Crispin v. Volkswagenwerk AG

• Decision Date: 30 May 1991
• Citation: 591 A.2d 966,248 N.J.Super. 540
• Parties: , 29 A.L.R.5th 807 John CRISPIN, Plaintiff-Respondent/Cross-Appellant, v. VOLKSWAGENWERK AG, a West German Corporation, and Volkswagen of America, Inc., a New Jersey Corporation, Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Respondents.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division

Page 540

248 N.J.Super. 540

591 A.2d 966, 29 A.L.R.5th 807

John CRISPIN, Plaintiff-Respondent/Cross-Appellant, v. VOLKSWAGENWERK AG, a West German Corporation, and Volkswagen of America, Inc., a New Jersey Corporation Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Respondents.

Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division.

Argued April 16, 1991.

Decided May 30, 1991.

John T. Dolan, for defendants-appellants/cross-respondents (Crummy, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, attorneys; John T. Dolan, on the brief), Newark.

Carol L. Forte, for plaintiff-respondent/cross-appellant (Blume, Vazquez, Goldfaden, Berkowitz & Donnelly, attorneys; Carol L. Forte, on the brief), Newark.

Before Judges PRESSLER, DEIGHAN and BAIME.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

BAIME, J.A.D.

This appeal and cross-appeal arise out of a Law Division judgment, awarding plaintiff damages and prejudgment interest totalling $4,800,000. Plaintiff suffered devastating injuries as a result of an automobile accident in which his 1971 Volkswagen Beetle traversed a highway median, revolved in a semi-circle, and was struck from the rear by an oncoming Chevrolet Nova. Plaintiff, who was not wearing seat belts, suffered a fracture of the spine causing permanent quadriplegia. In prior litigation, plaintiff received a settlement of $200,000 plus an annuity valued at $650,000 from the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the contractor who was repairing the highway median when the accident occurred. The damages for which the judgment was entered in this case pertained solely to second-collision injuries, i.e., those injuries enhanced by the presence of the alleged defect--not those caused by the crash alone. Crispin v. Volkswagenwerk, A.G., 96 N.J. 336, 476 A.2d 250 (1984). In its verdict, the jury predicated liability on its finding that the Volkswagen front seat was defectively designed because it collapsed upon impact. Alternatively, the jury found that defendant failed to provide users with adequate warning of the dangers attributable to non-use of the seat belts.

In its appeal, defendant contends that the Law Division judge committed reversible error by unduly restricting its cross-examination of plaintiff's expert witnesses. It further asserts that the judge improperly limited evidence of industry custom in support of its state of the art defense. Defendant also claims that plaintiff failed to present a prima facie case of design defect and failure to warn. Defendant finally contends that the judge erred by failing to mold the verdict to reflect the jury's finding of plaintiff's comparative negligence and by refusing to allow it a credit for the amount of the settlement in the previous litigation. In the cross-appeal, plaintiff asserts that the trial court improperly suspended prejudgment interest, excluded relevant evidence pertaining to past and future medical expenses, and incorrectly dismissed his claim for punitive damages. We find no error warranting a reversal or modification of the Law Division judgment.

I.

The tortuous path this case has taken was recounted at length in Crispin v. Volkswagenwerk, A.G., 96 N.J. at 342, 476 A.2d 250. Plaintiff was paralyzed as a result of a multi-car accident on the Garden State Parkway on December 10, 1977. Plaintiff's automobile entered a southbound lane of the highway from a construction site and was struck in the rear by a Chevrolet Nova driven by Victoria Rapicka. The accident spawned numerous lawsuits. The first proceedings, conducted in Union County, involved plaintiff, Rapicka and a passenger in her vehicle, Mary Lothrop, the DOT and S.J. Groves & Sons Company (Groves), the construction contractor on the site. Defendant was not originally named as a defendant in any of the suits filed in Union County.

However, on November 8, 1979, a television news program reported that the Volkswagen Beetle had a design defect referred to as an "ejector seat." There was allegedly a tendency for the front seat to collapse, causing the occupant to be hurled in the direction of the heavily weighted engine structure in the rear. After becoming aware of this allegation, plaintiff's attorney (not present counsel) filed a complaint against defendant in Bergen County on December 7, 1979, but did not inform the court in Union County or the other parties of that action. Instead, the Bergen County suit remained dormant during the pendency of the Law Division actions in Union County. When the DOT learned of the television report, it moved for leave to file a third-party complaint against defendant. Even then, plaintiff's attorney remained silent about the Bergen County complaint. The DOT's motion to implead defendant was denied. We thereafter denied the DOT's motion for leave to appeal, and the Union County litigation continued. As noted previously, plaintiff's claims against Groves and the DOT were settled. So too, Rapicka's suit against plaintiff was dismissed based upon a settlement. The remaining case in Union County, pitting Lothrop against the plaintiff, was ultimately tried, resulting in jury findings that plaintiff was 67% at fault, Groves 13% and the DOT 20%.

