Vaughn v. Nissan Motor Corp. in U.S.A., Inc.
| Decision Date | 05 March 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-1086,95-1086 |
| Parties | Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 14,525 Donna VAUGHN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NISSAN MOTOR CORPORATION IN U.S.A., INC., Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Beaufort. Cameron McGowan Currie, District Judge. (CA-92-1764)
ARGUED: James B. Richardson, Jr., Svalina, Richardson & Smith, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Joel Haywood Smith, Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough, L.L.P., Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Samuel L. Svalina, Svalina, Richardson & Smith, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Stephen G. Morrison, Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough, L.L.P., Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.
Before RUSSELL and HALL, Circuit Judges, and THORNBURG, United States District Judge for the Western District of North Carolina, sitting by designation.
Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge HALL wrote the opinion, in which Judge RUSSELL and Judge THORNBURG joined.
In this products liability suit, Donna Vaughn appeals a judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of defendant Nissan Motor Corporation in U.S.A. (Nissan). Because a jury instruction on a key issue was erroneous, and we cannot say that the error was harmless, we vacate the judgment and remand for a new trial.
This suit was filed in state court in Beaufort County, South Carolina. It was removed to district court by Nissan; jurisdiction rests on diversity of citizenship.
Here are the facts as presented at the jury trial. On May 5, 1991, Donna Vaughn was driving her 1989 Nissan Pulsar on Interstate 95 in Colleton County, South Carolina. The voltage regulator failed, which in turn caused excessive current, which in turn caused the battery fluid to boil.
According to Vaughn, toxic fumes (chiefly various compounds of sulfur) entered the passenger compartment through the car's ventilation system. She inhaled these fumes, and, as a result, now suffers from vocal chord dysfunction and reactive airway dysfunction syndrome (RADS), a severe form of asthma.
Two experts testified for Vaughn that the voltage regulator was of inferior design and contained construction defects that caused the malfunction. Nissan did not directly challenge this testimony. Its expert attempted to show that the regulator's failure did not create a condition unreasonably dangerous to an ordinary consumer. He conducted a road test experiment that purportedly duplicated the incident. He concluded from his experiment that the fumes, though toxic at their point of release, did not enter the passenger compartment in harmful concentrations, and that the overheating occurred slowly enough to give the driver ample warning of a problem and hence ample opportunity to flee the vehicle. On the other hand, the test driver's eyes became irritated, he coughed, and he smelled a "rotten egg" odor. Moreover, at the very same time the driver experienced this discomfort, Nissan's test meter detected no hydrogen sulfide.
The wrecker driver who came to the scene of Vaughn's mishap testified that a foul odor was obvious at a distance of five to ten feet from the car, and he held his breath while inside the car to release the brake for towing. Even the next day, when he was trying to start the car, the same witness found the fumes to be "extremely strong," causing his eyes to burn and water.
Four physicians, including Vaughn's treating physician, testified that she had developed RADS as a direct result of inhaling the sulfur-laden fumes. On the other hand, the district court refused to permit these physicians to testify that Vaughn's alleged vocal chord dysfunction was also caused by the incident. According to the court, this proffered testimony was not sufficiently grounded in scientific knowledge to be admissible under the test announced in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993).
Nissan presented evidence that Vaughn suffers from somatization disorder, which dates from abuse she experienced as a very small child. A person with somatization disorder exhibits illnesses that have no apparent physiological cause. Nissan's experts testified that Vaughn does not have RADS, but does have vocal chord dysfunction (which mimics and is often misdiagnosed as asthma). Finally, while vocal chord dysfunction has no known physiological cause, a Nissan expert testified that it is consistent with somatization disorder. 1
The district court denied Vaughn's motion for a partial directed verdict, and gave a key instruction to which she excepted. The jury returned a verdict for Nissan. Vaughn's motion for a new trial was denied, and she appeals.
This action is based on S.C.Code Ann. § 15-73-10, 2 which adopts the formula of Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A for imposing strict liability on the seller of a defective product. 3 Not every "defect," as the term is commonly used, subjects a seller to strict liability. The "defect" must cause the product to be unreasonably dangerous. A car with a bad radio is not unreasonably dangerous; a car with bad brakes may be. Moreover, whether the defect causes the product to be "unreasonably dangerous" is measured by the "ordinary consumer" for whom the product is designed. Id., comment i. 4 A circular saw would be quite dangerous if used by a blind man, but a properly designed and manufactured saw is safe and useful to an ordinary person. Consequently, circular saws are not per se defective, notwithstanding a fingerless blind man here and there.
On the other hand, if the saw is unreasonably dangerous to an ordinary consumer--e.g., the blade flies off because of a manufacturing defect--recovery is not restricted to "ordinary consumers" alone. See Purvis v. Consolidated Energy Products Co., 674 F.2d 217, 222 (4th Cir.1982) (applying S.C. law) (commercial entity may maintain a strict liability action, because "[i]t is the nature of the risk that caused injury, rather than the nature of the parties, which is finally determinative"); Salt River Project Agr. Imp. and Power Dist. v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 143 Ariz. 368, 694 P.2d 198, 211 (1984) (same); Todd v. Societe Bic, S.A., 21 F.3d 1402 (7th Cir.) (en banc) (), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 359, 130 L.Ed.2d 312 (1994).
This principle is analogous to the "thin skull" rule of negligence law. The tortfeasor's duty of care is measured by the ordinary person, 5 but the plaintiff's injuries may not be. In short, if Nissan breached its objective duty of care, it must take its victim as it finds her.
We do not mean to say that a plaintiff's extraordinary quality--whether infancy, insanity, allergy, or commercial sophistication--has no role in the ultimate decision on liability. It certainly may, although its relevance is to questions such as proximate or intervening cause, or contributory or third-party negligence. It has no place in the purely objective determination of whether the product itself is unreasonably dangerous to an ordinary consumer. In a case similar to this one, the en banc Supreme Court of Washington had these observations:
[Plaintiff] presented evidence that exposure to certain concentrations of formaldehyde is harmful to persons. Her doctors, moreover, unequivocally testified that she was harmed by the gas. The defense medical experts did not refute this evidence and in fact agreed a substantial portion of the population may suffer some reaction to formaldehyde. Rather, the defense experts testified [that plaintiff's] asthma was genetically, rather than chemically induced. This evidence goes to causation, however, not to whether the [product] was fit for the foreseeable "ordinary" consumer.
Tiderman v. Fleetwood Homes of Washington, 102 Wash.2d 334, 684 P.2d 1302, 1304-1305 (1984).
At the charge conference, the district court stated its belief that even if Vaughn's Nissan were in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to an ordinary consumer, Vaughn could only recover if she too were an "ordinary consumer." Nissan had not requested such a jury charge, and Vaughn objected to it. Nonetheless, the erroneous instruction was given. 6
Nissan took full...
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