Caterpillar Tractor Co. v. Gonzales

• Decision Date: 28 December 1977
• Docket Number: No. 6617,6617
• Parties: CATERPILLAR TRACTOR COMPANY, Appellant, v. Santiago GONZALES et al., Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 573

562 S.W.2d 573

CATERPILLAR TRACTOR COMPANY, Appellant, v. Santiago GONZALES et al., Appellees.

No. 6617.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, El Paso.

Dec. 28, 1977.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 25, 1978.

Wiley, Plunkett, Gibson & Allen, Robert A. Allen, Ronald Hornberger, San Antonio, for appellant.

Clark, Thornton & Summers, W. Burl Brock, San Antonio, for intervenor.

Gochman & Weir, Warren Weir, John Scarzafava, San Antonio, for appellees.

OPINION

WARD, Justice.

This is a strict tort liability and negligence action where only a design defect is involved. The Plaintiff/operator, while alighting from his Caterpillar tractor-loader, slipped from the muddy step on the machine and was severely injured. Trial was to a jury which determined that the step on the machine was defectively designed by the manufacturer and this was a producing cause of the fall; and that the step was negligently designed by the manufacturer and this was a proximate cause of the fall. All defensive issues submitted on behalf of the manufacturer were rejected by the jury. Based upon the jury's verdict, judgment was entered that the Plaintiff recover from the manufacturer the sum of $252,991.05, a portion thereof being awarded to the intervenor workmen's compensation carrier by virtue of subrogation rights from the payment of the Plaintiff's workmen's compensation claim. Caterpillar appeals and we reverse and render.

The Plaintiff, Santiago Gonzales, age 29 at the time of the accident, had a sixth grade education and had been employed by Frio County for three years as a dump truck driver and as an operator of the front end loader. In April, 1971, Frio County purchased the 941 front end loader and the Plaintiff had been operating it from the start. During the one and one half years the machine was used, he had become familiar with its operation and had climbed up and down the 941 literally thousands of times, having had to climb on and off the machine some ten or fifteen times a day when he was the operator. He had frequently used it under the same wet weather condition as he encountered on the day of the accident, and had worked in mud and knew that on those occasions mud collected on the tracks and on the side of the machine, including the area where the step was located. At the time of the accident, the machine was being operated in a muddy caliche pit. The Plaintiff was familiar with muddy caliche and knew it was slippery. September 21, 1973, was a foggy and rainy day and the Plaintiff accumulated mud on his boots before he got up on the machine. He did not clean off his boots prior to dismounting. The step in question was a U-shaped step welded to the side of the roller frame guard between the tracks and was some 22 inches above the ground. For its protection, the outside of the step is located within the outside edges of the tracks. Of necessity, when a person dismounts, he has to lean backward to see the step. When the Plaintiff dismounted, he got up from his seat, turned around and faced the machine and grabbed the grab irons. He leaned back to see where the step was in order that he could put his foot in it and noticed that the step had mud on it. He placed his foot on the step, his foot slipped, his hands then slipped from the grab irons, and he fell backward to the ground and suffered his injuries.

The machine was a 941 Traxcavator, manufactured by Caterpillar in January, 1969. It was a comparatively small tractor front end loader standing some six feet in height with a bucket loader all across the front and a heavy ripper all across the rear of the machine. The step was manufactured from a flat piece of 1/4th inch steel with two right angle bends in it to form a shallow U-shaped piece. The two legs were then welded to the rocker frame guard so that the step is parallel to the ground and thus protruding out from the roller frame, though, as stated, not as far as the outside edge of the tracks. To keep the foot from slipping sideways, there is a shallow notched pocket 8 inches wide and 1/2 inch deep designed as the area where the foot should be placed. As indicated, the step is located between the tracks, is 22 inches from the ground and 15 inches from the top track. The top track of the Caterpillar is used as a second step, and from the top of the track to the floor of the operator's station, there is an additional 141/2 inch step. On the left side of the tractor, where the accident occurred, there is a grab iron welded to the front side of the entrance to the operator's station, and on the back side of the entrance, a grab rail extends from over the top of the tractor to the bottom of the operator's station entrance. Since the step in question is U-shaped, dirt, mud and debris falling on it will tend to pass through and fall to the ground.

