Murphy v. Eaton, Yale & Towne, Inc.
| Decision Date | 08 June 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 20543.,20543. |
| Citation | 444 F.2d 317 |
| Parties | Harold MURPHY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. EATON, YALE & TOWNE, INC., Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Edward D. Wells, Grand Rapids, Mich., for defendant-appellant; Cholette, Perkins & Buchanan, Grand Rapids, Mich., on brief.
Robert J. VanLeuven, Muskegon, Mich., for plaintiff-appellee; Marcus, McCroskey, Libner, Reamon, Williams & Dilley, Muskegon, Mich., on brief.
Before WEICK, CELEBREZZE and BROOKS, Circuit Judges.
This is a products liability case governed by Michigan law. Plaintiff sued Eaton, Yale & Towne, Inc. (Eaton), the manufacturer of a forklift truck, for personal injuries sustained by him when one of three large, heavy bales of waste hides (which bale he had placed on top of the other two on the forklift, all three of which he was attempting to lift into a gondola car) tilted and fell backwards onto his back, severely injuring him. Plaintiff's complaint, filed in the District Court, contained four counts charging Eaton with negligence, wanton and wilful misconduct, breach of express and implied warranties, and strict liability in tort.
Plaintiff withdrew the counts of negligence and strict liability in tort, and on his motion at the conclusion of all of the evidence the Court directed the jury to return a verdict in favor of the plaintiff on the counts of wanton and wilful misconduct and implied warranty, and submitted to the jury only the issue of damages. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in the amount of $54,000, upon which judgment was entered with interest from the date of the filing of the complaint.
Eaton appealed. It contends that the District Court erred in directing a verdict in favor of plaintiff; that the Court should have directed a verdict in favor of defendant, or at least should have submitted the factual issues to the jury; that the Court erred in excluding relevant testimony on the issue of implied warranty and in admitting evidence as to a change in defendant's policy after the accident; and that the Court further erred in its instructions on damages.
At the oral argument we inquired of counsel for plaintiff whether he could furnish us with any Michigan decision sustaining the direction of a verdict in favor of plaintiff in an action for damages involving either wanton and wilful misconduct or implied warranty. He was unable to furnish us with a single authority from Michigan, or any other place where such procedure in this type of litigation had ever been sanctioned. The District Court also held irrelevant the defenses of contributory negligence, assumption of risk, and misuse of the product. We reverse.
It was the claim of the plaintiff that Eaton should have equipped the forklift truck with a load backrest and an overhead guard to protect the operator from falling objects, and that its failure to do so constituted not only wanton and wilful misconduct but also breach of implied warranty of witness and merchantability. The fact is that Lakeshore Materials & Handling Co., the dealer which purchased the forklift truck from Eaton, also handled the products of other manufacturers. It ordered the truck from Eaton without either a load backrest or an overhead guard. The written order credited Lakeshore with $155, which was the selling price of the load backrest and overhead guard. Lakeshore carried in stock a supply of load backrests, overhead guards, and masts, and sold them to customers who desired to purchase them. Lakeshore had three sources of supply for these accessories, namely, Eaton, a local welding and fabricating shop, and its own shop.
Lakeshore sold the truck in question to plaintiff's employer, Whitehall Leather Company, which ordered it without the accessories. Whitehall had purchased its first truck direct from Eaton in 1957; and from 1960 to 1969 it had purchased thirteen additional Eaton trucks from Lakeshore. It traded in two old trucks on the truck in question. At the time of the trial, Whitehall had a total of six Eaton trucks, five of which were small (including the truck in question), and one large truck. None of these trucks was equipped with load backrests or overhead guards. Whitehall did not want the accessories because of the presence in its plant of low ceiling pipes and doors.1
It is the contention of plaintiff that Eaton nevertheless should have compelled its dealers to purchase the accessories even though they had them in stock and did not need or want them, and further should have prohibited its dealers from selling the trucks without the accessories. Eaton had no knowledge of the persons or purchasers to whom the dealers sold their trucks, nor of the uses to which the trucks would be put.
The truck in question had a telescopic mast which could lift a load about nine feet. The top of the mast, when lowered, was 73 inches above the ground. An overhead guard on the truck would have increased this height to 85 inches.
The fork on each truck was equipped with a back about 21 inches in height, which operated as a backrest providing protection to that height against the slipping of loads. A load backrest would have added an additional 27 inches in height.
Prior to 1965 Eaton's trucks were not equipped with either overhead guards or backrests as standard equipment. In 1965 Eaton issued to dealers a directive that it would equip all trucks with overhead guards and backrests except when specifically ordered not to do so. Lakeshore purchased the truck in question on December 9, 1966. Plaintiff offered testimony over objection to the effect that after the accident Eaton changed its policy and required all dealers to purchase these accessories, whether or not they wanted them.
On the truck in question there was a black and white metal plate attached to the hood, immediately behind the lever controls, in plain view of the operator, a photocopy of which is as follows:
There was riveted to the cowl of the truck a plastic envelope containing a manual with instructions for safe loading and operation of the truck. In the packet there was a card containing the statement that a key chain with a little pocket-knife would be furnished by Eaton free to the operator who returned another card which stated, Among the instructions was the following: "Do not carry or attempt to lift unstable or unsecure loads."
The American Standard Safety Code for powered industrial trucks (ASA), offered in evidence by plaintiff, treats the load backrest and overhead guard as accessories. With respect to overhead guards and load backrests it provides:
The exceptions are stated as follows:
"Exceptions: Where overall height of truck with forks in lowered position is limited by head room conditions and there is insufficient space for the above amounts of vertical clearance or for the operator to assume a normal driving position, such clearances may be reduced or the overhead guards may be omitted; but special attention shall be given to stack conditions in the operating area, such as weight of units and stability, to reduce this hazard to the operator." (p. 18)
With respect to load backrests, the Code provides:
With respect to operators, the Code provides:
"806 They shall move only loads which are securely and safely loaded."
Plaintiff went to work for Whitehall in October, 1966. He was injured on June 10, 1968. On the day of the accident he loaded two bales of hides on the fork lift truck and placed a third bale on top of the other two. Each bale was about four and one-half feet long, 18 to 19 inches high, and a "good foot" wide, and each weighed about 750 pounds. They were not tied.
It is obvious that if plaintiff had lifted one or even two bales placed side by side on the fork lift, no accident could have occurred because the fork had a guard of 21 inches. It was only when he placed a third bale on top of the other two that the third bale fell off backwards when he was lifting the load onto the gondola car, outside the plant.
There was evidence that prior to plaintiff's accident, namely on November 2, 1967, an operator named Roy Amaya had been injured by a bale...
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...Erdman v. Johnson Bros. Radio & Television Co., Inc. (1970), 260 Md. 190, 271 A.2d 744, 8 U.C.C.Rppr. 656; Murphy v. Eaton, Yale & Towne, Inc., 444 F.2d 317 (6th Cir. 1971), 8 U.C.C.Rppr. 805 (applying Michigan law); Texsum Feed Yards, Inc. v. Ralston Purina Co., 447 F.2d 660 (5th Cir. 1971......
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...Commercial Code, hold specifically that the damages must be proximately caused by the breach. See e.g., Murphy v. Eaton, Yale & Towne, Inc., 444 F.2d 317, 327 (6th Cir.1971) (citing Erdman v. Johnson Bros. Radio & Television Co., 260 Md. 190, 271 A.2d 744, 747, 749 (Ct. of App. 1970)). See ......
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