McEuin v. Crown Equipment Corp.

• Decision Date: 24 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 00-36043.,00-36043.
• Citation: 328 F.3d 1028
• Parties: William McEUIN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CROWN EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, fka Crown Controls Corporation; North West Handling Systems, Inc., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1028

328 F.3d 1028

William McEUIN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CROWN EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, fka Crown Controls Corporation; North West Handling Systems, Inc., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 00-36043.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted March 7, 2002.

Filed April 24, 2003.

As Amended on Denial of Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc June 17, 2003^*.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

John Aisenbrey, Kansas City, MO; Malcolm E. Wheeler, Denver, CO; Donald H. Pyle, Portland, OR; Robert Toland, II, Wayne, PA; and Lee Mickus, Denver, CO, for the defendants-appellants.

Mark Zwerling, Kathryn H. Clarke, and J. Randolph Pickett, Portland, OR, for the plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon; Ancer L. Haggerty, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-97-00365-ALH.

Before B. FLETCHER, O'SCANNLAIN, and BERZON, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge BETTY B. FLETCHER; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge O'SCANNLAIN.

OPINION

BETTY B. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge.

Defendants-Appellants Crown Equipment Corporation and North West Handling Systems, Inc. (collectively "Crown") appeal the district court's ruling excluding the introduction of evidence in a product liability suit initiated by Plaintiff William McEuin ("McEuin"). McEuin was injured while operating a forklift manufactured by Crown. At trial, McEuin claimed that the forklift was defectively designed because the operator cabin was not enclosed with a door and because Crown did not provide an adequate warning concerning the risks associated with the forklift. The jury awarded McEuin compensatory and punitive damages. Crown contends that the district court erred in not permitting the introduction of military forklift design specifications and reports of independent engineers consulted by Crown. The district court had diversity jurisdiction to hear this action. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm.

I.

Crown Equipment Corporation began designing stand-up forklifts in 1969. Crown eventually developed and produced for sale the 30RCTT-190 ("30RC"). The 30RC is operated from a standing position, with the operator facing sideways so that by turning his head 180 degrees he can shift his gaze from the front to the back end of the vehicle. Although Crown has manufactured and sold doors for the 30RC, the 30RC does not have a door enclosing the operator cabin as a standard feature.

In 1991, Price Co.¹ requested Crown to install doors on the stand-up forklifts it purchased from Crown to prevent or minimize injuries. Crown discouraged Price Co. from ordering the doors, and as a result, Price Co. did not order doors. In March 1993, North West Handling Systems, a distributor of Crown Equipment Corporation forklifts, ordered a 30RC from Crown Equipment Corporation, which it sold and delivered to Price Costco.

In 1995, McEuin injured his left foot while operating the 30RC in the course of his employment with Price-Costco. McEuin's injury occurred while he was operating the 30RC in a "forks-trailing," or reverse, direction. McEuin diverted his attention in order to check on the position of the cargo, extending his left leg outside the operator's cabin as he leaned toward the front of the forklift. His foot was crushed as the rear of the forklift collided with a steel post.

McEuin sued Crown in federal district court under Oregon tort law, OR. REV. STAT. § 30.920, alleging that Crown is strictly liable for designing, manufacturing, distributing, and selling the 30RC in an unreasonably dangerous condition because (1) it failed to supply a door that would have reduced or eliminated the risk of injury to the operator's left leg, and (2) the 30RC was sold without adequate warnings of the severity of the risk of serious injury to the operator's left leg caused by the lack of a door. McEuin sought both compensatory and punitive damages.

The warning posted by Crown on the 30RC recommends that the operator "[s]tay within the operator area and stop truck completely before getting off" because "legs outside the operator area can be pinned or crushed whenever the truck is moving." McEuin testified that he never knowingly extended his foot outside the operator cabin, but that his action in extending his leg was involuntary. McEuin presented evidence at trial, through the testimony of his experts, that the inadvertent extension of his foot to maintain his balance and the resulting injury were foreseeable due to the openness of the 30RC design and the position of the operator within the cabin.

According to McEuin's theory of liability, the 30RC should have included a door in order to prevent accidents such as his from occurring. McEuin supported his claim for punitive damages by arguing that Crown ignored applicable safety standards, lied to James Perry, the Price Co. supervisor in charge of purchasing industrial equipment, and refused either to retrofit its 30RC forklifts with doors or to equip new models with them as part of a litigation strategy intended to prevent potential plaintiffs from inferring that Crown conceded that the absence of a door was a design defect.

