Peitzmeier v. Hennessy Industries, Inc.

• Decision Date: 04 October 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-2202,95-2202
• Citation: 97 F.3d 293
• Parties: 45 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1020, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 14,750 Jeffrey L. PEITZMEIER; Sherry L. Peitzmeier, Appellants, v. HENNESSY INDUSTRIES, INC., a New Jersey Corporation, d/b/a through its divisions Coats Company and Solar Industries, Inc., Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 293

97 F.3d 293

45 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1020, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 14,750

Jeffrey L. PEITZMEIER; Sherry L. Peitzmeier, Appellants, v. HENNESSY INDUSTRIES, INC., a New Jersey Corporation, d/b/a through its divisions Coats Company and Solar Industries, Inc., Appellee.

No. 95-2202.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Dec. 12, 1995.

Decided Oct. 4, 1996.

Terry M. Anderson, Omaha, NE, argued (Bruce Kaster, Ocala, FL, on the brief), for appellants.

Raymond G. Mullady, Jr., Baltimore, MD, argued (Joseph G. Finnerty, Jr., William L. Reynolds and H. Bruce Dorsey, Baltimore, MD, and Thomas C. Walsh, St. Louis, MO, on the brief), for appellee.

Before BOWMAN and LOKEN, Circuit Judges, and SCHWARZER, ^* District Judge.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

Jeffrey Peitzmeier and his wife, Sherry, appeal the adverse grant of summary judgment by the District Court ¹ in their product liability suit against Hennessy Industries, the manufacturer of the tire-changing machine at issue in this case. We affirm.

I.

The background facts are not in dispute. This action arose out of an accident that took place when Jeffrey Peitzmeier, a mechanic at Top Tech Automotive Garage in Yutan, Nebraska, was changing a tire using a Hennessy tire-changing machine.

The advantage of the Hennessy design is that the operator changes the tire on a platform above the ground instead of kneeling down or bending over and doing the work on the ground. The machine makes it easier to deflate and demount the old tire and to mount and inflate the new tire. Removing air from the old tire is accomplished by a "bead loosener," a mechanism that pushes the tire away from the rim of the wheel. On the Hennessy RC20-AA tire changer, the model at issue here, the bead loosener is on the side of the machine. After the bead loosening process is complete, the operator places the tire and wheel onto the platform of the machine, where clamps are placed on the rim of the wheel to hold it in place for the demounting, mounting, and inflation phases of the tire-changing procedure.

In inflating the tire, the operator uses an inflation hose, which he controls by depressing a foot pedal. An air pressure gauge displays the pressure in the tire in "psi" (pounds per square inch) as the operator inflates the tire. Proper inflation requires seating the "beads" (small wires in the wall of the tire) against the outer flanges of the wheel. When the beads seat they emit a "pop" sound, indicating that the tire then may be inflated to its service pressure.

Top Tech bought the tire changer from Hennessy in 1988. It came with a customer information packet consisting of operating instructions, warranty information, and warnings. The printed instructions and bold face labels included warnings: (1) that until the beads are seated a tire should not be inflated in excess of forty psi, (2) that over-inflation can cause an explosion of the tire that may propel the tire, rim, or equipment upward with sufficient energy to cause injury or death, (3) that the operator should keep his hands and body away from the inflating tire, (4) that the tire and rim should be inspected for wear or defects before mounting, and (5) that the tire changer is not intended to be a safety device for restraining exploding tires, tubes, rims, or bead-seating equipment. Peitzmeier was an experienced garage mechanic who, from 1988 to June 4, 1992, the date of the accident, had used the tire changer without incident approximately 150 to 200 times. On the occasion that gave rise to this lawsuit, Peitzmeier attempted to mount a sixteen-inch tire on a sixteen-and-one-half-inch wheel.

Because Peitzmeier had mismatched the smaller tire and the larger wheel, the tire would not properly fit, or "bead up," on the rim. After some difficulty, Peitzmeier asked the owner of the garage, Lyle Foster, to help him. Foster suggested that Peitzmeier beat on the tire with a rubber mallet. Peitzmeier tried beating on the tire with a mallet, but the tire still did not fit properly. Foster next suggested that Peitzmeier add more air to the tire. Despite Hennessy's warning labels stating that the operator should not inflate the tire to more than forty psi while seating beads and that over-inflation can cause the tire to explode, Peitzmeier added more air to the tire, increasing the tire pressure to sixty psi.

