Shop Rite Foods, Inc. v. Upjohn Co.

619 S.W.2d 574, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3784
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 10, 1981
Docket9231
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 619 S.W.2d 574 (Shop Rite Foods, Inc. v. Upjohn Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shop Rite Foods, Inc. v. Upjohn Co., 619 S.W.2d 574, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3784 (Tex. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

DODSON, Justice.

We withdraw our former opinion handed down on 13 May 1981, and substitute this one in its place. In this opinion, we reach the same result and overrule the motion for rehearing.

In this product liability action, Shop Rite Foods, Inc. and West Texas Warehouse Company appeal from a take-nothing judgment rendered on a jury’s verdict on their claims against the Upjohn Company. Concluding that the appellants’ contentions on appeal do not show cause for disturbing the judgment, we affirm.

The appellants brought this action against Upjohn to recover damages resulting from a fire started in Upjohn’s product used in a warehouse owned by West Texas Warehouse and leased to Shop Rite. As a result of the fire, the warehouse was damaged in the stipulated amount of $70,000.00 and Shop Rite’s inventory, equipment and other items of personal property located therein were damaged in the jury-determined amount of $844,958.05.

The product in question is polyurethane foam. Upjohn made and marketed the product primarily for use as a roofing insulation material. However, in the spring of 1972, Shop Rite used the polyurethane foam on the interior walls and ceiling of a cold *577 storage vault it constructed in the warehouse. In September of 1973, a fire began in the cold storage area when Shop Rite’s employees were using cutting or heating torches to thaw frozen water pipes.

In their action, the appellants allege, among other things, that under certain circumstances, the polyurethane foam is unreasonably dangerous for interior applications to walls and ceilings, that Upjohn failed to adequately warn them of such dangers in several aspects, and that the failure to warn was a producing cause of the fire. Shop Rite further alleges that Upjohn made a misrepresentation of a material fact concerning the character or quality of the polyurethane foam by using the phrases “fire retardant” or “self-extinguishing” in its sales promotional literature, that it justifiably relied on such misrepresentations and that such reliance was a producing cause of the fire. Conversely, Upjohn alleges several specific acts of misuse of the product on the occasion in question and that such misuses were a proximate cause of the fire.

In response to special issues with corresponding numbers the jury found: (1) that it was reasonably foreseeable by Upjohn that persons or property might be injured by the use of the product in interior applications on walls and ceilings without a 15 or 30 minute thermal barrier; but, (2) that Upjohn did not fail to warn the appellants of such danger; (5) that it was reasonably foreseeable by Upjohn that persons or property might be injured by using cutting or heating torches in contact with or in close proximity to the product; but, (6) that Upjohn did not fail to warn the appellants of such danger; (9) that it was reasonably foreseeable that persons or property might be injured by the propensity of the product, once ignited, to burn rapidly and intensely in interior applications on walls and ceilings; (10) that Upjohn failed to warn the appellants of such propensity; but, (11) that such failure to warn the appellants did not render the product unreasonably dangerous; and (13) that Upjohn did not make misrepresentations to Shop Rite concerning the character or quality of the product by using the phrases “fire retardant” or “self-extinguishing”.

Concerning the alleged misuse of the product, the jury found, inter alia, that Shop Rite’s employees exposed the product to the direct flame or intense heat of cutting torches, that such action was a misuse of the product, and that such misuse was a proximate cause of the fire; that it was a misuse of the product to expose it to the direct flame or intense heat of cutting torches without a protective shield at a time when neither the vault, its contents nor the product was protected by an automatic sprinkler system, and that such misuse was a proximate cause of the fire; and that either prior to or on the occasion in question, Shop Rite made such an alteration to the installation that the product was made susceptible to ignition when exposed to sparks and heat of torches, that such alteration was a misuse of the product, and that such misuse was a proximate cause of the fire.

By thirty-six points of error, the appellants, claim the judgment should be reversed and remanded for a new trial. In points two, four, six and eight, the appellants maintain they conclusively established each of the propositions asserted by the following special issues:

(2) that Upjohn failed to give them an adequate warning of the danger of the use of polyurethane foam in interior applications on walls and ceilings without a 15 or 30 minute thermal barrier; and (6) that Upjohn failed to give them an adequate warning of the danger of the use of cutting or heating torches in contact with or in close proximity to the polyurethane foam.

In deciding the appellants’ “conclusive” contentions, we must review the whole record to ascertain if the probative evidence establishes as a matter of law the asserted propositions. In this connection, the probative evidence must be sufficient to convince reasonable minds that there is no material fact issue concerning the asserted proposition; and, in a pragmatic effect, the *578 evidence must be sufficient to support a directed verdict, a judgment notwithstanding the jury’s verdict or a summary judgment on the proposition. Conversely, each asserted proposition is for the fact-finder when the probative evidence in support of the proposition falls short of these legal standards or when there is any probative evidence contrary to the proposition.

In the court’s charge, adequate warning is defined as follows:

By the term “adequate warning”, as used herein, is meant such warning as would both:
(1) Be reasonably calculated to reach the users of the product in such a form that it would reasonably be expected to catch the attention of the reasonably prudent person in the circumstances of its use; and
(2) Be of such a nature as to be comprehensible to the average user and to convey a fair indication of the nature and extent of the danger to the mind of a reasonably prudent person.

This definition is unchallenged and generally conforms with the accepted standards stated in Lopez v. Aro Corp., 584 S.W.2d 333, 335 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1979, writ ref’d n. r. e.), and Bituminous Casualty Corp. v. Black & Decker Mfg. Co., 518 S.W.2d 868, 872-73 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1974, writ ref’d n. r. e.).

The evidence shows that Shop Rite built the cold storage vault in April or May of 1972 and insulated the vault with Upjohn’s CPR 485 polyurethane foam. Shop Rite purchased the product from Kenneth Sanders who did business as Products Specialty Company. Upjohn sold the product to Products Specialty. Shop Rite’s employee, Mike Probasco, negotiated the purchase of the product for Shop Rite with Kenneth Sanders. Sanders hired the John R. Hall Company to apply the product.

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619 S.W.2d 574, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3784, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shop-rite-foods-inc-v-upjohn-co-texapp-1981.