Eiland v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp.
| Decision Date | 14 July 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-7706,93-7706 |
| Citation | 58 F.3d 176 |
| Parties | 42 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1013, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 14,277 Tony C. EILAND and Darlene Eiland, Plaintiffs-Appellees-Cross-Appellants, v. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Lewis W. Bell, Frank A. Wood, Jr., Watkins & Eager, Jackson, MS, for appellants.
Robert W. Sneed, Jackson, MS, Duncan D. Wheale, Dye, Tucker, Everitt, Wheale & Long, Augusta, GA, for appellee.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
Before REAVLEY, DUHE, and PARKER, Circuit Judges.
This product liability action is before us on cross appeals attacking the jury's verdict for Plaintiffs on liability and compensatory damages, as well as the trial court's directed verdict for defendants on Plaintiffs' claims for failure to warn and punitive damages. We affirm the verdict on liability issues, and vacate the damage award, allowing Plaintiffs
to accept either remittitur or a new trial on damages.
On May 19, 1989, Plaintiff-Appellant, Tony Eiland (Eiland) was injured when an explosion occurred in a high power circuit breaker. Eiland was employed as a lineman for Starkville Electric Department (Starkville Electric), a distributor of electricity in Starkville, Mississippi. Starkville Electric operated a substation which utilized high power circuit breakers, including the one at issue (Breaker 334), a 144GC500 oil circuit breaker manufactured and sold by Defendant-Appellee Westinghouse Corporation (Westinghouse) in 1960 to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). It was installed at the Starkville substation which was operated by TVA until Starkville Electric began operating it in 1983.
During a storm in the early morning of May 19, 1989, a power outage occurred and Eiland was dispatched to the substation. He noticed that Breaker 334 was open, and he closed it manually. When requested by another employee to re-open the breaker, he did so. An explosion followed immediately, severely burning Eiland's hands, arms, face, and torso.
Oil circuit breakers are designed to protect other electrical equipment in a distribution system by interrupting the electrical current if a short circuit or other fault occurs in the system. There are three pair of contacts in a large tank filled with oil, each including a stationary contact and a moving contact. The oil serves as an insulator to help extinguish arcs that occur inside the breaker when it trips. When the contacts are closed, electricity is carried through the internal parts. When a breaker operates to interrupt electric current, the contacts open or separate. Each pair of contacts operates within a boxlike structure known as an interrupter grid which is designed to extinguish the arc which naturally occurs when the contacts separate.
At trial, Eiland contended that the arc escaped the interrupter grid, traveled through the oil to the side of the metal tank (phase-to-ground arcing), puncturing a small whole in the tank and causing the explosion. Breaker 334 was not equipped with an insulating tank liner, which would have prevented phase-to-ground arcing. Defendants' theory of the case was that due to lack of proper maintenance corrosion accumulated on the contacts, causing arcing between the contacts (phase-to-phase arcing) which resulted in an explosion. Defendants concede that there was simultaneous phase-to-ground arcing, but contend that it was not the cause of the explosion.
Eiland required five weeks of in-patient hospital care and several additional weeks of out-patient care, which included painful debridement procedures and various surgeries. He returned to work part time after eight months, and full time after 21 months. He developed extensive keloid scarring, and remains approximately 30% to 40% disabled and badly disfigured. Because he was unable to return to his job as a lineman, Starkville Electric gave him a job as warehouse foreman, with a slight reduction in pay and a ten year freeze on his salary.
Eiland's lost earnings prior to trial were $30,081.00 and past medical expenses were $172,744.00.
Eiland and his wife Darlene Eiland filed their product liability action on April 28, 1992 in Mississippi state court, asserting two theories of liability: strict liability and post-sale negligent failure to warn. Westinghouse removed the case to federal court on the basis of diversity. The district court, applying Mississippi substantive law, granted a directed verdict for Westinghouse on Eiland's post-sale negligent failure to warn claim and the claim for punitive damages. The liability questions presented to the jury were (1) whether the circuit breaker was defective and unreasonably dangerous when it left Westinghouse's hands because its design did not include an insulating tank liner; (2) whether Eiland was injured while Breaker 334 was being used in a manner and for the purpose for which the product was intended; and (3) whether the alleged defective condition of the product was the sole cause or contributing cause of Eiland's injury. After
a six day trial, the jury found Westinghouse liable on the defective design claim, and awarded Eiland $5,000,000 and Darlene Eiland $-0.
