Reeder v. Sybron Transition Corp.

142 F.R.D. 607, 23 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1261, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11708, 1992 WL 189186
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 7, 1992
DocketCiv. A. No. 4:CV-90-1615
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 142 F.R.D. 607 (Reeder v. Sybron Transition Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reeder v. Sybron Transition Corp., 142 F.R.D. 607, 23 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1261, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11708, 1992 WL 189186 (M.D. Pa. 1992).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

McCLURE, District Judge.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Louella M. Reeder filed this products liability action1 to recover for injuries which she sustained at her place of employment, Furman Foods, Inc. of North-umberland, Pennsylvania, on September 7, 1988, when she was drawn into a machine used to fill containers of canned goods. The machine which allegedly injured her was a Pfaudler Rotary Piston Filler Machine, Model No. RP-307.

Plaintiff originally named as the defendant Pfaudler Company of West Avenue and Clark Street, Rochester, New York. The summons and complaint were served on September 17, 1990 at that address on a corporation identified as Pfaudler U.S. Inc. (“Pfaudler US”). Pfaudler US is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Pfaudler Companies, Inc. (“Pfaudler Companies”). Pfaud-ler Companies,2 believing that plaintiff had not served the correct corporation, forwarded the summons and complaint to Sy-bron Corporation with a letter of explanation dated October 4, 1990. The letter was received by Sybron on October 9, 1990.

Plaintiff subsequently learned that Pfau-dler Company was not the correct defendant. Pursuant to a stipulated order entered November 22, 1991 and conditioned on the preservation of defenses, plaintiff filed an amended complaint substituting Sybron Transition Corp. and Sybron Corporation (hereafter jointly “Sybron”) for the original defendant.

The confusion over the identity of the corporation responsible for product defects in the machine which allegedly injured plaintiff stemmed from the complicated corporate history of the manufacturing corporation and related entities. The machine which allegedly injured plaintiff was manufactured in 1959 by a company then known as Pfaudler Permutit, Inc. (“Pfaudler Per-mutit”). Pfaudler Permutit was the successor corporation to a company incorporated in New York in 1902 known as The Pfaudler Co. That company ceased to exist in 1957 when it merged with the Permu-tit Company, with the successor corporation becoming Pfaudler Permutit. From 1957 to 1968, Pfaudler Permutit underwent a series of acquisitions and transformations, with the resulting entity becoming known as Sybron in 1968. That part of Sybron which had originally been the Pfau-dler Co. had evolved into the Pfaudler division of Sybron and continued to manufacture filler machines until the early 1980’s when other events intervened.

In 1981, the assets and liabilities of the Pfaudler division of Sybron, including the assets related to the filler machine manufacturing business, were sold to Pfaudler Co. Inc, an unrelated entity. In 1982, other assets of the Pfaudler division were sold to Sohio Industrial Products Company, a division of Kennecott Corporation (“Kenne-cott”). Under the terms of the agreement [609]*609of sale, Sybron retained liability for product defects in filler machines manufactured by Pfaudler prior to October 1, 1982, a categorization which includes the filler machine which allegedly injured plaintiff.

Kennecott later resold the assets, splitting up the assets used in the manufacture of glass-lined tanks and those used in the manufacture of filler machines. In April 1987, Kennecott sold the assets of the glass-lined tank business of Pfaudler Co., Inc. to Eagle Industries, which placed the assets in Pfaudler U.S., the entity plaintiff originally sued and served. The assets used in the manufacture of filler machines were sold to Figgie International. Figgie International continues to this day to manufacture and sell filler machines through its subsidiary, Consolidated Packaging Machinery, Co. of Alden, New York.

Defendants move for summary judgment (record document no. 30, filed January 21, 1992), arguing that the amended complaint cannot relate back to the date of original filing under Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(c), and that plaintiffs claim is, therefore, barred by the statute of limitations.

For the reasons discussed below, we hold that plaintiffs amended complaint may relate back to the date of original filing under Rule 15(c) and that her claims are, therefore, not time-barred, making summary judgment in defendants’ favor inappropriate.

DISCUSSION

Summary judgment standard

Summary judgment is appropriate if the “pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c) (Emphasis supplied).

... [T]he plain language of Rule 56(c) mandates the entry of summary judgment, after adequate time for discovery and upon motion, against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s case, an on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial. In such a situation, there can be ‘no genuine issue as to any material fact,’ since a complete failure of proof concerning an essential element of the nonmoving party’s case necessarily renders all other facts immaterial. The moving party is ‘entitled to judgment as a matter of law’ because the nonmoving party has failed to make a sufficient showing on an essential element of her case with respect to which she has the burden of proof.

Celotex v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

The moving party bears the initial responsibility of stating the basis for its motions and identifying those portions of the record which demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. He or she can discharge that burden by “showing ... that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case.” Celotex, supra, 477 U.S. at 323 and 325, 106 S.Ct. at 2553 and 2554.

Issues of fact are genuine “only if a reasonable jury, considering the evidence presented, .could find for the non-moving party.” Childers v. Joseph, 842 F.2d 689, 693-94 (3d Cir.1988), citing Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510-11, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). Material facts are those which will affect the outcome of the trial under governing law. Anderson, supra, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. at 2510. In determining whether an issue of material fact exists, the court must consider all evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. White v. Westinghouse Electric Company, 862 F.2d 56, 59 (3d Cir.1988).

Rule 15(c)

Rule 15(c)3 governs the filing of amended complaints which seek to bring a new [610]*610defendant into the case or change the name of a party. Rule 15(c) was amended April 30, 1991, with an effective date of December 1, 1991.

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Bluebook (online)
142 F.R.D. 607, 23 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1261, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11708, 1992 WL 189186, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reeder-v-sybron-transition-corp-pamd-1992.