Miller v. Bock Laundry Mach. Co.

• Decision Date: 30 December 1977
• Docket Number: No. B-6857,B-6857
• Citation: 568 S.W.2d 648
• Parties: George MILLER, Individually and as next friend for George Miller, Jr., Petitioner, v. BOCK LAUNDRY MACHINE COMPANY, Respondent.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 648

568 S.W.2d 648

George MILLER, Individually and as next friend for George

Miller, Jr., Petitioner, v. BOCK LAUNDRY MACHINE COMPANY, Respondent.

No. B-6857.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Dec. 30, 1977.

Rehearing Denied July 26, 1978.

Wellborn & Houston, Rex Houston, Henderson, for petitioner.

Sharp, Ward & Ross, Earl Sharp, Longview, for respondent.

BARROW, Justice.

This is a products liability case. George Miller, Jr., then eleven years old, had his left arm severed at the shoulder when it became caught in a centrifugal extractor, a type of clothes dryer manufactured by Bock Laundry Machine Company. At the time of the accident, it was installed in the Blue Ribbon Cleaning Center, a laundromat in Henderson. George Miller, Sr. filed suit individually, and as next friend of George Jr., seeking to recover damages jointly and severally from Bock; from Luther Jenkins, d/b/a Blue Ribbon Cleaning Center; and from United Furniture Company, who had sold the equipment to Jenkins. Miller settled with Jenkins just before trial for $45,000 and agreed to hold Jenkins harmless from Bock's plea for indemnity or contribution.

The jury found that the extractor was defectively designed by Bock and that the defect was a producing cause of the boy's injury. The jury also found that Jenkins and United Furniture were guilty of negligence, but that such negligence was not a proximate cause of the occurrence in question. The trial court concluded that there was no evidence to support the jury's findings that the extractor was defectively designed and granted Bock's motion for a take-nothing judgment non obstante veredicto. Miller perfected an appeal as to Bock and the court of civil appeals affirmed. 551 S.W.2d 775. We reverse the judgments of the lower courts and render judgment on the jury verdict.

To overrule the action of the trial court in granting the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto, we must determine that there is more than a scintilla of evidence The extractor was designed and manufactured by Bock. It was designed to extract water from the clothes by means of the centrifugal force generated by the clothes basket rotating at about 1,725 revolutions per minute, the equivalent of over 60 miles per hour. This particular machine was originally sold by Bock in 1957 to Hammond Laundry Cleaning Machinery Company of Shreveport, Louisiana, and shipped directly to the Crim Furniture Company in Henderson. Jenkins, who operated several laundromats in and around Henderson, was contacted by a salesman for United Furniture Company around the latter part of July, 1968, in regard to the purchase of some laundry equipment, including the Bock Centrifugal Extractor, which had been used by a Mr. Neal, who was terminating his laundry business. The record does not show how ownership passed from Neal to United Furniture. The extractor was purchased by Jenkins from United Furniture and installed at the Blue Ribbon Cleaning Center. No operating instructions or equipment manual were with the extractor or furnished to Jenkins. The machine was placed in operation and apparently worked satisfactorily until the unfortunate accident which is the basis of this suit.

upon which the jury could have made the findings against Bock. In making this determination, we must review the evidence in its most favorable light, considering only the evidence and inferences which support the findings, and rejecting the evidence and inferences contrary to the findings. Martinez v. Delta Brands, Inc., 515 S.W.2d 263 (Tex.1974); Douglass v. Panama, Inc., 504 S.W.2d 776 (Tex.1974).

On September 1, 1975, George Jr. accompanied his mother to the Blue Ribbon Cleaning Center for the purpose of helping with the family laundry. While there, she told George to remove a load of clothes from this extractor. George turned off the machine and, after a short delay, opened the lid. The extractor was equipped with a safety device to prevent the lid from opening while the basket was still spinning. However, when George lifted the lid of this machine, the safety device did not operate. Although the lid opened easily, the basket was still rotating at a very high rate of speed. George's arm was caught in the machine and severed almost immediately. There was testimony that the energy created by the rotating basket was so great it could have actually sucked the boy's arm into the machine when the lid was opened.