Bill Adams, (Adams) a licensed electrical engineer, was offered by Eiland as an expert witness to reconstruct the accident. Eiland did not offer him as an expert in maintenance or design. Westinghouse objected, and the trial court ruled that Adams was qualified to state an opinion on how the accident happened. Westinghouse contends that Adams was not qualified to testify as an expert. Further, they contend that he gave opinions concerning design, an area that was outside his area of expertise.
Expert opinion testimony is admissible if it is helpful to the jury in understanding the evidence or determining a fact in issue. FED.R.EVID. 702. The admission or exclusion of expert testimony is a matter left to the discretion of the trial court, and that decision will not be disturbed on appeal unless it is manifestly erroneous. Smogor v. Enke, 874 F.2d 295, 297 (5th Cir.1989). See also Phillips Oil Co. v. OKC Corp., 812 F.2d 265, 280 n. 32 (5th Cir.1987) ().
Adams began his testimony by explaining how Breaker 334 worked. Adams then testified that after studying Breaker 334 and the materials related to it, he formed an opinion that indentations or craters on the side of the tank wall were caused by arcing over many years. He also testified that arcing to the tank wall caused a hole in the tank which resulted in the explosion that injured Eiland, and the presence of a tank liner would have prevented arcs from reaching the tank wall.
The opinions stated by Adams were based on observations of the tank wall and the internal equipment of the breaker, and are within the expertise of an engineer with Adams's experience. Westinghouse's objections, in effect, attacked Adams's credibility. After reviewing the record, we have concluded that Adams was qualified to give opinions in the areas covered in his testimony, and that the opinions were helpful to the jury in understanding the evidence and determining a fact in issue. Further, a reasonable jury could have credited Adams's testimony. Therefore, there is no merit in Westinghouse's contention that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting Adams's testimony.
Westinghouse contends that the district court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of post-sale incidents involving similar breakers and post-sale design changes. Their position is bottomed on the assertion that the evidence was not admissible because it was not relevant under Federal Rule of Evidence 401, and if relevant, its probative value was outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, and therefore inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 403. Because of his or her involvement in the trial, a district court judge often has superior knowledge and understanding of the probative value of evidence. Therefore, we show considerable deference to the district court's evidentiary rulings, reviewing them only for abuse of discretion. Johnson v. Ford Motor Co., 988 F.2d 573, 578 (5th Cir.1993).
Evidence showed that at least ten other 144GC breakers failed or exploded prior to the accident that injured Eiland. In 1966 a corrective baffle was installed in Breaker 334, as well as most other 144GC breakers, to prevent "improper arcing." Westinghouse characterized the addition of the baffle as a post-sale design change to correct an unrelated problem, and moved to keep it out of evidence. Eiland contends that Westinghouse made the addition of the baffle relevant by arguing that the breaker's arcing problem was caused by poor maintenance. There were two marks on the breaker that resulted from arcing before the baffle was added in 1966. The trial court admitted Eiland's evidence which tended to show that there had been an arcing problem while TVA had the breaker, and that the arcing problem Next, the district court admitted evidence that other 144GC breakers had failed. Eiland had to show that the incidents of failure or explosions were substantially similar to the accident here in order to establish admissibility under FED.R.EVID. 403, which requires the trial court to balance probative value against danger of unfair prejudice. Johnson v. Ford Motor Co., 988 F.2d 573, 579 (5th Cir.1993). After hearing the evidence about other failed breakers, the trial court ruled that the incidents were not similar enough to the case on trial to establish post sale negligence.
was therefore not caused by poor maintenance as Westinghouse argued.
The district court initially admitted evidence of...
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