoulder when it became caught in a centrifugal extractor, a type of clothes dryer manufactured by Bock Laundry Machine Company. At the time of the accident, it was installed in the Blue Ribbon Cleaning Center, a laundromat in Henderson. George Miller, Sr. filed suit individually, and as next friend of George Jr., seeking to recover damages jointly and severally from Bock; from Luther Jenkins, d/b/a Blue Ribbon Cleaning Center; and from United Furniture Company, who had sold the equipment to Jenkins. Miller settled with Jenkins just before trial for $45,-000 and agreed to hold Jenkins harmless from Bock’s plea for indemnity or contribution.

The jury found that the extractor was defectively designed by Bock and that the defect was a producing cause of the boy’s injury. The jury also found that Jenkins and United Furniture were guilty of negligence, but that such negligence was not a proximate cause of the occurrence in question. The trial court concluded that there was no evidence to support the jury’s findings that the extractor was defectively designed and granted Bock’s motion for a take-nothing judgment non obstante vere-dicto. Miller perfected an appeal as to Bock and the court of civil appeals affirmed. 551 S.W.2d 775. We reverse the judgments of the lower courts and render judgment on the jury verdict.

To overrule the action of the trial court in granting the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto, we must determine that there is more than a scintilla of evi[650]*650dence upon which the jury could have made the findings against Bock. In making this determination, we must review the e vddence in its most favorable light, considering only the evidence and inferences which support the findings, and rejecting the evidence and inferences contrary to the findings. Martinez v. Delta Brands, Inc., 515 S.W.2d 263 (Tex.1974); Douglass v. Panama, Inc., 504 S.W.2d 776 (Tex.1974).

The extractor was designed and manufactured by Bock. It was designed to extract water from the clothes by means of the centrifugal force generated by the clothes basket rotating at about 1,725 revolutions per minute, the equivalent of over 60 miles per hour. This particular machine was originally sold by Bock in 1957 to Hammond Laundry Cleaning Machinery Company of Shreveport, Louisiana, and shipped directly to the Crim Furniture Company in Henderson. Jenkins, who operated several laundromats in and around Henderson, was contacted by a salesman for United Furniture Company around the latter part of July, 1968, in regard to the purchase of some laundry equipment, including the Bock Centrifugal Extractor, which had been used by a Mr. Neal, who was terminating his laundry business. The record does not show how ownership passed from Neal to United Furniture. The extractor was purchased by Jenkins from United Furniture and installed at the Blue Ribbon Cleaning Center. No operating instructions or equipment manual were with the extractor or furnished to Jenkins. The machine was placed in operation and apparently worked satisfactorily until the unfortunate accident which is the basis of this suit.

On September 1, 1975, George Jr. accompanied his mother to the Blue Ribbon Cleaning Center for the purpose of helping with the family laundry. While there, she told George to remove a load of clothes from this extractor. George turned off the machine and, after a short delay, opened the lid. The extractor was equipped with a safety device to prevent the lid from opening while the basket was still spinning. However, when George lifted the lid of this machine, the safety device did not operate. Although the lid opened easily, the basket was still rotating at a very high rate of speed. George’s arm was caught in the machine and severed almost immediately. There was testimony that the energy created by the rotating basket was so great it could have actually sucked the boy’s arm into the machine when the lid was opened.

The evidence is uncontradicted that the safety device on the machine was defective at the time of the accident and that the defect was a producing cause of George’s injuries. It is now firmly established in Texas that a manufacturer is liable for unreasonably dangerous products— whether designed defectively and manufactured as designed, or whether designed perfectly, but defectively manufactured. Henderson v. Ford Motor Co., 519 S.W.2d 87 (Tex.1974); Otis Elevator Co. v. Wood, 436 S.W.2d 324 (Tex.1968); Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 395, 398 (1965). A defect in a product at the time of an accident is not alone enough to render the manufacturer strictly liable. Therefore, the question before us is whether there is evidence to support the jury finding that the machine was defectively designed at the time it was sold, and that the defect was a producing cause of the failure of the safety device on September 1, 1975.

At trial two expert witnesses testified that they had examined the machine. Mr. Stern, a licensed professional engineer with nearly 40 years experience as a private consulting engineer, examined the machine at the request of Miller two or three days after the accident. Dr. Perry, a licensed professional engineer who has taught mechanical engineering at Texas A & M University since 1948, examined the machine at the request of Jenkins a few days after the accident and also at his laboratory in Bryan. Both testified directly and unequivocally that the failure of the safety device was the result of defective design.

Bock urges that the direct testimony of the two experts is without probative force in that the evidence conclusively establishes that the extractor, specifically the safety [651]*651device, was not defective at the time of manufacture, and in fact, it had worked satisfactorily for over 18 years. It urges it was thus entitled to a directed verdict under the rule established in Henderson v. Ford Motor Co., supra. The issue posed in Henderson can be paraphrased to apply to this case as follows: Did some feature of the form or material or operation of the extractor threaten harm to persons using the machine to the extent that any extractor so designed would not be placed in the channels of commerce by a prudent manufacturer aware of the risks or to the extent that the extractor would not meet the reasonable expectations of the ordinary consumer or user as to its safety? See also General Motors v. Hopkins, 548 S.W.2d 344 (Tex.1977).

To answer this question, we must consider the expectations of the manufacturer and the nature of the defect. Mr. Clement, the president of Bock, testified that these extractors were manufactured to last for many years — certainly more than 18 years with proper service and maintenance. Some were in service that were 30 to 40 years old. He also stated that the safety device is supposed to last the life of the machine. The two experts emphasized that the minimum requirement of any safety system is to outlast the useful life of the machine.

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Bluebook (online)
568 S.W.2d 648, 21 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 141, 1977 Tex. LEXIS 305, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-bock-laundry-machine-co-tex-1977.