After all the Union County litigation was completed, plaintiff's attorney served Volkswagen in the Bergen County action. Defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint was granted without prejudice for failure to serve the summons within ten days. See R. 4:4-1. Both parties appealed that order to the Appellate Division. While that appeal was pending, plaintiff reinstituted suit against defendant, this time laying venue in Essex County. Defendant unsuccessfully moved to dismiss plaintiff's complaint on the basis of the entire controversy doctrine. At this point, we rendered an unreported opinion, affirming the dismissal without prejudice of plaintiff's Bergen County complaint. The Supreme Court granted certification in the Bergen County suit and granted leave to appeal in the Essex County matter.

On June 13, 1984, the Supreme Court rendered its decision. We need not describe the Court's opinion in detail. Suffice it to say, the Court deplored the tactics of plaintiff's original attorney but found that defendant suffered no prejudice. Noting that plaintiff's suit against Volkswagen was limited to the enhanced second collision injuries allegedly sustained by reason of the defective seat, the Court emphasized that "safeguards" should be created to insulate or segregate these damages from those caused by the original "crash alone." 96 N.J. at 346, 476 A.2d 250. The Court cautioned that the trial judge was duty-bound to "carefully mould its procedures so that Volkswagen's liability is appropriately limited," stressing that "[p]roper credit must be afforded for the recovery previously allowed." Ibid.

The voluminous record of the trial reveals the following facts. At approximately midnight on December 10, 1977, plaintiff was operating his 1971 Volkswagen Beetle in a northerly direction on the Garden State Parkway. At the time, the highway was under construction with its median being reduced in size to accommodate an additional lane in both north and southbound directions. For reasons which are unclear, plaintiff's automobile suddenly traversed the median, spun around so that it was pointed in the southbound direction, and was struck in the rear by Rapicka's Chevrolet Nova. Rapicka's vehicle was deflected and was then struck by another automobile driven by Joseph Morrison.

Plaintiff was rendered unconscious and suffered retrograde amnesia. Morrison and first aid personnel found plaintiff with his body extended across the rear seat and with his head outside the broken rear window. The driver's seat was bent backward in a downward direction, ultimately resting on the rear seat. Plaintiff sustained multiple severe injuries. As noted previously, the only injury for which plaintiff sought recovery against Volkswagen was quadriplegia resulting from compression of the spine and severance of the spinal cord when his body continued rearward into his neck as his head violently struck the rear structure of the automobile.

Although the Volkswagen was equipped with a three-point safety belt system which included independent lap and shoulder harnesses mounted to the floor and side of the vehicle, plaintiff was not wearing the seat belts. It is undisputed that the force of the collision caused the vertical part of plaintiff's seat to decline until it rested on the back seat, and that his body was hurled at high speed to the rear until his head struck the body of the car, causing quadriplegia.

Both parties agreed that Rapicka's automobile was decelerating from a speed of approximately 45 miles per hour immediately prior to impact. At trial, the question of the speed of plaintiff's automobile upon impact with that of Rapicka's was hotly contested. Plaintiff contended that the combined speed at impact was between 30 and 35 miles per hour and that such a relatively low speed collision would not have rendered him a quadriplegic had defendant designed the 1971 Volkswagen seat in accordance with readily available and inexpensive technology. Defendant asserted that the combined speed at impact was 60 miles per hour or greater and that no automobile seat could withstand a collision at that "closing" velocity. Defendant further claimed that all motor vehicle manufacturers intentionally incorporated "yielding" into their seats as a method of absorbing accident impact energy. It was defendant's position that it had designed its front seat to yield at a velocity change of 35 miles per hour and that occupants were to be protected against "ejection" by the "hindering effect" of the seat belts.

Later, in our opinion, we will describe in greater detail the evidence offered by the parties in support of their respective positions. It suffices to observe here that both parties presented expert witnesses who estimated the closing speed of plaintiff's and Rapicka's automobiles by...