Caldwell v. Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.

• Decision Date: 19 July 1982
• Docket Number: No. 5586,5586
• Parties: Craig CALDWELL, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. YAMAHA MOTOR CO., LTD. of Japan, Yamaha International Corporation, and Yamaha Motor Corporation, U. S. A., Appellees (Defendants).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 519

648 P.2d 519

Craig CALDWELL, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. YAMAHA MOTOR CO., LTD. of Japan, Yamaha International Corporation, and Yamaha Motor Corporation, U. S. A., Appellees (Defendants).

No. 5586.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

July 19, 1982.

Lawrence A. Yonkee and Michael K. Davis, Redle, Yonkee & Arney, Sheridan, for appellant.

Jeffrey J. Gonda and Dan B. Riggs, Lonabaugh & Riggs, Sheridan, for appellees.

Sharon A. Fitzgerald, Cheyenne, for amicus curiae Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association, amicus curiae Committee.

Before ROSE, C. J., RAPER, THOMAS and ROONEY, JJ., and TAYLOR, D. J.

ROSE, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff-appellant Craig Caldwell brought suit against Yamaha International Corporation, motorcycle dealer Harold F. Jensen d/b/a City Cycle Center, Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. of Japan, and Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A., for injuries he received as a result of what he alleges to have been a design defect in a motorcycle manufactured and marketed by the defendants. He assigned liability on theories of breach of implied warranty, negligence and strict liability in tort under § 402A of the Restatement of the Law Second, Torts. ¹ The 1. Is Rule 407, W.R.E., inapplicable in a products-liability case so that the trial judge erred in instructing the jury that it was not to consider the fact that the replacement part had a steel spring guide rather than an aluminum one in determining whether the motorcycle was defective?

case went to the jury on the theory of strict liability only and thus strict liability under § 402A of the Restatement became the law of the case even though the question of whether or not strict liability under § 402A is the law of this state is not before us for decision. At the close of all the evidence the judge dismissed all claims against defendant Harold F. Jensen d/b/a City Cycle Center. The jury returned its verdict for the defendants on May 20, 1981 and Mr. Caldwell appeals, urging the following issues:

2. Did the trial court commit reversible error in permitting defendants' witness to testify as to the absence of previous accidents involving Yamaha front forks?

3. Was error committed by the trial court in allowing a defense witness, who had not been listed on the pretrial order, to testify?

4. Were the instructions and warnings accompanying the motorcycle inadequate as a matter of law as to require the granting of a new trial?

We will affirm.

FACTS

The injury which brings on this appeal was suffered by the appellant on May 28, 1978 at a reservoir area north of Sheridan. On that day, Craig Caldwell and friends had driven to the Tongue River Reservoir to picnic and enjoy the surroundings. Craig brought his 1975 Yamaha MX250b motorcycle which he had purchased new in 1977 from a local Sheridan dealer, City Cycle Center, and which, prior to the day, he had used without incident. While riding the motorcycle up an incline on an access road that day, something went wrong and the bike began turning over in the air. When it came to rest, Craig was lying on the ground next to the motorcycle, severely injured.

Several of Craig Caldwell's friends witnessed the mishap and all of them testified that they had seen Craig accelerating up the hill when suddenly it appeared as if the front end of the motorcycle dug into the ground and began flipping through the air until, after three complete revolutions, it finally came to rest. Craig's friends ran to his aid, and they observed that the front wheel of the cycle was separated from the upper portion of the front forks and, after the mishap, was connected by only the brake cable. Most of the eye witnesses could not specifically recall whether the front wheel was attached while it somersaulted through the air, but one of them remembered that on each revolution the front wheel would strike the ground. This witness also said that the vehicle had started flipping because the front wheel had fallen off. Craig had no recollection of the events surrounding his accident.

Taken as a whole, the evidence was such as to structure a conflict on the issue of whether the front wheel came off before or after the somersaulting of the cycle.

In preparation for trial, the motorcycle was examined by an expert in physical metallurgy. This witness decided that two aluminum alloy spring guides had fractured and caused the wheel to separate from the upper portion of the front forks. However, he could not say when the separation had occurred-i.e., had it happened before or after the bike somersaulted?

