Mobley v. General Motors Corp.

482 So. 2d 1056, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 6015
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 5, 1986
Docket84-1065
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 482 So. 2d 1056 (Mobley v. General Motors Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mobley v. General Motors Corp., 482 So. 2d 1056, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 6015 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

482 So.2d 1056 (1986)

Cecil MOBLEY, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 84-1065.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

February 5, 1986.
Writ Denied April 11, 1986.

*1058 Fuhrer, Flournoy & Hunter, George A. Flournoy, Alexandria, for plaintiff-appellant.

Hudson, Potts & Bernstein, Jesse D. McDonald, Monroe, Gold, Simon, Weems, Bruser, Sharp, Sues & Rundell, Edward F. Rundell, Alexandria, and Brittain & Williams, Jack O. Brittain, Natchitoches, for defendants-appellees.

Before STOKER, YELVERTON and KNOLL, JJ.

STOKER, Judge.

Cecil Mobley, a service station operator, sustained serious injuries to his hand when a 16-inch tire he was airing separated from the 16.5-inch rim on which he was trying to mount it, causing an explosion. The tire was brought to Mobley's station by Curling Brinson, and was to be placed on Brinson's 1977 Chevrolet pickup truck. Mobley sued Brinson, General Tire & Rubber Company (the tire manufacturer), Kelsey-Hayes Company (the rim manufacturer), and General Motors Corporation (the pickup truck manufacturer) in products liability, claiming that the tire, rim and pickup were defective because there were no warnings of the serious injury that could occur from mismatching tires and rims.

The trial judge dismissed Brinson on a directed verdict. The jury found no liability on the part of the remaining defendants. Mobley moved for a new trial based on improper voir dire, attorney misconduct, and error in failing to allow evidence of subsequent changes in the products' warnings. He also claimed that the jury's verdict was contrary to the law and evidence. The trial judge denied the motion for a new trial, with excellent reasons for judgment. Mobley appeals, based on the same assignments of error.

JURY VERDICT

The jury found that Mobley's injuries were not caused by negligence on the part of the defendants. They also concluded that the accident was not caused by a defect in the tire, rim or truck. There was in fact no defect in either of these items. The plaintiff's injuries occurred as a result of his attempt to mismatch a tire and rim which were not of the same size. The appellant evidently has no objection to the jury instructions; he only contests the jury's application of them to the facts of this case. In appellate review the reviewing court must not only find in the record a reasonable factual basis for the trial court's finding; under the manifest error rule the reviewing court must make a further determination that the record establishes that the finding was not clearly wrong.

Mobley was the operator of the service station where the accident occurred. He did not sell tires, and he had no formal training in fixing flats or changing tires. Curling Brinson said that a sign at Mobley's station read: "We fix flats," though that testimony was disputed. Nevertheless, Mobley agreed to remove a tire from Brinson's wheel, and replace it with a tire Brinson supplied. Mobley testified that he knew he should replace a tire with one of the same size. He saw the 16.5 marking on the old tire, and the 16 on the tire brought in by Brinson, but plaintiff said that he did not know that .5 had any significance. He removed a tubeless tire from the rim and proceeded to mount the tire supplied by Brinson, together with a tube. He began to air the tire, but it appeared crooked and would not seat. He gauged the pressure at 40 p.s.i. He knew that 40 p.s.i. was the maximum pressure advised in seating a tire. He deflated the tire, straightened out the tube, then tried again. This time he continued to inflate the tire past 40 p.s.i., until the bead broke and the tire abruptly separated from the rim. (The bead is a bundle of steel reinforcing wires fabricated into the inner perimeters of the tire, which hold the tire snugly against the rim.) One expert testified that the air pressure reached 80 to 100 p.s.i. The tire was propelled across the highway.

The appellant claims that the lack of adequate warnings constituted defects in *1059 the products. He would require that the tire, rim and truck bear some sort of markings stating that a tire mounted on an improper rim might explode, causing injury or death. We fail to see how such a warning would have prevented Mobley's accident. Two separate acts were required to cause the bead to break: (1) placing a 16-inch tire on a 16.5-inch rim, and (2) inflating the tire beyond 40 p.s.i. General Tire affixed a gummed label to the tread of the tire before it left the factory, which gave instructions as to how to seat a tire. The label admonished the tire changer never to inflate beyond 40 p.s.i. to seat the beads, and warned: "Failure to conform to these mounting instructions can cause the bead to break and the assembly to burst with force sufficient to cause serious injury." A residue was found on the tire which showed that some label had at one time adhered to the tire. Mobley testified at first that he could not remember whether it was on the tire when Brinson brought it in. Later he stated that there was no label. In any case, Mobley testified that he knew not to mismatch tires and rims, and that he knew that a tire might explode if overinflated. He was even aware that the explosion might cause injuries such as the ones he suffered.

After oral argument, counsel for plaintiff filed a supplemental brief in which he vigorously challenges any suggestion that the warning label was fixed to the tire in question on the ground that the tire was a used tire, not a new tire. The testimony does not clearly establish whether the tire was new or used. As we view the case, whether the tire was new from the factory or used is not determinative of liability here. As we shall demonstrate, liability is based on what Mobley knew for which he therefore needed no warning. For purposes of deciding this case we will conclude that the tire was a used tire which appeared to be new.[1]

Mobley testified that he saw the old tire was marked 16.5, but he ignored the .5. He may not have had much education, but it was demonstrated that he understood the concept of fractions. We do not believe that it required any tire or rim expertise to deduce that a size 16-inch rim and a size 16.5-inch rim had different dimensions. Most importantly, Mobley knew of the danger. The danger was that a tire would fly off the rim if overinflated. The evidence showed that he placed more than double the maximum recommended air pressure in the tire. He was familiar with the 40 p.s.i. limit. He was aware of the consequences of exceeding that limit. He even realized that injuries such as his might be sustained as a result of overinflation. A notation on either the tire or the rim to use only a 16.5 inch tire would have meant nothing to Mobley, as he believed that 16 and 16.5 were the same. We can conceive of no warning which would have told Mobley any more than he already knew. Therefore, we cannot say that the jury erred in concluding that Mobley's injuries were not caused by a lack of warnings in any of the products.

*1060 VOIR DIRE

The appellant asserts that the jury was influenced by improper voir dire questions which were designed to influence the jury in favor of the defendants' case. He claims that the questions were so prejudicial that a reversal is in order.

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Bluebook (online)
482 So. 2d 1056, 1986 La. App. LEXIS 6015, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mobley-v-general-motors-corp-lactapp-1986.