West v. Deere & Co.

559 N.E.2d 511, 201 Ill. App. 3d 891, 147 Ill. Dec. 338, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 1236
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedAugust 17, 1990
Docket2-89-0627
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 559 N.E.2d 511 (West v. Deere & 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
West v. Deere & Co., 559 N.E.2d 511, 201 Ill. App. 3d 891, 147 Ill. Dec. 338, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 1236 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinions

PRESIDING JUSTICE UNVERZAGT

delivered the opinion of the court:

The instant action arose from a fatal collision which occurred on May 31, 1986, when a step van driven by decedent, Willie D. West, collided with a field cultivator being towed by a tractor. Plaintiff, John M. West, administrator of decedent’s estate, brought an action in the circuit court of Kane County seeking damages from six defendants allegedly responsible for decedent’s death. Among these defendants was Deere & Company (Deere), manufacturer of the cultivator. Plaintiff sued Deere under both strict liability and negligence theories for designing and manufacturing a product which was unreasonably dangerous and defective in its transport mode.

Deere filed a motion for summary judgment. Following a hearing on the motion, the trial court found in Deere’s favor and granted summary judgment. Pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 304, the trial court found no just reason to delay enforcement or appeal of the summary judgment order. 107 Ill. 2d R. 304(a).

Plaintiff appeals, contending that the trial court erred in entering summary judgment in Deere’s favor because Deere’s product, the 1010 field cultivator, was unreasonably dangerous as a matter of law.

The facts as set forth in the record show that on May 31, 1986, Willie West was driving a step van in an easterly direction on Route 38 in Kane County while transporting mail for Dougherty Mail Service, his employer. Just east of Meredith Road, Route 38 crosses over railroad tracks by means of a highway overpass. When West drove onto the overpass, a very large tractor driven by defendant Martin Boehne and pulling a field cultivator was traveling in the opposite direction on the overpass. Attached to the cultivator was a harrow manufactured by defendant Remlinger Manufacturing Co., Inc. Boehne had been working earlier at the nearby Sullivan farm, which was leased by defendant Michael Probst and was on his way to the residence of defendant James Meredith to refuel the tractor. Probst and Meredith, who farmed together, owned the tractor, cultivator, and harrow, and employed Boehne.

On the overpass the step van came into contact with a portion of the cultivator and harrow, resulting in West’s death. The cultivator was a John Deere 1010 Drawn Field Cultivator with a working -width of 30^2 feet. It was a flexible, horizontal fold model with two outriggers, or wings, which were designed to fold flat for transport or storage. With the wings folded, the cultivator had a transport or storage width of 16 feet.

On the overpass there were concrete abutments or curbs, nine inches high on both the north and south sides of the roadway. The distance from curb to curb was approximately 30 feet 1 inch. The distance from the north curb to the southern or outer edge of the double yellow center lines was approximately 15 feet 5xk inches. Given its transport width of 16 feet, the Deere 1010 cultivator would extend from the north curb to a point about 6V2 inches into the eastbound lane.

Probst and Meredith had purchased a Remlinger harrow in 1986 and attached it to the Deere cultivator. In attaching the harrow, Probst and Meredith altered the cultivator by adding to its frames structural steel parts furnished by Remlinger. Because of the addition of the Rem-linger parts, the wings of the cultivator could not be folded flat, and when the wings of the cultivator with harrow attached were folded, the harrow extended beyond the cultivator.

Martin Boehne had driven the tractor and cultivator on the overpass numerous times and was well aware that the transport width of the cultivator and the harrow was at least 16 feet. Boehne knew, as he drove onto the overpass immediately before the accident happened, that a portion of the cultivator and harrow would extend over the yellow center line and into the opposite lane of traffic. Boehne knew that there were alternate routes to his destination which did not require use of the overpass, but he chose the route using the overpass because it was quicker.

Prior to the accident in question, Boehne’s employer, Michael Probst, also knew from personal observation that a portion of the cultivator would extend into the opposite lane when transported on the overpass.

At the time of the collision the amber warning lights on the tractor were activated. The two warning lights, which flashed simultaneously, were located on top of the tractor cab above the windshield and faced oncoming traffic. Also facing oncoming traffic was an amber reflector on the left-hand front extremity of the cultivator.

According to Boehne’s testimony at his discovery deposition, decedent’s step van hit a dip in the road immediately before the collision and swerved into Boehne’s lane, crossing the double yellow center lines.

At the time of the accident, there was nothing mechanically wrong with the tractor. It operated properly and had nothing to do with the accident. There also was nothing mechanically wrong with the cultivator, and it, too, operated properly.

On June 27, 1986, decedent’s representative instituted a suit against Martin Boehne, driver of the tractor, and his employers, James Meredith and Michael Probst. Plaintiff later amended his complaint to include Deere & Company, manufacturer of the cultivator; Grumman Allied Industries, Inc., manufacturer of the step van; and Remlinger Manufacturing Co., Inc., manufacturer of the harrow. In his fifth amended complaint plaintiff alleged that Deere designed, manufactured, and sold the cultivator; that the cultivator was defectively designed because its extension arms were of such excessive length that it could not be transported on the highway without blocking the oncoming lane of traffic; and that the design was also defective because the cultivator lacked a safety mechanism for folding the extension arms into a position safe for highway traffic and warning devices to alert oncoming vehicles that their traffic lane was blocked by the cultivator. Additionally, plaintiff alleged that the cultivator was designed so that its width exceeded the minimum width of highways required by Illinois law.

Deere denied the allegations of plaintiff’s complaint and later filed its motion for summary judgment with supporting memoranda. Defendant also filed numerous depositions and affidavits in support of its motion as well as exhibits, which included photographs of the cultivator, tractor, and the overpass, and the operator’s manual for the cultivator. Plaintiff filed no counteraffidavits. In its motion and memoranda Deere detailed why the cultivator was not defective and why it did no more than furnish a condition that made the accident possible.

On May 25, 1989, the trial court heard arguments on Deere’s summary judgment motion. The court found that injuries were not compensable in products liability cases if they were caused by inherent properties in the product which were obvious to all who came in contact with the product. The court stated that virtually all products were capable of producing an injury when put to certain uses, particularly when the injury resulted from a collision with a product. It was the court’s opinion that the alleged defective condition of the cultivator did no more than make the injury possible.

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West v. Deere & Co.
559 N.E.2d 511 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1990)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
559 N.E.2d 511, 201 Ill. App. 3d 891, 147 Ill. Dec. 338, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 1236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-v-deere-co-illappct-1990.