Lavespere v. Niagara Mach. & Tool Works, Inc.
| Decision Date | 13 August 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-4208,89-4208 |
| Citation | 910 F.2d 167 |
| Parties | , 30 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1171, Prod.Liab.Rep.(CCH)P 12,555 James R. LAVESPERE, Plaintiff-Appellant Cross-Appellee, and Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Intervenor-Appellant Cross-Appellee, v. NIAGARA MACHINE & TOOL WORKS, INC., Defendant-Appellee Cross-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Henry B. Bruser, III, Gold, Weems, Bruser, Sharp, Sues & Rundell, Alexandria, La., for Lavespere.
Steven P. Mansour, Michael T. Johnson, Bolen, Erwin, Johnson & Coleman, Alexandria, La., for Liberty Mut. Ins. Co.
Brian D. Smith, Lunn, Irion, Johnson, Salley & Carlisle, Shreveport, La., for Niagara Mach. & Tool Works, Inc.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
Before RUBIN, JONES, and BARKSDALE, Circuit Judges.
An employee of a small manufacturing concern, after sustaining severe injuries to his hands while working with a machine owned by his employer, brought suit against the manufacturer of the machine, alleging that it was defectively designed in that it lacked adequate operator safeguards. After the district court had granted the manufacturer's supplemental motion for summary judgment on the ground that the device in question was not defective as a matter of law, the employee filed a motion for reconsideration and, in support of that motion, proffered evidentiary materials that he had previously failed to submit. The district court admitted and considered those materials, but concluded that they did not warrant setting aside the original judgment. We affirm both the court's decision to consider the materials and its ruling on the motion for reconsideration.
Niagara Machine & Tool Works has for several decades manufactured a wide variety of hydraulic and electric-powered industrial metal-working machines known as "presses." One such device, the general-purpose "press brake," can be used to bend or to cut metal parts. It presses the metal part between two "dies" (hard metal teeth), one located on a stationary base, the other on a heavy metal "ram" that, when activated by a hand or foot control, descends toward the base. Though the base and the ram of the press brake have slots into which dies can be inserted, the dies are not a part of the press brake itself. The operator of the press brake must select dies that are appropriate for the particular bending or cutting operation to be performed. As manufactured, the press brake also lacks "point of operation" safeguards, that is, some mechanism or device that will either prevent the ram from becoming activated while the operator's hands are between the dies or exclude the operator's hands from that space while the ram is in motion. Niagara, however, manufactures several such safeguards and offers them for sale to its press brake customers.
In 1978 Baker Manufacturing Company, a small manufacturing concern whose facilities are located in Louisiana, purchased from Rex Supply Company a used general-purpose, foot-activated press brake that had been manufactured by Niagara about 1966. Some years later, Baker purchased a point-of-operation safeguard for the press brake known as a "light screen". This device, which is equipped with an electric eye, detects the presence of the operator's hands when they are in the point of operation. Although Baker installed the device on the press brake, Baker did not make it operational.
In the spring of 1985, James Lavespere, a recent high school graduate, went to work for Baker in its metal shop. After he had been on the job a few weeks, his superiors assigned him the task of "knifing" (bending) "verticals," six-foot long pieces of metal used in the construction of lockers. For this purpose, Lavespere employed the Niagara press brake. Lavespere, like the other operators of the machine, found that verticals would sometimes stick to the upper die after having been knifed. Although his supervisors and co-workers had advised him to free the verticals using a rubber mallet, Lavespere found it easier to tear them loose with his hands, a procedure that required him to insert his hands into the point of operation.
Only a few days after he had begun to perform the knifing operation on his own, Lavespere attempted to free a stuck vertical with his hands. As he did so, the ram unexpectedly became activated and descended, pressing his fingers between the vertical and the lower die and causing severe injuries to his hands, including the loss of several fingers. Although none of the parties has established the cause of the ram's activation, they suggest two possibilities: the press brake went through a "double stroke" or Lavespere inadvertently stepped on the foot pedal.
