Burt v. Makita Usa, Inc.

• Decision Date: 26 July 2002
• Docket Number: No. 1:01CV-205.,1:01CV-205.
• Citation: 212 F.Supp.2d 893
• Parties: Anthony S. BURT, Plaintiff, v. MAKITA USA, INC. and Makita Corporation of America, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

Page 893

212 F.Supp.2d 893

Anthony S. BURT, Plaintiff, v. MAKITA USA, INC. and Makita Corporation of America, Defendants.

No. 1:01CV-205.

United States District Court, N.D. Indiana, Fort Wayne Division.

July 26, 2002.

Scott T. Niemann, Fort Wayne, IN, for Plaintiff.

Kathleen M. Anderson, Gary C. Furst, Barnes and Thornburg, Fort Wayne, IN, Russel Bruce Duffield, Phillip Russell Perdew, Lord Bissell and Brook, Chicago, IL, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

WILLIAM C. LEE, Chief Judge.

This matter is before the Court on a motion for summary judgment filed by the defendants Makita USA and Makita Corporation on May 14, 2002. Plaintiff, Anthony S. Burt, filed a response to that motion on July 1, 2002, to which defendants replied on July 19, 2002. For the following reasons, the motion for summary judgment will be granted.

Factual Background

This products liability action arose as a result of a workplace accident wherein plaintiff was injured by a saw manufactured and/or distributed by the defendants. The facts underlying the case are relatively undisputed and are as follows.

On November 18, 1999, plaintiff was injured while utilizing a Makita Model 2703 Table Saw which was manufactured by Makita Corporation of America and distributed by Makita USA, Inc. The injury occurred while plaintiff was working as a carpenter at a jobsite in Huntington, Indiana. The general contractor in charge of the job site was Marshall Erdman & Associates.¹ One of its employees, Pat Dolan was the construction superintendent.

The saw at issue has a 22" × 27" working surface or table. It is a circular table saw with a removable blade guard. The Instruction Manual provided with the saw describes the proper method for installing the blade guard. Installation requires the use of a Phillips screwdriver and special wrenches. The wrenches are supplied with the saw and can be stored in a compartment on the side of the saw.

Two bolts are used to secure the blade guard in place. The bolts which are located under the table are tightened to secure the blade guard after it is slid into place on the top of the table. By all estimates, the blade guard can be properly attached within five minutes.

The accident in this case arose as a result of the improper installation of the blade guard. A few minutes before the accident, Dolan noticed that the blade guard was not installed on the saw, nor even in the vicinity of the saw. He retrieved the blade guard and set about to install it. Realizing he did not have either a Phillips screwdriver or the wrenches needed to complete the installation, Dolan left the guard to go get the tools.

The guard was left in what appeared to be the installed position. However, the bolts needed to secure the guard firmly in place had not been tightened. Unfortunately, in the few minutes that Dolan was away from the saw, plaintiff approached the saw. Plaintiff believed that the guard was in place and that the saw had been recently used. When he began to saw,² the guard apparently came in contact with the spinning blade.³ The guard was thrown off the saw and hit plaintiff in the eye.

As manufactured, the guard was intended to be removable because some cuts were to be made with the guard in place and others required that the guard not be on the machine. The table saw was available for use by all of Marshall Erdman & Associates at the worksite.

The saw complied with the Underwriters Laboratories safety standard 987. That standard provided in relevant part that "[t]he means for attaching the spreader shall be such that (1) the spreader can be readily attached in the correct location, and (2) it is difficult or impossible to mount the spreader in an incorrect location that would involve risk of injury to persons."

Plaintiff's expert, Charles P. Reynolds, a licensed engineer, has opined that the saw as manufactured and sold violates U.L. 987. The core of his believe that the saw is defective⁴ is that "you can come up and place the blade guard on the saw in a way that looks like it is supposed to when it is properly clamped but isn't, and so it is mounted on the saw in a condition which causes a risk of injury to people." That was done in this case, according to Reynolds, when Dolan slid the slotted tang of the spreader over the upper mounting bold which made the guard appear to be installed when it fact it was not.⁵

Reynolds has suggested alternative designs and warnings that he believes may have prevented the accident in this case. First, he suggests that the saw could be designed so that the guard could be designed without the need for tools or designed so that the tools were actually physically attached to the saw. That notwithstanding, Reynolds has admitted that the method of attaching the blade guard in this case was not inconvenient or burdensome and that indeed the method utilized was common to all saws with which he was familiar and further that he knew of no saws on the market which utilized any of the design changes he proposed.

