Wheeler v. Standard Tool and Manufacturing Company
| Decision Date | 20 May 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 487,Docket 73-1913.,487 |
| Citation | 497 F.2d 897 |
| Parties | Elizabeth WHEELER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. STANDARD TOOL AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Allan H. Gordon, Philadelphia, Pa. (Norman J. Landau, New York City, and Edward L. Wolf, Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for plaintiff-appellee.
John G. Reilly, New York City (Thomas R. Newman, Benjamin H. Siff, and Reilly & Reilly, New York City, on the brief), for defendant-appellant.
Before LUMBARD, FRIENDLY and TIMBERS, Circuit Judges.
This appeal brings up for review a judgment entered in a diversity negligence action now in its fifth year and arising from an accident that occurred more than seven years ago.
The judgment was entered after a bench trial in the Southern District of New York before Kevin T. Duffy, District Judge. It awarded plaintiff $12,500 general damages, plus $872.10 special damages, for personal injuries sustained while plaintiff was operating a hypodermic syringe assembly machine designed and manufactured by defendant.
The accident occurred on December 16, 1966 at the plant located in Canaan, Connecticut, of Becton-Dickinson & Company (Becton) where plaintiff was employed. At the time of the accident, plaintiff was operating one of Becton's machines which had been designed and manufactured by defendant Standard Tool & Manufacturing Company (Standard) at its plant in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, in 1963. The machine was known as a plastic syringe assembly machine. The accident occurred when plaintiff slipped on some waste materials ejected by the machine. As she slipped, she instinctively thrust her right hand forward. This hand became caught in the machine's unguarded needle assembly station. She sustained an injury to her right index finger for which damages were awarded by the district court below.
The theory of plaintiff's action is not one of ordinary negligence, but rather one of strict liability against the manufacturer of a dangerous machine. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A (1965).1 We hold that Judge Duffy applied the correct choice of law rule in ultimately looking to Connecticut to determine the applicable law of strict liability. And we further hold that he correctly concluded that the Connecticut courts in cases of strict liability apply the Restatement, supra, § 402A. Basko v. Sterling Drug, Inc., 416 F.2d 417, 425 (2 Cir. 1969); DiMeo v. Minster Machine Company, Inc., 388 F.2d 18, 20 (2 Cir. 1968).
After a careful review of the evidence, including an evaluation of the evidence for credibility, Judge Duffy found that the absence of a guard at the needle inserting station was a "defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user" within the meaning of § 402A. We hold that this finding was supported by substantial evidence and was not clearly erroneous.
We also reject, as did Judge Duffy, Standard's massive reliance upon its claim that it simply built a special purpose machine in accordance with Becton's specifications and left it to Becton to determine what safety devices were required for the moving parts above the lower section of the machine. This ignores the thrust of § 402A as well as critical...
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Roy v. Star Chopper Co., Inc., Civ. A. No. 74-16.
...60 N.J. 402, 290 A.2d 281 (1972). Accord Wheeler v. Standard Tool and Manufacturing Co., 359 F.Supp. 298 (S.D.N.Y. 1973), aff'd 497 F.2d 897 (2d Cir. 1974); Cf., Restatement 2d Torts, 402 A Comment p. (1965). In Bexiga, the manufacturer was not exempt from liability simply because the custo......
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Roll v. Tracor, Inc., CV-S-98-1472-LRL.
...plaintiff at the time of the accident. Wheeler v. Standard Tool & Mfg. Co., 359 F.Supp. 298, 301 (S.D.N.Y.1973), aff'd. per curiam, 497 F.2d 897 (2d Cir.1974) (post-accident change of domicile by a plaintiff will not enter into resolution of choice-of-law issue); O'Brien v. Grumman Corp., 4......
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Navarrete De Pedrero v. Schweizer Aircraft Corp., 08-CV-117S.
...(strict liability laws are conduct regulating); Wheeler v. Standard Tool & Mfg. Co., 359 F.Supp. 298, 301 (S.D.N.Y.1973), aff'd, 497 F.2d 897 (2d Cir.1974) (strict liability claims are governed by the law of the place of injury). Thus, the law of the jurisdiction where the Plaintiffs' deced......
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Duke v. Gulf & Western Mfg. Co., WD
...504 F.Supp. 1229, 1234 (E.D.Wis.1981), and Wheeler v. Standard Tool and Mfg. Co., 359 F.Supp. 298, 303 (S.D.N.Y.1973), aff'd, 497 F.2d 897 (2nd Cir.1974), accepting and applying this same principle. See also Roy v. Star Chopper Co., Inc., 442 F.Supp. 1010, 1021 (D.R.I.1977), aff'd, 584 F.2d......