The evidence is uncontradicted that the safety device on the machine was defective at the time of the accident and that the defect was a producing cause of George's injuries. It is now firmly established in Texas that a manufacturer is liable for unreasonably dangerous products whether designed defectively and manufactured as designed, or whether designed perfectly, but defectively manufactured. Henderson v. Ford Motor Co., 519 S.W.2d 87 (Tex.1974); Otis Elevator Co. v. Wood, 436 S.W.2d 324 (Tex.1968); Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 395, 398 (1965). A defect in a product at the time of an accident is not alone enough to render the manufacturer strictly liable. Therefore, the question before us is whether there is evidence to support the jury finding that the machine was defectively designed at the time it was sold, and that the defect was a producing cause of the failure of the safety device on September 1, 1975.

At trial two expert witnesses testified that they had examined the machine. Mr. Stern, a licensed professional engineer with nearly 40 years experience as a private consulting engineer, examined the machine at the request of Miller two or three days after the accident. Dr. Perry, a licensed professional engineer who has taught mechanical engineering at Texas A & M University since 1948, examined the machine at the request of Jenkins a few days after the accident and also at his laboratory in Bryan. Both testified directly and unequivocally that the failure of the safety device was the result of defective design.

Bock urges that the direct testimony of the two experts is without probative force in that the evidence conclusively establishes that the extractor, specifically the safety To answer this question, we must consider the expectations of the manufacturer and the nature of the defect. Mr. Clement, the president of Bock, testified that these extractors were manufactured to last for many years certainly more than 18 years with proper service and maintenance. Some were in service that were 30 to 40 years old. He also stated that the safety device is supposed to last the life of the machine. The two experts emphasized that the minimum requirement of any safety system is to outlast the useful life of the machine. This evidence supports an inference that this extractor was designed with the intent it would still be in service on September 1, 1975. Clement admitted that an unreasonable risk of harm to the user would exist if the lid could be raised while the basket was still spinning.

device, was not defective at the time of manufacture, and in fact, it had worked satisfactorily for over 18 years. It urges it was thus entitled to a directed verdict under the rule established in Henderson v. Ford Motor Co., supra. The issue posed in Henderson can be paraphrased to apply to this case as follows: Did some feature of the form or material or operation of the extractor threaten harm to persons using the machine to the extent that any extractor so designed would not be placed in the channels of commerce by a prudent manufacturer aware of the risks or to the extent that the extractor would not meet the reasonable expectations of the ordinary consumer or user as to its safety? See also General Motors v. Hopkins, 548 S.W.2d 344 (Tex.1977).

To understand the nature of the defect, one must understand the operation of the safety device. The hinged lid of the extractor is connected at the back to a metal rod which runs down the side of the machine. This vertical rod is then linked by a lever to a spring-loaded rod which runs horizontally underneath the clothes basket. If the lid is raised, the vertical rod is necessarily pushed down, which in turn moves the horizontal rod. However, when the basket begins to rotate, the centrifugal force created raises a metal collar up, along the axle on which the basket rotates, into a position behind the horizontal rod. This prevents the rod from moving and the lid from opening. Most of the operating mechanism as well as the clothes basket is a self-contained unit apart from the exterior housing to which the safety rods are attached. This mechanism is connected to the housing only at a ledge or rim which runs around the inside of the housing near the bottom. To prevent noise and vibration, there are four rubber pads on this ledge on which the operating mechanism rests. The two expert witnesses testified that the failure of the safety device to operate on this extractor was brought about as a result of a deterioration or shrinking of one of the pads which caused the unit containing the operating mechanism to slip down about an eighth of an inch. This allowed the rod to pass completely over the collar, permitting the lid to be raised even though the basket was rotating.

These witnesses expressed the opinion that the design was defective in that rubber was used for the pads despite the fact that rubber was known to deteriorate when in contact with oil and the ozone given off by the electric motor. One of the rubber pads was located close to the tube where the machine was oiled before it left the factory and was thus very likely to get oil drops on it. This pad, on which traces of oil were found, had deteriorated appreciably more than the other pads.

While Clement did not contradict the testimony of the two expert witnesses, he emphasized that this type safety device had been successfully used for years in the laundry industry. The expert witnesses testified, however, that a prudent manufacturer in 1957 should have made the pads...