One year later Lavespere filed suit in federal court against Niagara Machine & Tool Works, as manufacturer, and Rex Supply Company, as vendor, of the press brake, contending that the press brake, insofar as it lacked a point-of-operation safeguard, was defectively designed. Baker's workers' compensation insurer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, intervened, seeking to recover workers' compensation benefits that it had paid to Lavespere. The district court subsequently dismissed Rex Supply.
Niagara filed a motion for summary judgment, contending that Niagara owed no duty to Lavespere to guard the press brake and that Baker's failure to guard the press brake was a superseding cause of the accident. It accompanied the motion with several attachments, including an affidavit by Stanton Cheyney, an engineer and an officer of Niagara. In the affidavit, Cheyney alleged that it is not possible to design a "universal" point-of-operation safeguard, that is, one single safeguard capable of protecting all operators of the machine in all of its possible applications. According to Cheyney, which safeguard is appropriate and effective varies with the particular bending or cutting operation to be performed. For these reasons, Cheyney explained, it is the custom of the industry not to install point-of-operation safeguards on the machines, but to leave that responsibility to the purchaser. The district court denied the motion.
Niagara then filed a supplemental motion for summary judgment. Although Niagara relied on the same allegations of fact and the same attachments as before, it submitted a new memorandum of authorities based on recent Louisiana jurisprudence, in particular, the decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Sawyer v. Niagara Machine & Tool Works, Inc. 1 Lavespere filed an opposition to the motion without evidentiary attachments, stating that he was content to rely on the attachments he had submitted along with his opposition to Niagara's original motion for summary judgment. This time the district court granted Niagara's motion, ruling that its press brake was not defective as a matter of law.
Shortly thereafter Lavespere filed a motion for reconsideration, seeking to have the ruling overturned. In that motion, Lavespere alleged that "through inadvertence, mistake and excusable neglect," he had failed to file the deposition of Dr. Kenneth Blundell along with his opposition to Niagara's supplemental motion for summary judgment, and requested leave to file that deposition for the court's consideration. In that deposition, Blundell testified that in his opinion Niagara could have designed and installed a point-of-operation safeguard that would have been effective at preventing injuries in a considerable percentage of the possible applications of the machine, perhaps as much as eighty-five percent, and, further, that the technology necessary for designing and installing such a point-of-operation guard had been available to Niagara for many years prior to 1966. Although the district court allowed Lavespere to admit the deposition, it nevertheless refused to reverse its earlier judgment; the district court remained persuaded that Niagara was entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
Lavespere and Liberty Mutual appeal from the summary judgment in favor of Niagara, while Niagara appeals from the ruling granting Lavespere's motion for leave to file Blundell's deposition.
Niagara's objection to the court's decision to admit and consider Blundell's deposition is two-fold: (i) Lavespere did not timely submit the deposition; and (ii) Blundell was not qualified to testify as an expert on the subject of designing point-of-operation safeguards.
Niagara alleges, and Lavespere does not deny, that Blundell's deposition was available to Lavespere two years before Niagara filed its supplemental motion for summary judgment and that Lavespere could have submitted it as an attachment to his opposition to that motion. Because Lavespere failed to do so, Niagara argues, he may not be permitted to file the transcript belatedly unless he can provide an adequate excuse for his default. According to Niagara, Lavespere has not done so.
That Lavespere should have filed Blundell's deposition before the rendition of summary judgment is not disputed. In case after case, the federal courts have declared that if an opponent of a motion for summary judgment wishes the district court to consider certain evidentiary materials in ruling on the motion, then she "must" submit those materials along with her opposition to the motion, or at least before the ruling on the motion. 2 The question presented here is what corrective steps, if any, the nonmoving party may take in the event she fails to comply with that rule and, in particular, under what circumstances she may submit the materials for the court's consideration in connection with a motion for reconsideration of the summary judgment.
Unfortunately, the federal courts so far have not provided a uniform answer to this question. In some decisions on this subject one finds statements that, at least on first reading, seem to suggest that a district court has no discretion to admit and...
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