Reynolds has also suggested design changes, such as warning labels, which he believes would make it more difficult for the guard to be left in a position where it appeared installed when in fact it was not. Here again, however, he admitted that he did not know of any saws on the market wherein the guard could not be placed on the saw so as to appear attached when it was not.⁶

Plaintiff has admitted that the reason for the accident was the incomplete attachment of the blade guard and his subsequent use of the saw. The record also reveals that use of the saw under such circumstances is a rarity — no one has recalled a similar occurrence.

Application of Law

Based upon the foregoing factual scenario, suit was filed in the Allen Circuit Court and removed to this Court based upon diversity of citizenship. In his complaint, plaintiff alleges that the table was defectively designed by the defendants and was unreasonably dangerous at the time that the saw was sold to his employer. He also asserts that the defendants failed to provide adequate warnings or instructions to the user as to the hazards posed by use of the saw when the blade guard is not properly affixed.

Since this is a diversity action and the parties in their briefs have applied Indiana law this Court too will apply the substantive law of the forum state. See, Gould v. Artisoft, Inc., 1 F.3d 544, 549, fn. 7 (7th Cir.1993). The procedural aspects are of course governed by federal law and it is to those standards under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which the Court first turns.⁷

Summary judgment is proper "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 a judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c). However, Rule 56(c) is not a requirement that the moving party negate his opponent's claim. Fitzpatrick v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, 916 F.2d 1254, 1256 (7th Cir.1990). Rule 56(c) mandates the entry of summary judgment, after adequate time for discovery, against a party "who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and in which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552-53, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The standard for granting summary judgment mirrors the directed verdict standard under Rule 50(a), which requires the court to grant a directed verdict where there can be but one reasonable conclusion. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2511, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A scintilla of evidence in support of the non-moving party's position is not sufficient to successfully oppose summary judgment; "there must be evidence on which the jury could reasonably find for the plaintiff." Id. at 2512; In Re Matter of Wildman, 859 F.2d 553, 557 (7th Cir.1988); Klein v. Ryan, 847 F.2d 368, 374 (7th Cir.1988); Valentine v. Joliet Township High School District No. 204, 802 F.2d 981, 986 (7th Cir.1986). No genuine issue for trial exists "where the record as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the nonmoving party." Juarez v. Ameritech Mobile Communications, Inc., 957 F.2d 317, 322 (7th Cir.1992) (quoting Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1356, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986)).

Initially, Rule 56 requires the moving party to inform the court of the basis for the motion, and to identify those portions of the "pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admission on file, together with the affidavits, if any, which demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323, 106 S.Ct. at 2553. The non-moving party may oppose the motion with any of the evidentiary materials listed in Rule 56(c), but reliance on the pleadings alone is not sufficient to withstand summary judgment. Goka v. Bobbitt, 862 F.2d 646, 649 (7th Cir.1988); Guenin v. Sendra Corp., 700 F.Supp. 973, 974 (N.D.Ind.1988); Posey v. Skyline Corp., 702 F.2d 102, 105 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 960, 104 S.Ct. 392, 78 L.Ed.2d 336 (1983).

With those procedural standards in mind, the Court turns to the applicable Indiana substantive law. Products liability actions in Indiana are governed by the Indiana Products Liability Act ("the Act"). So far as relevant, the Act provides that "[a] person who sells, leases, or otherwise puts into the stream of commerce any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to any user or consumer ... is subject to liability for physical harm cause by that product to the user or consumer." I.C. 34-20-2-1.

The Act is a codification of the common law notion of strict liability, see, Koske v. Townsend Engineering Co., 551 N.E.2d 437, 442 (Ind.1990), and...