Hoppe v. Midwest Conveyor Company, Inc.

Decision Date16 October 1973
Docket NumberNo. 73-1105.,73-1105.
PartiesJohn M. HOPPE, Appellant, v. MIDWEST CONVEYOR COMPANY, INC., Appellee.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Rex Carr, East St. Louis, Ill., for appellant.

James J. Amelung, St. Louis, Mo., for appellee.

Before LAY, ROSS and STEPHENSON, Circuit Judges.

LAY, Circuit Judge.

This is a product liability case. John Hoppe brought this action against Midwest Conveyor Co., Inc., for injuries he received on the assembly line of Fisher Body Division, a General Motors automobile plant located in St. Louis, Missouri. The defendant, Midwest Conveyor Co., was the manufacturer of a conveyor-hoist used in the plant. At the close of the plaintiff's evidence the trial court directed a verdict for the defendant ruling there was insufficient evidence that the machine was defective or dangerous when put to a use reasonably anticipated. Plaintiff appeals. We reverse and remand for a new trial.1

The facts may be briefly stated. The conveyor-hoist in question is used to transfer auto underbodies from one assembly line to another. This is accomplished by elongated arms with claws on their ends which are used to clamp onto the underbodies. The evidence shows that the machine has three separate maneuvers, each controlled by different valves. The maneuvers are (1) the up and down operations of the arms, (2) a rotating motion and (3) the operation of the claws. The power for all of the movements is provided by compressed air which flows through the valves. The up and down operation is controlled by a valve known as a Parker-Hannifin solenoid air valve. Each valve is designed so that it can be operated electrically or by a manual control.

The injury took place on August 27, 1970. The conveyor-hoist had been installed on the Fisher Body assembly line approximately two weeks before. On the day in question an electrical wire broke which caused the arms to stall in a down position blocking the assembly line and halting the movement. A maintenance foreman requested Hoppe, a pipefitter, to open the manual control valve, also known as a solenoid valve, on the conveyor-hoist machine, in order that the arms could be raised and the assembly line cleared. The manual control valve was located directly above the arms, some 10 to 12 feet from the floor. To gain access to the valve Hoppe had to crawl over a girder which extended above the machine. Hoppe had no prior experience with the machine and was not familiar with the machine's movements. Once Hoppe was above the valve he straddled the girder, leaned over the machine, inserted a screwdriver in a slot marked "manual override" and turned the valve. When the valve was turned the air cylinder rod retracted and the plaintiff's foot was crushed in the moving parts of the machine.

According to the plaintiff's evidence the "conduit layout of the hoist," prepared by the defendant, as submitted to and approved by General Motors, shows the location of the solenoid valve in question to be in an accessible position away from the moving parts of the machine. (After the accident the valves were moved to the approximate position shown on the original plan.) However, when the unit arrived at the plant the valve had been placed at the top of the machine. The defendant asserts that Fisher Body was in charge of the installation of the assembled machine and that the electrical schematic diagram shows that some of the parts such as the solenoid valve were to be "field-located" by Fisher Body. Plaintiff's expert witness, Dr. Gerald Dreifke, testified that the electrical schematic diagram is not designed to show the location of the valves but is to be used by electricians to make the proper connections between the new piece of machinery and the existing electrical wiring within the factory. Dr. Dreifke testified that conduit drawings are often used by the installers in the field to establish the location of parts.

Dr. Dreifke, called by the plaintiff, was an experienced design engineer and opined that the location of the solenoid valve when used as a manual control was unsafe because it was located near moving parts of the machine. On cross-examination he agreed that if the air power had been shut off before Hoppe turned the valve the accident would not have occurred. It was this fact which apparently led the trial court to conclude that the machine was not being used in a manner which could have been reasonably anticipated. The only other evidence concerning the use of the air power was by the Fisher Body maintenance foreman, Earl Rice. He testified that normally the air was not turned off while operating Parker-Hannifin valves since the valves would not operate without pressure on them. There is no evidence that defendant issued any warning or instruction with the machine that the manual override was not to be operated unless the air pressure was turned off.

Plaintiff brought suit on two distinct counts of strict liability and breach of warranty. Missouri recognizes both the doctrine of strict liability, Keener v. Dayton Electric Mfg. Co., 445 S.W.2d 362 (Mo.1969) and breach of warranty, Morrow v. Caloric Appliance Corp., 372 S.W.2d 41 (Mo.1963) (en banc).1a

The principle is well established that manufacturers have a duty to use reasonable care in the design of a chattel. Cf. Passwaters v. General Motors Corp., 454 F.2d 1270, 1274 (8th Cir. 1972). Recognition of the doctrine of strict liability now eliminates proof as to violation of the standard of reasonable care. Passwaters, supra at 1277.