When Foster learned that Peitzmeier was still having problems changing the tire, he examined the tire himself and discovered the mismatch of smaller tire to larger wheel. When Foster explained to Peitzmeier that he had mismatched the tire and wheel, Peitzmeier responded, "Oh, no wonder," and began to release air from the tire. As Peitzmeier did so, the tire exploded and he was injured as the force of the explosion propelled the tire and rim into his face and head.

The Peitzmeiers filed suit against Hennessy, alleging causes of action in strict liability and negligence. ² After discovery had been completed, Hennessy filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing, among other things, that the testimony of the Peitzmeiers' expert, Alan Milner, was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993).

The District Court granted Hennessy's motion for summary judgment, holding that Milner's testimony was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert, and that based on the admissible, undisputed evidence Hennessy was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The Peitzmeiers appeal.

II.

The Peitzmeiers argue that the District Court abused its discretion in excluding Milner's testimony. Decisions concerning the admission of expert testimony lie within the broad discretion of the trial court, and these decisions will not be disturbed on appeal absent an abuse of that discretion. Westcott v. Crinklaw, 68 F.3d 1073, 1075 (8th Cir.1995).

The admissibility of expert testimony is governed by Federal Rule of Evidence 702, which states:

If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise.

The Supreme Court in Daubert makes it plain that the trial court is to act as a gatekeeper in screening such testimony for relevance and reliability, that is, make an assessment whether the reasoning and methodology underlying the testimony is scientifically valid. See Daubert, 509 U.S. at 591-93, 113 S.Ct. at 2796. In doing so, the court should consider, among other factors (1) whether the theory or technique "can be (and has been) tested"; (2) "whether the theory or technique has been subjected to peer review and publication"; (3) "the known or potential rate of error"; and (4) whether the theory has been generally accepted. Id. 509 U.S. at 593, 594, 113 S.Ct. at 2796, 2797.

In this case, the Peitzmeiers sought to establish through Milner's testimony that the tire changer was defectively designed. Milner would have testified that in his opinion simple design changes on the machine would eliminate the potential for injuries and that the tire changer is defective in design in that (1) the machine acted as a "launch pad" for the exploding tire and wheel assembly, (2) the clamps did not restrain the exploding tire and wheel assembly, (3) the machine could not limit the amount of air pressure the operator could put into the tire, (4) the machine had no interlock system that would prevent the operator from inflating the tire unless the restraint system was in place, and (5) the machine had no mirror or other device by which the operator could inspect the lower bead during inflation.

As a threshold matter, the Peitzmeiers argue that Daubert is inapplicable to Milner's testimony, contending that his opinions are founded on basic engineering principles, whereas Daubert applies only to novel scientific testimony. This argument fails, for our Court has not given Daubert so narrow a reading. See, e.g., Gier v. Educational Serv. Unit No. 16, 66 F.3d 940, 943-44 (8th Cir.1995) (applying Daubert to psychological evaluations in cases of alleged child abuse); Pestel v. Vermeer Mfg. Co., 64 F.3d 382, 384 (8th Cir.1995) (applying Daubert to testimony of mechanical engineer). We conclude that the Daubert analysis is properly applied to Milner's proffered testimony.

We first consider whether Milner's theories or techniques have been tested. In that regard, Milner concedes that he has neither designed nor tested for safety or utility any of the proposed safety devices that he claims are missing from the Hennessy tire-changing machine. His only demonstration of an alternative design is a series of rough sketches that have not been adapted into engineering drawings, much less prototypes. Milner has shown no factual basis to support an opinion that his design changes are feasible or that they would not hinder the efficacy of Hennessy's present tire-changing model.

At the heart of Milner's opinion that the tire changer was defective is his theory that the rotating platform on the tire changer acted as a launch pad, which served to propel the tire upward when the explosion occurred. Milner admits, however, that he has never designed, built, or tested a platform that has been shown to reduce the launch effect of an exploding tire and wheel assembly while adequately supporting the tire and wheel assembly during the tire-changing process. Clearly, Milner's proffered testimony does not satisfy the first Daubert factor.

Next we consider whether the theory or technique has been subjected to peer review. While not required for admissibility, "submission to the scrutiny of the scientific community is a component of 'good science,' in part because it increases the likelihood...