Colville v. Crown Equipment Corp.

• Decision Date: 23 September 2002
• Citation: 809 A.2d 916
• Parties: David and Leontine COLVILLE, H/W, Appellees, v. CROWN EQUIPMENT CORPORATION and Omnilift, Inc., Appellants.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

809 A.2d 916

David and Leontine COLVILLE, H/W, Appellees, v. CROWN EQUIPMENT CORPORATION and Omnilift, Inc., Appellants.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued June 12, 2001.

Filed September 23, 2002.

Reargument Denied November 27, 2002.

William J. Conroy, Wayne, for Omnilift, appellant.

Benjamin P. Shein, Philadelphia, for appellees.

BEFORE: JOYCE, LALLY-GREEN and KELLY,¹ JJ.

JOYCE, J.:

¶ 1 Appellants, Crown Equipment Corporation and Omnilift, Inc., appeal from the March 20, 2000 judgment entered in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County following a $3,843,253.29 jury verdict in favor of Appellees, David and Leontine Colville. Upon review, we vacate the judgment entered by the trial court and remand for a new trial. The relevant facts and procedural history of this case are as follows.

¶ 2 On October 20, 1994, David Colville sustained an injury to his left foot while operating a Crown RR3020-45 standup forklift during the scope of his employment at Hechinger's, a building supply store in Philadelphia. While attempting to unload a delivery truck, Colville lost control of the forklift and slammed into the truck. During this accident, Colville's foot was expelled from the operator's compartment and was crushed between the wheel of the delivery truck and the base of the forklift.

¶ 3 On October 11, 1996, David Colville filed a strict products liability action against the forklift's manufacturer, Crown Equipment Corporation, and the seller of the forklift, Omnilift, Inc. Mr. Coville's wife, Leontine Colville, also made a derivative loss of consortium claim against Appellants. In their complaint, Appellees alleged that the forklift was defective because it was designed and manufactured without a door enclosing the operator's compartment and did not provide certain warnings. A jury trial commenced on this action on March 8, 1999. At the close of Appellees' evidence, Appellants filed a motion for non-suit alleging that Appellees failed to introduce evidence to support each of the claims. The trial court granted Appellants' motion for non-suit, in part, by dismissing Appellees' lack of warnings claim. However, the trial court denied the motion with respect to the defective design claim, and Appellants proceeded with their defense.

¶ 4 During their case-in-chief, Appellants called expert witnesses to establish that a forklift equipped with a door would not constitute a safer alternative design. Specifically, Appellants' witnesses testified that the addition of a door could prevent operators from jumping out of the forklift in the event of a rollover and that an operator could sustain more serious, if not fatal, injuries if the forklift landed upon him. At a subsequent charge conference on March 11, 1999, Appellants requested that the trial court instruct the jury on the elements of the crashworthiness doctrine. Appellants claimed that this charge was warranted because Appellees had invoked the theory during their opening statement and throughout their case-in-chief. The trial court denied this request upon its determination that it was within the province of the judge to determine whether the forklift was crashworthy and that Appellees had met this burden.² N.T. Jury Trial, 3/11/99, at 558. The trial court then informed the parties that it would only instruct the jury on the elements of a traditional Section 402(a) strict products liability claim.³ Id. ¶ 5 After the close of the evidence, Appellants requested that the trial court direct a verdict in their favor on the defective design claim. The trial court denied this motion. On March 12, 1999, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Appellees, awarding David Colville $3,000,000.00 on his strict liability claim and Leontine Colville $500,000.00 on her loss of consortium claim. Appellants filed a motion for post-trial relief, which was denied on March 20, 2000. On this same date, the trial court granted Appellees' motion for delay damages and entered judgment in the amount of $3,843,253.29 against Appellants.

¶ 6 On April 11, 2000, Appellants filed a timely notice of appeal with our Court. In their brief, Appellants alleged that the trial court erred when it (1) failed to instruct the jury on the crashworthiness doctrine; (2) excluded evidence of Appellants' compliance with government regulations and industry standards; and (3) determined that federal regulations did not preempt Appellants' state law claims. On July 30, 2001, we affirmed the judgment of the trial court after determining Appellants waived their first issue and that Appellants' second and third issues lacked merit. Colville v. Crown Equipment Corp., 785 A.2d 1023 (Pa.Super.2001) (unpublished memorandum).

