O'LAUGHLIN v. Minnesota Natural Gas Co.

253 N.W.2d 826, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1258, 1977 Minn. LEXIS 1591
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedMay 6, 1977
Docket45892
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 253 N.W.2d 826 (O'LAUGHLIN v. Minnesota Natural Gas Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'LAUGHLIN v. Minnesota Natural Gas Co., 253 N.W.2d 826, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1258, 1977 Minn. LEXIS 1591 (Mich. 1977).

Opinions

YETKA, Justice.

Plaintiffs, Margaret and William O’Laughlin, brought separate actions which were consolidated for trial for injuries sustained when Mrs. O’Laughlin collapsed while walking over a floor furnace grate, fell face down onto the grate, and was severely burned. Plaintiffs alleged defective installation of the furnace. The jury found defendants not negligent and plaintiffs appeal from the judgment and from denial of their motion for a new trial on the ground the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on plaintiffs’ claim of breach of implied warranty and strict liability. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for a new trial.

The principal issue is whether in a products-liability action it was prejudicial error for the trial court to refuse to instruct the jury on the implied warranties which may accompany a sale of goods under the Uniform Commercial Code, or on strict liability in tort under Restatement, Torts 2d, § 402 A, when the evidence introduced by plaintiffs at trial indicated that defendant subcontractor purchased and installed a floor furnace for use in a private residence and there was evidence from which a jury might find that the installation of the furnace by the subcontractor was defective and that the defect was the proximate cause of personal injuries to one of the occupants of the residence.

On the morning of January 8, 1973, Mrs. O’Laughlin was severely burned after she collapsed onto the hot grate of a gas floor furnace in her home. She had arisen from her bed several minutes before and was walking from her bedroom through the living room toward the kitchen when she passed the furnace, “felt a wave of heat coming up,” and collapsed onto the hot floor register. She lay on the register face down until her husband found her and pulled her off. By this time, however, she had received third-degree burns over much of the right side of her face and chest, and on her right arm, which later required extensive skin grafting and the removal of her right eye.

[828]*828Plaintiffs brought suit against John L. Ries, the subcontractor who installed the furnace, and the Minnesota Natural Gas Company, which inspected the installation of the furnace prior to connecting it to their gas lines, alleging that the furnace had been improperly installed and that as a result Mrs. O’Laughlin had been the victim of carbon monoxide poisoning and had fallen on the hot furnace grate.

Plaintiffs are an elderly couple. At the time of trial, Mrs. O’Laughlin was 73, and Mr. O’Laughlin was 75. They live in Shak-opee, Minnesota, in a small two-story house which they have owned for 19 years. The upstairs of the house contains two rooms and a bathroom. The downstairs has three rooms. In 1971, the O’Laughlins decided to remodel their house because both of them had difficulty climbing stairs. They decided to close the second floor and remodel the first floor by adding a half-bath, remodeling the kitchen, and converting the living room into a bedroom. They also wanted to install a furnace to replace the two space heaters which they used to heat their home.

In August 1971, plaintiffs retained Frank Dellwo, a general contractor, to do the remodeling. Dellwo subcontracted the work to defendant Ries, a retired plumbing and heating contractor with 34 years’ experience. After the general contractor explained plaintiffs’ needs to him and recommended a floor furnace, Ries selected the model to be used, a 70,000 BTU capacity, Empire brand floor furnace which would attach to the basement ceiling and distribute heat into the living area above through a floor grate. Ries purchased the furnace and installed it.

Much'of the testimony at trial concerns the possible defective installation of the furnace by Ries. Plaintiffs contended that installation of the furnace was faulty because, inter alia, a metal liner was not placed in the chimney and because a “drip-T” was not placed on the bottom of the stack to facilitate cleaning.

On January 10, 2 days after Mrs. O’Laughlin fell, an employee of defendant gas company checked the furnace for leaks and discovered that the chimney was not venting. An inspection of the furnace indicated the venting system of the furnace was clogged with dirt, leaves, and sand. Plaintiffs produced expert testimony, based on a hypothetical question, that the blockage of the venting pipe would have caused a dangerous level of carbon monoxide in plaintiffs’ home on January 8, 1973. They also introduced evidence that the failure to use a metal liner when venting the flue gases through a masonry chimney did not conform to local practice or to the pertinent American Gas Association Code standards for venting of flue gases from a furnace to the outside atmosphere. Expert testimony was also introduced to the effect that if the flue gases are allowed to vent through a masonry chimney without the benefit of a metal liner, the mortar would tend to deteriorate and fall down to the bottom. The principal defense of defendant Ries was that the defects, if any, were not the proximate cause of Mrs. O’Laughlin’s injuries.

Minnesota Natural Gas Company was made a defendant because of its standard practice of inspecting the installation of gas appliances prior to connecting them to the gas line. The gas company supplies natural gas to approximately 60 communities throughout Minnesota. It was the custom and practice in Scott County for the gas company to inspect gas installations for safety before connecting them for service. Ries hooked up the gas line but did not “fire” the furnace, leaving the testing and igniting of the furnace to the gas company.

At trial plaintiffs requested instructions on both implied warranties under the Uniform Commercial Code and strict liability in tort against defendant Ries only. These instructions were refused. The trial court did not explain the reasons for the denial either in the record or in a memorandum. The case was submitted to the jury on special verdict questions relating only to a negligence theory, and the jury found defendants not negligent. Plaintiffs appealed to this court from the judgment and from the denial of their motion for a new trial.

[829]*829Plaintiffs contend the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on implied warranties and strict liability as to both defendant Ries, who installed the furnace, and defendant Minnesota Natural Gas Company, which inspected the furnace. The possible application of these instructions to each defendant will be considered separately.

A showing of negligence is not necessary for a breach of warranty. As this court explained in Kopet v. Klein, 275 Minn. 525, 529, 148 N.W.2d 385, 389 (1967), in regard to implied warranties:

“ * * * It is clear that lack of negligence on the part of a seller will not prevent a buyer from recovering for breach of warranty. This, however, is not to say that a breach of warranty may not arise from negligence.”

Similarly, Restatement, Torts 2d, § 402 A, may apply even though the seller exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale of his product. See, Restatement, Torts 2d, § 402 A(2)(a). In regard to strict liability in tort under § 402 A, this court stated in Farr v. Armstrong Rubber Co., 288 Minn. 83, 89, 179 N.W.2d 64, 69 (1970):

“ * * *

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Bluebook (online)
253 N.W.2d 826, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1258, 1977 Minn. LEXIS 1591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/olaughlin-v-minnesota-natural-gas-co-minn-1977.