The Plaintiff's pleadings were to the effect that the step on the Caterpillar was defectively designed and that the defective design was a producing cause of the accident; that the Defendant negligently designed the step and that the negligence was a proximate cause of the accident. To sustain his position, the Plaintiff has relied on an expert's testimony and opinion that the design of the step was unreasonably dangerous and that it was negligently designed; that the design failed to meet three of the Defendant's own guidelines or standards regarding safety designs of steps; and finally, that a substitute was available which was inexpensive to construct and which remedied the one problem relative to mud on the Defendant's step. In this regard, the expert testified that when a person was getting off of the Caterpillar that the step was "extremely difficult to see." When the Caterpillar was operating in mud, the mud would accumulate on the bottom of the track which, like a conveyor, transported the mud around and deposited the mud in big clumps right on the step, and that the particular design "maximized the accumulation of debris." The step did not have anti-skid material on it, and it was so constructed that only one foot could be used in getting off of the machine. He testified that "you have to lean out and see to make you you don't put your foot where there isn't a step," and having to lean out in order to see the step posed an additional hazard.

A design reference had been worked up by the Defendant by the summer of 1968, and it provided that steps should be designed to minimize the accumulation of debris, that all steps should be coated with an anti-skid material, and that when steps were in series, they should be designed so that either foot might be used on any step. The Plaintiff's expert pointed to these references as the Defendant's standards which had been violated in the design of this particular step. Undoubtedly, the step was in a location where mud would be dropped on it. The 1/4th inch step did not have any anti-skid material on it, and only one foot the right could comfortably be used on the left side of the machine.

As stated, the expert recommended the adoption of either of two remedial designs. One of these resembled somewhat a drawbridge which would fold out from the operator's station, could then be lowered by the operator out over the track, and the operator would then step on flat surfaces to the ground. The expert testified that the Company's three criteria mentioned would easily be met by each of the respective devices and each one of the devices could be folded out of the way in such a manner that they would not get knocked off and would never get covered with mud. Finally, the expert claimed that folding ladders were successfully used on other types of front end loaders and had been so used prior to the construction of the model 941.

Countering the above was the Defendant's testimony that a conscious design choice had been made by Caterpillar of the step after a careful evaluation of the intended function and use of the machine and the conditions that it was expected to encounter, and with the use of a planned step design for quick ingress to and egress from the operator's station. This was all done within the background that the step had been used thousands of times by numerous other operators under every conceivable kind of condition without complaint. The Defendant's design engineers testified that they felt that the guidelines in question were met; that the step itself provided a sharp edge which itself would be an anti-skid surface; that the step was designed so that mud and debris would drop to the ground in the opening of the U-shape; and that the leaning backward presented no problem as the system was designed so that the operator would have three limbs on the system at all times that is two hands and one foot.

The engineers were familiar with a retractable ladder and admitted that they were used on some front end loaders. However, they pointed out that they were used only on large wheeled vehicles where the devices were protected from damage by the large rubber tires. They further testified that up to the present time no track front end loader ever manufactured had used the retractable ladder system. The design decision forcing the simple step selection over the retractable ladder was based on many factors. As opposed to a wheel loader, which operates on relatively flat, dry surfaces, the track loader operates in all kinds of conditions flat rocky floors, steep slopes, mud, dry dust, snow, against rock walls, and in heavy timber. These requirements were such that durable construction was absolutely required. Further, the problem of getting a retractable ladder that would go out and over the side of the tracks was insurmountable. Some machines worked with variable track widths. The folding ladder concept was very susceptible to damage from encounters with rocks, tree limbs, and debris. The ladders were also susceptible to damage from operator forgetfulness, that is one of the ladders not being retracted when the machine was started. Of...