Cacevic v. Simplimatic Engineering Co.
| Decision Date | 19 September 2000 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 207154. |
| Citation | 241 Mich. App. 717,617 N.W.2d 386 |
| Parties | Lena CACEVIC and Nuo Cacevic, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SIMPLIMATIC ENGINEERING COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Gregory Fisher Lord, Sterling Heights, for the plaintiffs.
Beach & Ager (by Eugene H. Beach, Jr.), Southfield, for the defendant.
Before: JANSEN P.J., and HOOD and WILDER, JJ.
Plaintiffs Lena and Nuo Cacevic appeal as of right from a judgment entered following a jury verdict finding no cause of action in this products liability action. We reverse and remand.
Plaintiff Lena Cacevic worked as a palletizer operator at Johnson Controls' Novi plant. While working the night shift on September 3, 1993, Lena sustained serious injuries to her right hand and arm when she reached inside the palletizer machine to free a pallet that became stuck in the elevator component of the machine. Lena tried to clear the jam by inserting her right hand and arm under a mesh guard into the pallet infeed opening to reach for the empty pallet and remove it from the machine. As Lena did this, the elevator raised the pallet, striking her hand and arm.
Plaintiffs filed the instant action against defendant Simplimatic Engineering Company, the manufacturer of the palletizer machine, alleging that defendant negligently designed and manufactured the palletizer by failing to include adequate and proper safeguards, provide adequate and proper instructions, devices, or methods to operate the machine, and provide adequate and proper warnings of both the inherently dangerous areas of the machine and the dangers in operating the machine. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury returned a verdict of no cause of action in favor of defendant.
The product at issue in this case is a Simplimatic Model 40 palletizer, a large, two-story machine that stacks eight layers of empty, plastic, soft drink bottles on wooden pallets that are wrapped for delivery to major soft drink companies. The palletizer was originally built by defendant in 1984 and subsequently sold to Hoover Universal in Taylor, Michigan. In 1989, Johnson Controls bought Hoover's bottling operations and the palletizer was relocated to Johnson Controls' Novi plant.
The palletizer consists of two levels and four major components: (1) an intake palletizer dispenser and conveyor, (2) a hoist or elevator, (3) an accumulator bed, and (4) an exit conveyor that releases the full pallets. The palletizing process begins with a wooden pallet being automatically placed on an intake conveyor and carried to the elevator shaft where it stops and waits for clearance to enter the elevator. Clearance is determined by photo cells that sense when full pallets exit the elevator and when empty pallets may enter. The empty pallet automatically moves forward into the elevator and is carried up about fifteen feet by hoist chains to the upper level where an accumulator bed gathers the bottles and then sweeps them onto the pallet. As each empty pallet is loaded with bottles in the elevator, another empty pallet enters the intake dispenser and is conveyed to the elevator where photo cells signal the machine to wait for the full pallet to leave the elevator before allowing the empty pallet to enter.
During normal use, the palletizer's operator stands on a platform at the upper level near the moving accumulator bed where bottles coming down the assembly line are released. When a certain number of bottles have been collected, the operator presses a button to load them all onto an empty pallet that has been carried to the top of the machine by the elevator. As each layer of bottles is loaded, the elevator moves down just enough so that the tops of the bottles are even with the accumulator bed. The operator then places a "tier sheet" on top of the bottles to form a "floor" on which the next layer is placed. The operator repeats this process until there are eight layers of bottles on the pallet. When the pallet is fully loaded, the operator presses another button, lowering the elevator to ground level where the full pallet rests on a set of conveyor chains that slowly move the pallet out the discharge side of the elevator shaft. Once the full pallet is discharged, it is automatically transported to a wrapping area.
Most of the operation of the palletizer is automatic, but there are certain functions that an operator is required to perform to keep the machine running. Generally, an operator is required only at the upper level of the machine; however, on occasion, when a pallet gets jammed in the elevator, the operator or another employee must run down to the lower level to clear the jam before resuming normal operations. The palletizer is equipped with normal "on/off" controls, as well as three emergency stop buttons and a master electrical control panel with a lockable disconnect that completely isolates the machine from the electrical mains.
Plaintiffs argue that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that the manufacturer of a product owes no duty to design its product to eliminate foreseeable, unreasonable risks of harm that are "open and patent to all." We agree.