The district court excluded evidence considered by Crown to be crucial to its defense. In particular, the court precluded Crown from introducing evidence of military specifications requiring that forklifts be built without doors enclosing the operator cabin. Those specifications direct that, for forklifts purchased by the military, the operator's cabin "shall ... permit unobstructed egress from the rear of the truck." Crown sought to introduce this evidence in order to show that the military specifications preceded and influenced the design of its forklifts.

In addition, the court precluded Crown from introducing reports generated by independent engineers and allegedly relied upon by Crown in the design of its forklifts. In 1989, Crown requested Universal Energy Systems to analyze accident reports involving forklifts operated, like the 30RC, from a standing position. Crown claims that the results of the analysis showed that prompt exit provided the best operator protection in off-dock excursions and tip-over accidents and that remaining within the operator cabin provided the best protection in collisions of the kind that caused McEuin's injury. In 1991, Crown hired Romualdi, Davidson and Associates ("Romualdi") to perform a similar analysis of accidents involving Crown forklifts producing similar results. Romualdi concluded that "the installation of a door or other type of closure to the operator compartment would not be advisable" because the addition of a door "would likely cause not only more injuries, but more severe injuries to operators of these lift trucks."

Crown had intended to introduce both the military and independent engineering evidence in support of its position that forklifts with doors are more dangerous than forklifts without because of the resulting impairment of the operator's egress during potentially fatal accidents in which a forklift is tipped over. The district court did not allow the introduction of the reports or of the military specifications. The court did, however, allow Crown to introduce evidence that it had solicited and relied upon engineering reports and that it may have relied on military specifications in designing the 30RC.

At the close of McEuin's case and then again at the conclusion of the evidence, Crown moved for judgment as a matter of law on McEuin's punitive damages claim. The district court denied both motions.

The jury found that Crown's warning was adequate, but it found that the design of the 30RC was dangerously defective. It divided fault for McEuin's injury equally between plaintiff and defendants. The jury also determined that McEuin was entitled to punitive damages. The district court awarded McEuin half of his claimed compensatory damages ($612,251.92) and the jury's full recommendation of punitive damages ($1,250,000). Crown renewed its motion for judgment as a matter of law as to punitive damages under FED. R. CIV. P. 50 ("Rule 50") and, alternatively, moved for a new trial under FED. R. CIV. P. 59 ("Rule 59"). The district court denied Crown's motion, and Crown appeals.

II.

We review evidentiary rulings of the district court for abuse of discretion. Freeman v. Allstate Life Ins. Co., 253 F.3d 533, 536 (9th Cir.2001) (citing Defenders of Wildlife v. Bernal, 204 F.3d 920, 927-28 (9th Cir.2000)). To reverse on the basis of an evidentiary ruling, this Court must conclude both that the district court abused its discretion and that the error was prejudicial. Id. "A reviewing court should find prejudice only if it concludes that, more probably than not, the lower court's error tainted the verdict." Tennison v. Circus Circus Enters., Inc., 244 F.3d 684, 688 (9th Cir.2001).

The district court's denial of Crown's Rule 59 motion for a new trial is also reviewed for an abuse of discretion. Silver Sage Partners, Ltd. v. City of Desert Hot Springs, 251 F.3d 814, 818 (9th Cir. 2001); E.E.O.C. v. Pape Lift, Inc., 115 F.3d 676, 680 (9th Cir.1997). The district court's denial of Crown's Rule 50 motion for judgment as a matter of law is reviewed de novo. Monroe v. City of Phoenix, 248 F.3d 851, 861 (9th Cir.2001).

III.

A. Evidentiary Rulings

1. Military Specifications

The district court did not abuse its discretion in granting McEuin's pretrial motion to exclude the introduction of military specifications as irrelevant, thus inadmissable under Rule 402 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, to prove that the lack of a door on a forklift is not unreasonably dangerous. Crown sought to introduce the military specifications to demonstrate that the 30RC conformed with military standards, influenced the design of the 30RC, and supported its contention that a door is unreasonably dangerous. McEuin correctly argued that the military design specifications should be excluded because the 30RC ...