Slone v. General Motors Corp.

457 S.E.2d 51, 249 Va. 520, 1995 Va. LEXIS 50
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedApril 21, 1995
DocketRecord 940881
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 457 S.E.2d 51 (Slone v. General Motors Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Slone v. General Motors Corp., 457 S.E.2d 51, 249 Va. 520, 1995 Va. LEXIS 50 (Va. 1995).

Opinions

JUSTICE HASSELL

delivered the opinion of the Court.

[522]*522I.

In this appeal of a judgment in a product liability action, we consider whether a plaintiff, who was injured when a dump truck he was operating “rolled over,” has a viable cause of action against the manufacturers of the truck and the dump truck bed sufficient to withstand a motion for summary judgment.

II.

The appellate record is presented to us in an unfamiliar procedural posture. The trial court granted the defendants’ joint motion for summary judgment at the pleading stage of this proceeding; accordingly, there has been no trial on the merits. The trial court relied upon facts developed from the plaintiff’s responses to the defendants’ interrogatories and requests for admissions. Presumably, the trial court also relied upon factual allegations contained in the plaintiff’s amended motion for judgment.

As we have recently stated, “[i]n our discovery rules, we have cautioned that discovery ordinarily should not supplant the taking of evidence at a trial.” Carson v. LeBlanc, 245 Va. 135, 137, 427 S.E.2d 189, 190 (1993). Additionally, we have recently observed that “the decision to grant a motion for summary judgment is a drastic remedy which is available only where there are no material facts genuinely in dispute.” Turner v. Lotts, 244 Va. 554, 556, 422 S.E.2d 765, 766 (1992).

III.

We will state the facts and adopt inferences from those facts in the light most favorable to Dolor D. Slone, the non-moving party, “unless the inferences are strained, forced, or contrary to reason.” Bloodworth v. Ellis, 221 Va. 18, 23, 267 S.E.2d 96, 99 (1980).

In November 1986, Slone purchased a dump truck bed from Helms Stone Yard in Roanoke. The dump bed was manufactured and designed by Fontaine Body and Hoist Company. A cab shield, also described as an overhang, which was not manufactured by Fontaine, was affixed to the dump bed sometime after the dump bed left Fontaine’s possession. The cab shield was manufactured and installed on the dump bed by an unknown party.

Slone purchased a 1978 truck, consisting of a cab and chassis, from Jack Quesenberry in February 1987. The truck was manu[523]*523factured and designed by General Motors. Slone and Quesenberry installed the dump bed on the truck.

On July 2, 1987, about 3:50 p.m., Slone drove the truck, with the dump bed attached, to a depot maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation at Eagle Rock in Botetourt County. As Slone was preparing to dump a load of gravel, he “backed the truck up” to a gravel ramp.

Slone described the accident in his sworn answers to interrogatories. “Several feet from the edge of the dump site, the gravel began to crumble from beneath the subject vehicle. As the ground gave way, the subject vehicle flipped backwards and slid down the side of the dump site for a distance of approximately 60 feet. The subject vehicle came to rest upside down with its grill, hood, roof of the cab, and top of the dump bed all impacting with the ground.” Slone “was crushed and trapped in the truck cab” and received serious permanent injuries, including brain damage.

Slone filed his amended motion for judgment against Stephen Ray Hickock, General Motors Corporation, and Fontaine Body and Hoist Company. Slone settled his claims with Hickock, an employee at the depot, and proceeded against General Motors and Fontaine.

Slone asserted numerous claims against General Motors. He alleged that General Motors was negligent and breached certain implied warranties because General Motors designed the truck body “with inadequate bracing and support thereby significantly increasing the risk that, in a foreseeable rollover of the truck body, the roof would easily cave in and cause passengers to suffer serious, painful and grievous bodily injuries.” Slone alleged that General Motors’ design of “the cab of the 1978 GMC truck body [failed to include] any type of crash padding that, in a foreseeable rollover of the truck body, would have prevented and/or mitigated the kind of serious, painful and grievous injuries suffered by Plaintiff Dolor Slone.” Slone also alleged that General Motors failed to conduct adequate testing and failed to warn “of the unreasonably dangerous condition of the cab roof lacking adequate supports and braces that greatly increase the possibility of serious bodily injuries in the event of a foreseeable rollover.”