Claims of alleged instructional error are reviewed on appeal for an abuse of discretion. Grow v. W. A. Thomas Co., 236 Mich.App. 696, 702, 601 N.W.2d 426 (1999). Jury instructions are reviewed in their entirety to determine whether they fairly apprised the jury of the applicable law and the issues to be tried in the case. Id. This Court will not reverse a trial court's decision regarding supplemental instructions unless failure to vacate the verdict would be inconsistent with substantial justice. Id.
At the conclusion of the presentation of proofs, the trial court instructed the jury in accordance with SJI2d 25.31 as follows:
The defendant has the duty to use reasonable care at the time it designed and manufactured the palletizer so as to eliminate unreasonable risks of harm or injury which were reasonably foreseeable.
However, the defendant has no duty to design or manufacture [the palletizer] to eliminate reasonable risks of harm or injury or risks that were not reasonably foreseeable.
Reasonable care means that degree of care which a reasonably prudent manufacturer would exercise under the circumstances which you find existed in this case at the time the machine was manufactured. It is for you to decide based on the evidence what a reasonably prudent manufacturer would do or would not do under these circumstances.
A failure to fulfill the duty to use reasonable care is negligence.
Pursuant to defendant's request, the trial court also instructed the jury regarding a manufacturer's duty with respect to open and obvious risks:
The manufacturer of a machine is under no duty to adopt a different design if the dangers to be avoided in the existing design, if any, are obvious and patent to all.
On appeal, plaintiffs object, as they did below, to the trial court's reading of this supplemental instruction because it was not a standard jury charge and because neither the facts in the instant case nor the law in Michigan warranted an open and obvious danger instruction. Plaintiffs argue that SJI2d 25.31 adequately stated the relevant law governing a manufacturer's duty in a case alleging design defects, and the open and obvious danger instruction was inapplicable.
In order for a trial court to give a requested jury instruction, sufficient evidence must be presented to warrant the instruction. Bordeaux v. Celotex Corp., 203 Mich.App. 158, 169, 511 N.W.2d 899 (1993). A trial court may give an instruction not covered by the standard jury instructions as long as the instruction is applicable, accurately states the law, and is "concise, understandable, conversational, and nonargumentative...." Chmielewski v. Xermac, Inc., 216 Mich.App. 707, 713-714, 550 N.W.2d 797 (1996), aff'd. 457 Mich. 593, 580 N.W.2d 817 (1998); Bordeaux, supra. See MCR 2.516(D)(2) and (4).
In order to determine whether the trial court's open and obvious danger instruction was proper in this case, we must examine the current state of Michigan law governing a manufacturer's duty in cases alleging design defects. In Michigan, there are two theories that will support a finding of negligent design. Gregory v. Cincinnati Inc., 450 Mich. 1, 11, 538 N.W.2d 325 (1995). The first theory is based on a failure to warn. Id. The second, more traditional means of proving negligent design is premised on a defective design of the product at the time it left the manufacturer's control. Id. at 11-12, 538 N.W.2d 325. Although plaintiffs' complaint in this case alleged both theories, because the matter was submitted to the jury on the design defect theory, and because plaintiffs' claim of alleged instructional error relates solely to the design defect theory, our analysis will focus on that theory only.
As a general rule, "[a] manufacturer has a duty to design its product to eliminate `any unreasonable risk of foreseeable injury.'" Ghrist v. Chrysler Corp., 451 Mich. 242, 248, 547 N.W.2d 272 (1996), quoting Prentis v. Yale Mfg. Co., 421 Mich. 670, 693, 365 N.W.2d 176 (1984); Bazinau v. Mackinac Island Carriage Tours, 233 Mich.App. 743, 757, 593 N.W.2d 219 (1999); Mallard v. Hoffinger Industries, Inc. (On Remand), 222 Mich.App. 137, 141, 564 N.W.2d 74 (1997). The law imposes a greater responsibility on one who manufactures and designs a product because the manufacturer is especially knowledgeable about the product's capabilities and limitations as well as the foreseeability of harm. Ghrist, supra at 247, 547 N.W.2d 272. Further, the manufacturer is in the best position to effectuate the needed safety-related improvements. Id.
In Fisher v. Johnson Milk Co., Inc., 383 Mich. 158, 160-161, 174 N.W.2d 752 (1970), our ...
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