Soto v. E. W. Bliss Division of Gulf & Western Manufacturing Co.

452 N.E.2d 572, 116 Ill. App. 3d 880, 72 Ill. Dec. 319, 1983 Ill. App. LEXIS 2114
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 17, 1983
Docket82-0614
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 452 N.E.2d 572 (Soto v. E. W. Bliss Division of Gulf & Western Manufacturing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Soto v. E. W. Bliss Division of Gulf & Western Manufacturing Co., 452 N.E.2d 572, 116 Ill. App. 3d 880, 72 Ill. Dec. 319, 1983 Ill. App. LEXIS 2114 (Ill. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

JUSTICE SULLIVAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from a judgment on a verdict for plaintiffs in their strict liability action seeking damages for injuries sustained by plaintiff Mario Cortez Soto (Soto) 1 while working on an allegedly defective punch press. Defendant contends that (1) either its motions for a directed verdict or its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict should have been granted because plaintiffs failed to establish the elements of their action; (2) the sanction imposed for failure to produce a witness was improper; (3) numerous trial errors and improper argument of plaintiffs’ counsel deprived it of a fair trial; and (4) the jury was improperly instructed.

It is the position of plaintiffs, as alleged in the pleadings, that defendant manufactured and sold a punch press to Soto’s employer which was unreasonably dangerous in that (a) after the stop button was pushed the flywheel continued to rotate while coasting to a stop and, during this coasting period, the press could be tripped, and (b) no warnings of this dangerous characteristic were given. It was further alleged that this unreasonably dangerous condition existed when the press left the control of defendant and was the proximate cause of Soto’s injury.

Evidence pertinent to the issues raised on appeal was presented only by plaintiffs. In substance, Soto testified that he began working in May 1974 as a punch press operator on a partial-revolution press. Two months later, he was assigned to a full-revolution punch press which was activated by a foot pedal — differing from the partial-revolution press which would activate only after two palm buttons were pressed. While Soto was given operating instructions by his employer concerning the full-revolution press, he stated that there were no warning signs of any kind on the press. During his second day of work on the machine and in compliance with the instructions he had been given on how to clean the press, Soto said that he pushed the stop button expecting the press would come to a complete stop. He then picked up the guard in front of the press and placed it in its upper ridge and had started cleaning when the guard fell and struck him on the head. He was so startled that he stepped on the foot pedal and the ram came down on his left hand.

Plaintiffs’ expert witness testified that on the full-revolution press the stop button disconnects the electrical power to the drive motor, but the flywheel continues to rotate before it finally coasts to a stop. The machine could be tripped by the foot pedal at any time while the flywheel was coasting. The machine did not have a drive motor interlock, costing about $50, which would have prevented the activation of the machine while the flywheel was coasting and which could have been incorporated into the press during its design and manufacture. The installation of such an interlock would not have affected any of the various uses to which the press could be put. Drive motor interlocks were available when the press in question was manufactured and sold, and it was his opinion that the full-revolution press in question was unreasonably dangerous, for several reasons, including (a) after the stop button was pressed the flywheel would continue to rotate while coasting to a stop, and if the foot pedal was depressed during the coasting period the machine could be tripped, and (b) there was no warning of this characteristic on the press or in the manual provided for it.

Peter Bosch, manager of product liability for defendant, in a section 60 examination, testified that when the stop button on a partial-revolution press is pushed, the press will stop and it cannot be activated by contact with the foot pedal because the electric current is cut off from the motor control. However, when the stop button on a full-revolution press such as the.one involved here is pushed, the flywheel continues to rotate while coasting to a stop and contact with a foot pedal will activate the press. Defendant was aware prior to the sale of the machine in question that its presses would have to be cleaned and, if a press had a guard, it would have to be lifted to clean the die area. The press in question was sold by Bliss with no warning that the flywheel would continue to rotate after the stop button was pushed or that it could be activated during the coasting period. He also said that neither a drive motor interlock nor any other device was attached to the press to prevent activation during the coasting period.

Opinion

Defendant initially contends that the necessary elements of plaintiffs’ action were not established and thus that the court should either have directed a verdict or entered judgment notwithstanding the verdict. It is settled that to recover under a strict liability theory, a plaintiff must establish that the injury or damage proximately resulted from an unreasonably dangerous condition of the product which existed at the time it left the manufacturer’s control. Suvada v. White Motor Co. (1965), 32 Ill. 2d 612, 210 N.E.2d 182.

Under the Pedrick standard (Pedrick v. Peoria & Eastern R.R. Co. (1967), 37 Ill. 2d 494, 229 N.E.2d 504), the issue presented by defendant’s contention that either a directed verdict or judgment notwithstanding the verdict should have been entered is whether the evidence, when viewed in its aspect most favorable to plaintiffs, so overwhelmingly favors defendant that no contrary verdict based on this evidence could stand under the theory advanced by plaintiffs.

In support of its contention that plaintiffs did not prove the necessary elements of strict liability, defendant makes several arguments. Initially, he states that “the Record contains no testimony that the product was in the same condition at the time it left the manufacturer’s control.” We see no merit in this argument. While it is correct, as defendant states, that Soto’s employer added four or five different clutches, a guard, and also a foot pedal as the means of activation, we note that plaintiffs’ expert gave uncontradicted opinions that the press was unreasonably dangerous (1) because it could be activated while the flywheel was coasting after the button was pushed; and (2) because it lacked any warning of this condition. He also gave testimony, which was not contradicted, that the attachment of a drive motor interlock not only would have prevented the activation of the press but also would not have affected any use of the press. Moreover, Bosch, defendant’s manager of product liability, admitted that the press could be activated while the flywheel is coasting after the stop button is pressed and that, when defendant sold the press, there was no warning either on the machine or in its manuals that it could be so activated. Thus, we think it clear that this condition of the press with no warning thereof was the same when the press left the control of defendant as it was at the time of Soto’s injury.

Defendant also argues that it had no duty to add the drive motor interlock to the press. While it is clear that a manufacturer has a nondelegable duty to provide a product which is reasonably safe (Anderson v. Hyster Co. (1979), 74 Ill.

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Bluebook (online)
452 N.E.2d 572, 116 Ill. App. 3d 880, 72 Ill. Dec. 319, 1983 Ill. App. LEXIS 2114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/soto-v-e-w-bliss-division-of-gulf-western-manufacturing-co-illappct-1983.