¶ 7 On October 31, 2001, Appellants filed a timely petition for allowance of appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asserting, inter alia, that our panel erred when it held that Appellants waived their challenge to the jury instructions. On March 20, 2002, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted Appellants' petition and vacated our judgment upon its determination that Appellants properly preserved their challenge to the jury instructions by making a timely objection during the charge conference. Colville v. Crown Equipment Corp., 568 Pa. 61, 791 A.2d 1168 (2002). The Supreme Court then remanded the case to our Court for an exclusive "consideration of the merits of [Appellants'] claim that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the crashworthiness doctrine." Id. at 1168-69. Pursuant to this specific and narrow mandate, we will now address Appellants' claim that the trial court erred when it refused to instruct the jury on the crashworthiness doctrine.

¶ 8 As a preliminary matter, we must set forth the governing standard of review. When determining whether a trial court erred by making an inadequate or insufficient instruction to the jury, "we must examine the charge in its entirety against the background of the evidence to determine whether error was committed." Ottavio v. Fibreboard Corp. et al., 421 Pa.Super. 284, 617 A.2d 1296, 1301 (1992). An error will be found if "the jury charge in its entirety was unclear, inadequate, or tended to mislead or confuse the jury." Ettinger v. Triangle-Pacific Corp., 799 A.2d 95, 106 (Pa.Super.2002); see also Price v. Guy, 558 Pa. 42, 46, 735 A.2d 668, 670-71 (1999)

("error will be found where the jury was probably mislead by what the trial judge charged or where there was an omission in the charge").

¶ 9 In their brief, Appellants argue that the crashworthiness doctrine applies in the instant case because the alleged design defect (i.e. the absence of a door on the operator's compartment) did not cause the accident itself. Simply stated, Appellants maintain that Mr. Colville would have crashed the forklift into the delivery truck regardless of the presence of a door. Rather, Appellants contend that the absence of a door only increased or enhanced the severity of the injury incident to the accident. In light of this position, Appellants assert that a jury charge on crashworthiness was necessary, especially where Appellees pursued the case under a crashworthiness theory from the outset of trial. Upon review, we agree.

¶ 10 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has adopted the strict products liability doctrine enunciated in Section 402(a) of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. Webb v. Zern, 422 Pa. 424, 220 A.2d 853 (1966). As such, to submit a Section 402(a) products liability case to a jury, it must be shown that "a product was sold in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer, and that the defect was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries." Walton v. Avco Corp., 530 Pa. 568, 576, 610 A.2d 454, 458 (1992). Additionally, courts of this Commonwealth have specified that a product is defective when it is not fit for the intended use for which it was sold. Azzarello v. Black Bros. Co. Inc., 480 Pa. 547, 559, 391 A.2d 1020, 1027 (1978).

¶ 11 The crashworthiness or second collision doctrine is merely a subset of a Section 402(a) products liability action and routinely arises in the context of a vehicular accident. Kupetz v. Deere & Company, Inc., 435 Pa.Super. 16, 644 A.2d 1213, 1218 (1994), appeal denied, 539 Pa. 693, 653 A.2d 1232 (1994).⁴ Historically, a Section 402(a) strict products liability action only created liability for injuries proximately caused by a defect where the defect also caused the accident. Barris v. Bob's Drag Chutes & Safety Equipment, Inc., 685 F.2d 94, 99 (3rd Cir.1982). However, the crashworthiness doctrine extends the liability of manufacturers and sellers to "situations in which the defect did not cause the accident or initial impact, but rather increased the severity of the injury over that which would have occurred absent the design defect." Kupetz, 644 A.2d at 1218 (citing Mills v. Ford Motor Co., 142 F.R.D. 271 (M.D.Pa.1990)). Therefore, in order for a manufacturer to avoid liability, it must design and manufacture a product that is "reasonably crashworthy", or alternatively stated, the manufacturer must contemplate accidents among the intended uses of its product. Kupetz, 644 A.2d at 1218.

¶ 12 To prevail on a crashworthiness or second collision theory in a products liability action under Section 402(a), a plaintiff must prove three elements. First, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the design of the vehicle was defective and that when the design was made, an alternative, safer, practicable design existed. Kupetz, 644 A.2d at 1218 (citing Craigie v. General Motors Corp., 740 F.Supp. 353 (E.D.Pa.1990)). Second, the plaintiff must show what injuries, if any, the plaintiff would have received had the alternative safer design been used. Id. Third, the plaintiff must prove what injuries were attributable to the defective design. Id.⁵

¶ 13 To determine whether the trial court's failure to instruct on the crashworthiness doctrine was erroneous, we must first...