Slone stated, in his answers to interrogatories propounded to him by General Motors that

[524]*524there is a design defect in the construction of the cab of the truck in which Mr. Slone was injured. The cross sections of the roof support pillars and the windshield header are inadequate to support the weight of the inverted truck. This allowed the partial collapse of the roof when the vehicle dropped over or slid down the ramp on its roof. This partial collapse caused Mr. Slone [’]s head to be trapped and crushed between the rim of the steering wheel and the windshield header.

Slone alleged that Fontaine was negligent and breached certain warranties related to the manufacture and design of the dump bed. Slone alleged that Fontaine “designed the . . . dump bed with an unsupported, unbraced and extraneous overhang that significantly increased the risk that, in a foreseeable rollover of the truck to which the dump bed was intended to be attached, the overhang would crush the truck cab and cause passengers serious, painful and grievous bodily injuries like the ones suffered by Plaintiff Dolor Slone.” Slone also alleged that Fontaine failed to warn of “the unreasonably dangerous unsupported, unbraced and extraneous dump bed overhang that greatly increases the possibility of serious bodily injuries in the event of a foreseeable rollover.” Further, Slone alleged that Fontaine “failed to conduct adequate testing to determine the unreasonable risk of foreseeable truck passenger injury due to the unsupported, unbraced and extraneous dump bed overhang.”

General Motors and Fontaine filed a joint motion for summary judgment, asserting that they were entitled to judgment, as a matter of law, because Virginia does not recognize the doctrine of “crashworthiness.” The trial court considered memoranda of law and argument of counsel and granted the motion for summary judgment. The trial court held that Fontaine could not be liable to Slone because the dump truck was modified after it left Fontaine’s possession. Further, the court held that even assuming that Virginia recognizes the doctrine of “crashworthiness,” General Motors has no liability to Slone. We awarded Slone an appeal.

Slone argues that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment because there are material facts in dispute, and summary judgment may not be used as a substitute for trial. Slone also argues that the trial court erred in granting the motion for summary judgment because “in the hauling and dumping indus[525]*525try, roll-over accidents are foreseeable; consequently, whether . . . [General Motors] properly designed its truck cab to withstand a foreseeable drop/roll-over, whether . . . Fontaine properly designed its dump bed without a cab shield and whether . .

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Smith Development, Inc. v. Martin C. Conway
Court of Appeals of Virginia, 2024
Lawson v. FCA US, L.L.C.
W.D. Virginia, 2021
Benedict v. Hankook Tire Co.
295 F. Supp. 3d 632 (E.D. Virginia, 2018)
Holiday Motor Corp. v. Walters
790 S.E.2d 447 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 2016)
Norris v. Excel Industries, Inc.
139 F. Supp. 3d 742 (W.D. Virginia, 2015)
Jackson v. Middleton
90 Va. Cir. 279 (Norfolk County Circuit Court, 2015)
Dorman v. Atmos Energy Corp.
88 Va. Cir. 191 (Richmond County Circuit Court, 2014)
Ahn v. C2 Educational Systems, Inc.
84 Va. Cir. 465 (Fairfax County Circuit Court, 2012)
Cummings v. Addison
84 Va. Cir. 334 (Norfolk County Circuit Court, 2012)
Station 2, L.L.C. v. Lynch
84 Va. Cir. 27 (Norfolk County Circuit Court, 2011)
Tickle v. City of Roanoke
81 Va. Cir. 324 (Roanoke County Circuit Court, 2010)
Dewberry & Davis, Inc. v. C3NS, Inc.
81 Va. Cir. 122 (Fairfax County Circuit Court, 2010)
Mavity v. MTD Products, Inc.
714 F. Supp. 2d 577 (W.D. Virginia, 2010)
Pfister v. City of Norfolk
80 Va. Cir. 348 (Norfolk County Circuit Court, 2010)
Fultz v. Delhaize America, Inc.
677 S.E.2d 272 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 2009)
Williams v. Joynes
72 Va. Cir. 265 (Portsmouth County Circuit Court, 2006)
Eccleston v. Patriot Harley Davidson, Inc.
75 Va. Cir. 421 (Prince William County Circuit Court, 2006)
Shutler v. Augusta Health Care for Women
630 S.E.2d 313 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
457 S.E.2d 51, 249 Va. 520, 1995 Va. LEXIS 50, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slone-v-general-motors-corp-va-1995.