The purpose of the spring guides is to hold the lower and upper tubes of the front forks of the Yamaha MX250b together. In the 1975 model owned by appellant, these guides were made of cast aluminum alloy. After the 1975 model production, Yamaha requested several modifications in the design and function of the front forks and, in response, the manufacturer changed the spring guides from aluminum alloy to steel.

At trial, Caldwell attempted to prove that the front fork design in the 1975 MX250b was defective because aluminum alloy was not as strong as steel. The plaintiff's expert testified that, in his opinion, given the forces necessarily absorbed by the spring guides under normal operating conditions, steel was better than aluminum alloy since it is not adversely susceptible to the variable characteristics of impact and force as is the case with aluminum. The expert believed that the spring guides had fractured over the course of an extended period of time. However, he did agree that, with the application of a sudden and unusual amount of force, the spring guides might fail on impact. His testimony emphasized that the replacement part ordered for the Caldwell machine in 1980 contained steel spring guides rather than aluminum alloy ones and that steel is stronger than aluminum alloy. The expert went on to offer an opinion to the effect that the spring guide in the Caldwell motorcycle was defective but he could not say what caused the accident. He could only express a judgment as to the cause of the breakage of the spring guide. In other words, he was not able to say that the spring guide gave way, causing the wheel to detach, causing the fork to dig into the ground with resultant somersaulting, impact and injury to Craig Caldwell.

In contrast, the defendants-appellees called experts who expressed the opinion that the spring guides had failed instantly as a result of a single, heavy impact, the inference here being that the disputed part either did give way or could have given way after the somersaulting cycle struck the ground rather than before. The defense experts further opined that an adequate supply of oil in the front forks of the MX250b was essential to their proper operation and a lack of oil increased the likelihood that the spring guides would fail. It was their belief that there probably was insufficient oil in the forks at the time of the incident in question.

An engineer for Kayaba Industry, the manufacturer of the front forks on the MX250b, testified for defendants-appellees about the research, development, and manufacturing process pertaining to the forks on the Caldwell machine. He explained that the reason for the steel guides in the 1980 replacement part was that aluminum alloy guides were not then available. He recalled an order from Yamaha to his company which directed that various aspects of the front fork design be altered for purposes of improving the ride features of their motorcycles and it was for this reason that his company undertook to install steel instead of aluminum alloy spring guides. This, according to the expert, explained the presence of steel guides in Craig Caldwell's 1980 replacement part and he emphasized that their presence did not indicate that aluminum alloy had rendered the product less safe than steel.

This witness was permitted to testify that, to his knowledge, no complaints about the front forks with aluminum guides had been reported except in this particular instance. Appellant's counsel objected to this testimony on the grounds that it was irrelevant in strict-liability products litigation and that its introduction was prejudicial to the plaintiff's case.

The judge ultimately instructed the jury to disregard the evidence concerning the presence of steel guides in the replacement

part, to which instruction counsel objected timely and strenuously.

INSTRUCTING THE JURY TO DISREGARD THE EVIDENCE OF STEEL SPRING GUIDES IN THE REPLACEMENT PART

Appellant Caldwell argues that the trial judge was in error when he instructed the jury to disregard the fact that steel rather than aluminum guides were used in the 1980 replacement front forks. He contends that the judge erroneously relied upon Rule 407, W.R.E. ² because the provisions of that rule were not intended to apply in a strict products-liability case tried and submitted according to the concepts announced by § 402A of the Restatement (supra, n.1).

Even so, at the close of the evidence the trial judge gave the following instruction:

"The fact that in 1980 the spring guides in Yamaha front forks were made of steel is not to be considered by you in determining whether or not the parts in Craig Caldwell's motorcycle were defective."

Although we agree with appellant that the proscriptions of Rule 407 are not applicable to strict-liability concepts, we do not agree that the trial judge erred in instructing the jury to disregard the evidence.

The constraints upon Rule 407, W.R.E. ³ are designed to exclude evidence of remedial measures which are offered as evidence of negligence or culpable conduct. The reason for the rule is to encourage after-the-fact repairs and corrections, and, it is argued, if these desirable efforts are to be admitted to prove negligence, then the threat that such remedial activity would be used against defendants would discourage their undertaking. See: 2 Louisell and Mueller, Federal Evidence, § 163, p. 235 (1978). It is clear from the...