Novak v. Continental Tire N. Am.

231 Cal. Rptr. 3d 324, 22 Cal. App. 5th 189
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedMarch 20, 2018
DocketA149494; A150751; A150752
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 231 Cal. Rptr. 3d 324 (Novak v. Continental Tire N. Am.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 5th District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Novak v. Continental Tire N. Am., 231 Cal. Rptr. 3d 324, 22 Cal. App. 5th 189 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

Pollak, J.

*326*192Plaintiff Paula J. Novak appeals defense summary judgments in her wrongful death action against a tire manufacturer, Continental Tire North America (Continental), and an auto mechanic, Chi Tai (collectively defendants). Plaintiff alleges defendants failed to warn about the dangers of rubber degradation in old tires, which led to a tire blowout in 2005 that injured her father. Plaintiff further alleges that those injuries impaired his mobility, necessitated his use of a motorized scooter with limited maneuverability, and led to his death in 2011 after his scooter was struck by a vehicle in a crosswalk. The trial court found the evidence insufficient to establish a causal link between defendants' conduct alleged to have caused one traffic accident and decedent's death years later following a separate traffic accident. We shall affirm the defense judgments.

Background

In September 2005, 81-year-old Alex Novak was seriously injured when the car in which he was a passenger suffered a tire blowout and collided with *193a power pole.1 Novak filed an action for strict product liability and negligence against defendants for failure to warn that tires degrade with age and should be replaced even if the tire shows good tread depth. ( Novak v. Continental Tire North America, Inc. (A133073, 2013 WL 2297447, May 24, 2013) [nonpub. opn.].) Defendants obtained a defense judgment but we reversed the judgment upon finding evidentiary and instructional errors. ( Ibid. )

Novak died while the case was on appeal. Novak had been disabled as a result of the accident involving the tire blowout and required the use of a three-wheel motorized scooter as a mobility aid. In November 2011-six years after the tire blowout accident-87-year-old Novak was injured when a car making a right hand turn collided with his scooter in a crosswalk. Novak died eight days later. His strict liability and negligence action was not retried. Novak's daughter Paula filed this wrongful death action against Continental and Tai, faulting them for the 2005 tire blowout and resulting collision and extending that fault to her father's death years later following a different collision.2

Evidence Presented on Motions for Summary Judgment

A detailed account of the facts is drawn from the parties' separate statements of undisputed facts and evidence submitted in support of them.

On September 12, 2005, Novak was a passenger in a 1988 Chevrolet Van being driven by Milagros Ibarra that collided with a power pole located near the intersection of Coronado Avenue and Cerritos Avenue in Fremont, California. The 1988 Chevrolet van was equipped with a "General Road Tamer LX" tire that had been manufactured in 1993 by Continental's predecessor. Plaintiff alleges that the September 12, 2005 accident was caused by a sudden failure of the "General Road Tamer *327LX" tire, including sudden tread separation and sudden deflation ("blow-out") of the tire. Plaintiff alleges defendants failed to warn Ibarra that old tires lose "resiliency" with age, making them prone to blowouts. Plaintiff further alleges that as a result of the September 12, 2005 accident, Novak required the use of a three-wheel scooter "to go about the community." *194On November 18, 2011, Novak was riding his three-wheel scooter on Fremont Boulevard when he collided with a 1997 Toyota Corolla driven by Mea MD Abdul Quader. The collision occurred in the crosswalk at the intersection of Mowry Avenue and Fremont Boulevard. Prior to the collision, Quader's Corolla was heading east on Mowry Avenue in the right turn lane approaching Fremont Boulevard where he was intending to turn right onto southbound Fremont Boulevard, while Novak was on his three-wheel scooter on the sidewalk ramp at the entrance to the crosswalk at the southwest corner of the intersection. Novak paused at the southwest corner of the intersection before entering the crosswalk. As Quader approached the intersection, he stopped his vehicle prior to the painted white crosswalk limit line while waiting for traffic to clear. When westbound traffic cleared, Quader looked to his right and observed Novak stopped on the sidewalk at the southwest corner of the intersection in his three-wheel scooter. Quader saw that Novak was waiting to cross the roadway. Quader then looked left for southbound traffic and did not see anyone approaching, so he released his foot from the brake and accelerated forward. Novak did not see Quader's car beginning to move. Novak entered the intersection and his scooter collided with the front-quarter panel of the passenger side of Quader's car, according to a police officer who investigated the accident. The officer determined that Quader failed to yield the right-of-way to Novak and that "the fault for the accident" rested with Quader, not Novak. ( Veh. Code, § 21950, subd. (a).) The force of the collision knocked over the scooter and Novak fell to the ground.

A mechanical engineer and expert in accident reconstruction tested the scooter operated by Novak and found it "takes 3.2 feet to come to a gradual stop after the forward movement lever is released by the operator." The engineer opined that "the ability to stop this scooter is substantially impaired as compared to the ability of an upright, able-bodied person to physically stop walking."

Following the accident, Novak was taken to Eden Medical Center. His left leg was sutured and a CT scan performed. The treating physician reviewed the CT scan, found no injuries, and released Novak that day. Two days later, on November 20, 2011, Novak self-admitted to the hospital complaining of back pain. Novak died six days later, on November 26.

An autopsy found Novak had sustained recent thoracic spine fractures and hemorrhaging, which the coroner attributed to trauma sustained in the scooter-vehicle collision. The death certificate lists the cause of death as acute cardiac insufficiency as a result of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Novak's recent spinal fractures were listed among "other significant conditions contributing to death but not resulting in the underlying cause" of death. An orthopedic surgeon opined that Novak's death "was caused, accelerated, *195and hastened to occur on that date and at that time by medical complications of the injuries sustained in the scooter accident of November 18, 2011."

Discussion

"In reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we independently evaluate the record, *328liberally construing the evidence supporting the party opposing the motion, and resolving any doubts in his or her favor.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
231 Cal. Rptr. 3d 324, 22 Cal. App. 5th 189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/novak-v-continental-tire-n-am-calctapp5d-2018.