Missouri has recognized liability for faulty design. In Higgins v. Paul Hardeman, Inc., 457 S.W.2d 943 (Mo. App.1970), the plaintiff was killed as the result of a hydraulic lift system on a dump truck manufactured by the defendant. While the plaintiff-decedent was oiling some bearings underneath the bed of the truck he accidently hit a control rod causing the bed of the truck to drop on him. Plaintiff's expert testified that the lift system was improperly designed since an accidental hitting of the control rod could operate the valves of the lift system, causing the dump body to drop. Significantly, there was no proof of the existence of a defective condition "since the hoist did not disintegrate, break down, crack or fail." Nevertheless, the Missouri court found a "dangerous condition" to exist because of the design's failure to include a safety factor. See also Pike v. Frank G. Hough Co., 2 Cal.3d 465, 85 Cal.Rptr. 629, 467 P.2d 229 (1970) (en banc) (failure of earth-moving machine to be equipped with rear view mirrors with no audible or visible backup warning signal). There the California Supreme Court observed:

"There is no rational distinction between design and manufacture in this context, since a product may be equally defective and dangerous if its design subjects protected persons to unreasonable risk as if its manufacture does so." Pike, supra at 636 of 85 Cal.Rptr., at 236 of 467 P.2d.

See also Wirth v. Clark Equipment Co., 457 F.2d 1262 (9th Cir. 1972) (forward view of driver in van carrier severely restricted because of the way the van was constructed); Sutkowski v. Universal Marion Corp., 5 Ill.App.3d 313, 281 N.E.2d 749 (1972) (design of strip mining machine allowed debris from the adjacent spoil bank to roll beneath the machine).

On review of the overall record we conclude there exists sufficient evidence from which reasonable men might find that the hoist as designed by the defendant created a dangerous condition.

However, the basic reasoning of the trial court was that the plaintiff should be barred from recovery since the hoist was being operated in an unintended manner not foreseeable by the manufacturer. One of the essential elements of proof in a strict liability case is that the plaintiff must show that the machine was being used in a manner which could have been reasonably anticipated. See Keener v. Dayton Electric Mfg. Co., 445 S.W.2d 362 (Mo.1969) and Maryland Casualty Co. v. Dondlinger & Sons Const. Co., 420 F.2d 1368 (8th Cir. 1970).

In Higgins v. Paul Hardeman, Inc., 457 S.W.2d 943 (Mo.App.1970) the Missouri court discussed the concept of intended use in terms of foreseeability.

"Defendants then contend that plaintiff failed to make a submissible case because as a matter of law the hoist was being used in a manner for which it was not intended. The Restatement, § 402A, supra, at Comment (h), paraphrased in the light of the facts of this case, requires a product to be safe for normal use; if it is abnormally used and injury results, then the product may not be found to be in a defective condition. Keener, supra, directs this issue to be submitted in language hypothesizing the use of the article `in a manner reasonably anticipated\'. The statement to the effect defendants are not liable for injuries resulting from abnormal use is only true if such abnormal use was not reasonably foreseeable. `The issue is one of foreseeability, and misuse may be foreseeable.\' Products Liability, Frumer & Friedman, § 15.01. Foreseeable use may be different from its intended use and includes any particular use which should be known to a reasonably prudent manufacturer. Dunham v. Vaughan & Bushnell Mfg. Co., 86 Ill.App.2d 315, 229 N.E.2d 684. The evidence that there were a number of duties which a driver had to do as part of normal maintenance and which could only or which could best be performed when the bed of the truck was in a raised position established this element of plaintiff\'s case." Higgins, supra at 948.

Harper and James in discussing intended use observe:

"The maker of an article for sale or use by others must use reasonable care and skill in designing it and providing specifications for it so that it is reasonably safe for the purposes for which it is intended, and for other uses which are foreseeably probable. . . ." (emphasis added).
2 H. Harper & F. James,
...

To continue reading

Request your trial
47 cases
  • Vanskike v. ACF Industries, Inc.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit
    • November 9, 1981
    ...Fourth, the intended use doctrine necessarily includes foreseeable consequences of unintentional misuse. Hoppe v. Midwest Conveyor Co., 485 F.2d 1196, 1201 (8th Cir. 1973), citing Higgins v. Paul Hardeman, Inc., 457 S.W.2d 943 (Mo.App.1970). "The realities of the intended and actual use are......
  • Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp. v. Chapman
    • United States
    • Indiana Appellate Court
    • March 29, 1979
    ...for Prescription Drug Injuries, supra at 23, for a thorough discussion of ineffective drug labelling.15 In Hoppe v. Midwest Conveyor Co. (8th Cir. 1973) 485 F.2d 1196, 1202, another defective design case, the court stated that evidence of post-accident design modifications is admissible bec......
  • LaHue v. General Motors Corp., 88-5063-CV-SW-1.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri
    • July 5, 1989
    ...negligence does not bar recovery. Keener v. Dayton Elec. Mfg. Co., 445 S.W.2d 362, 365 (Mo. banc 1969); Hoppe v. Midwest Conveyor Co., Inc., 485 F.2d 1196, 1201 (8th Cir.1973); Lippard v. Houdaille Indus., Inc., 715 S.W.2d 491, 492 (Mo. banc 1986). Accordingly, to the extent failure to use ......
  • Myers v. Cessna Aircraft Corp.
    • United States
    • Oregon Supreme Court
    • July 9, 1976
    ...533 P.2d 316 (1975); Phillips v. Kimwood Machine Co., supra; Roach v. Kononen/Ford Motor Co., supra. See also Hoppe v. Midwest Conveyor Co., Inc., 485 F.2d 1196 (8th Cir. 1973); Boeing Airplane Co. v. Brown, 291 F.2d 310 (9th Cir. 1961); Note, Products Liability and Evidence of Subsequent R......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT