Collazo-Santiago v. Toyota Motor Corp.

• Decision Date: 06 November 1997
• Docket Number: P,No. 97-1365,COLLAZO-SANTIAG,97-1365
• Parties: Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 15,280 Dianalaintiff--Appellee, v. TOYOTA MOTOR CORP., Defendant--Appellant. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 23

149 F.3d 23

Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 15,280

Diana COLLAZO-SANTIAGO, Plaintiff--Appellee, v. TOYOTA MOTOR CORP., Defendant--Appellant.

No. 97-1365.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard Nov. 6, 1997.

Decided July 9, 1998.

Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied Aug. 17, 1998.

Jay M. Smyser, with whom Antonio Gnocchi Franco was on brief for appellant.

Bowman and Brooke LLP, Hildy Bowbeer and Hugh F. Young, Jr., on brief for Product Liability Advisory Council, amicus curiae.

Jorge Miguel Suro Ballester for appellee.

Before TORRUELLA, Chief Judge, CYR, Circuit Judge, and DiCLERICO, ^* District Judge.

DiCLERICO, District Judge.

The plaintiff-appellee, Diana Collazo-Santiago, received a jury verdict against the defendant-appellant, Toyota Motor Corporation, in this strict products liability case. On appeal, the defendant raises, inter alia, the following arguments: the district court applied an incorrect legal standard; the plaintiff failed to establish an element of her case; and the district court erred in its denial of the defendant's motion to dismiss because of the plaintiff's spoliation of evidence. Having considered the arguments of the defendant and of the amicus brief filed by the Products Liability Advisory Council, we affirm.

Background ¹

On August 13, 1994, the plaintiff was driving a 1994 Toyota Corolla when she was involved in a high speed multi-automobile accident. Struck initially from behind, her automobile was propelled forward into the vehicle in front of it and the air bags in her car deployed. The plaintiff suffered abrasions to her face that resulted in second degree burns.

In January 1995, the plaintiff filed this action against the defendant asserting, in part, that her abrasions were caused by the air bags in the automobile, that the air bags were defectively designed, and that the defendant was liable under a theory of strict products liability. Confronted with an open question of Puerto Rico strict products liability law, the district court applied a rule of law under which a plaintiff prevails in a design defect case if the plaintiff establishes that the product's design proximately caused her injury and the defendant fails to establish that the benefits of the design outweighed its risks.

Prior to trial, the defendant asserted that the plaintiff's failure to preserve the automobile for the defendant's inspection was prejudicial and warranted dismissal of the plaintiff's complaint. The district court denied the motion to dismiss.

At trial, the plaintiff testified that she had been wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident and that she did not come into contact with the steering wheel or any other part of the interior of her car. Her dermatologist testified that her injuries were second degree burns due to abrasions and that they were inconsistent with a traumatic impact with a blunt object. Although the plaintiff did not supply her own expert witness on air bags, she elicited testimony from the defendant's expert that abrasions and burns had been associated with air bag deployment in professional literature. The defendant's expert witness also testified that despite the severe injuries that may result from air bag deployment, they have significantly reduced injuries and fatalities from car accidents. Moreover, he opined that there is no feasible alternative design for the air bags that would reduce the danger posed by their high speed deployment while maintaining their efficacy.

The jury returned a $30,000 verdict for the plaintiff. ² On appeal, the defendant contests, inter alia: (1) the district court's formulation of Puerto Rico strict products liability law for design defect cases; (2) the sufficiency of the plaintiff's evidence; and (3) the district court's spoliation ruling. The court discusses these claims seriatim.

Discussion

I. Strict Products Liability Under Puerto Rico Law

The parties do not dispute that Puerto Rico law controls the issue of strict products liability for a design defect in this case. See Erie R.R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 78, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938). The Puerto Rico legislature has yet to codify the Commonwealth's law governing strict products liability. See Rivera Santana v. Superior Packaging, Inc., No. RE-89-593, --- P.R. Offic. Trans. ----, slip op. at 5 n.4, 1992 WL 754830 (P.R. Dec. 9, 1992). Although the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico has not explicitly pronounced the legal standard governing design defect cases, the district court denied the defendant's motion to certify the question to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, finding the path that court would take reasonably clear. See Collazo-Santiago v. Toyota Motor Corp., 937 F.Supp. 134, 138 (D.P.R.1996). The defendant alleges that the district court applied an improper rule of law. The court reviews this question de novo. See MCI Telecomms. Corp. v. Exalon Indus., Inc., 138 F.3d 426, 428 (1st Cir.1998).

"Absent controlling state court precedent, a federal court sitting in diversity may certify a state law issue to the state's highest court, or undertake its prediction 'when the course [the] state courts would take is reasonably clear.' " VanHaaren v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 989 F.2d 1, 3 (1st Cir.1993) (quoting Porter v. Nutter, 913 F.2d 37, 41 n. 4 (1st Cir.1990) (itself quoting Bi-Rite Enters., Inc. v. Bruce Miner Co., 757 F.2d 440, 443 n. 3 (1st Cir.1985))). This court agrees with the district court that the likely direction of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico is reasonably evident.

Since its adoption of the doctrine of strict products liability in Mendoza v. Cervecera Corona, Inc., 97 D.P.R. 499 (1969), the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico has embraced the formulation of that doctrine first set forth by the California Supreme Court in Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc., 59 Cal.2d 57, 27 Cal.Rptr. 697, 377 P.2d 897, 901 (1963). As it has revisited the issue of Puerto Rico strict products liability law, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico has consistently relied upon California Supreme Court precedent. In Montero Saldana v. American Motors Corp., R-77-203, --- P.R. Offic. Trans. ----, slip op., 1978 WL 48845 (P.R. May 31, 1978), for example, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico relied upon California Supreme Court precedent in rejecting the requirement that the defect be "unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer;" in finding strict liability applicable to both manufacturing and design defect cases; and in holding principles of comparative fault applicable to strict products liability cases. See id. at 8, 10-12. Again, in Rivera Santana v. Superior Packaging, Inc., the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico relied extensively on Greenman and other California cases as it identified three types of product defects that could result in strict products liability: manufacturing defects, design defects, and defects arising from inadequate warnings or instructions. See slip op. at 8. It then explicitly adopted Greenman 's definition of a manufacturing defect and provided a legal standard for inadequate warnings or instructions drawn from California Supreme Court cases. See id. at 8, 10. Indeed, in Rivera Santana, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico acknowledged its embrace of California's doctrine of strict products liability, stating the following: "Both [Mendoza and Montero Saldana ] cited with approval the strict liability in torts rule set down by the California Supreme Court in [Greenman ]." Id. at 6.

The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico's first extended discussion of strict products liability for design defects was also in Rivera Santana. In the decision, the court referred exclusively to a two-part test articulated by the California Supreme Court in Barker v. Lull Engineering Co., 20 Cal.3d 413, 143 Cal.Rptr. 225, 573 P.2d 443 (1978). See Rivera Santana, slip op. at 9, 10. Pursuant to the test, a successful plaintiff in a design defect case must establish that:

1) "the product failed to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used in an intended or reasonably foreseeable manner[,]" or ... 2) "the product's design proximately caused his injury and the defendant fails to establish, in light of the relevant factors, that, on balance the benefits of the challenged design outweigh the risk of danger inherent in such design."

Id. at 9 (quoting Barker, 143 Cal.Rptr. 225, 573 P.2d at 455-56).

Although in Rivera Santana the court stopped short of explicitly adopting the two-part test, in Aponte Rivera v. Sears Roebuck, Inc., the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico revisited the issue of strict products liability for design defects. See Nos. RE-92-436, CE-92-537, --- P.R. Offic. Trans. ----, slip op., 1998 WL 324486 (P.R. Apr. 02, 1998). In Aponte Rivera, which was decided after oral argument was heard in this case, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico provided that a design is defective

when a product fails to perform as safely as would be expected by an ordinary user when the product is being used for its intended use or for which it could foreseeably be used, or when the product design is the proximate cause of the damages and defendant fails to show that in the balance of interests the benefits of the design in question surpass the inherent risks of danger in the design.

Id. at 10, 29 n. 9 (citing Rivera ). Although the adoption of the two-part test is not necessary to the outcome of Aponte Rivera, the court finds that taken together, the case law cited above provides a "reasonably clear" indication of the direction of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. The court therefore holds that the district court's adoption of the two-part test articulated in Barker and recited in Rivera Santana and Aponte Rivera accurately reflects the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico's likely decision if confronted with the issue at hand.

In its application of the two-part test for a design defect, the district court required the plaintiff to prove that she...