Dewberry v. LaFollette
Decision Date | 24 July 1979 |
Docket Number | No. 51330,51330 |
Citation | 598 P.2d 241,1979 OK 113 |
Parties | Erika DEWBERRY, Appellant, v. Garland LaFOLLETTE and Mike LaFollette, d/b/a University Mobile Homes, a co-partnership, Appellees. |
Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court of Payne County; Ray Lee Wall, Trial Judge.
Plaintiff appeals from an order sustaining defendants' demurrer and dismissing her suit against lessor of steps which collapsed and injured her.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Chapel, Wilkinson, Riggs, Abney & Keefer by Benjamin P. Abney, Tulsa, for appellant.
Fitzgerald, Houston & Worthington by Winfrey D. Houston, Stillwater, for appellees.
This appeal arises out of an attempt by an injured plaintiff to plead a cause of action in manufacturers' products liability against a lessor of personal property.
Plaintiff's son and his wife occupied a mobile home under a lease-purchase agreement with defendants. As part of the agreement, defendants supplied a set of access steps to the home. Plaintiff was seriously injured when the stairs collapsed while she was descending them.
Plaintiff filed the present action against defendants as lessors of the mobile home and steps. The trial court sustained defendants' demurrer to the petition for failure to state a cause of action. Plaintiff appeals.
The policy of strict liability in tort defined as manufacturers' products liability in Kirkland v. General Motors, 521 P.2d 1353 (Okl.1974) extends its Protection to any person using the defective product for its intended purpose. This would include the present plaintiff. The decision further extends Liability to "suppliers" of the defective product as well as manufacturers and sellers. This may be read to impose liability on all those who inject a product into the stream of commerce whether through a sale or other means. 1 One Oklahoma court holds this includes lessors and bailors engaged in the business of leasing chattels to the public where no sale is involved. 2
The evident trend of other jurisdictions is to expand the concept of strict liability to include commercial lessors on the basis such persons put products into the stream of commerce in a fashion not unlike a manufacturer or retailer. However, the property must have been placed in the stream of commerce; a casual or isolated transaction does not bring the doctrine into play. 3 See Francioni v. Gibsonia Truck Corporation, 472 Pa. 362, 372 A.2d 736 (1977); Lechuga v. Montgomery, 12 Ariz.App. 32, 467 P.2d 256 (1970); Bachner v. Pearson, 479 P.2d 319 (Alaska 1970); Price v. Shell Oil Company, 2 Cal.3d 245, 85 Cal.Rptr. 178, 466 P.2d 722 (1970); McClaflin v. Bayshore Equipment Rental Company, 274 Cal.App.2d 446, 79 Cal.Rptr. 337 (1969); Martin v. Ryder Truck Rental, Inc., 353 A.2d 581 (Del.1976); Stewart v. Budget Rent-A-Car Corporation, 470 P.2d 240 (Haw.1970); Galluccio v. Hertz Corporation, 1 Ill.App.3d 272, 274 N.E.2d 178 (1971); Stang v. Hertz Corporation, 83 N.M. 730, 497 P.2d 732, 52 A.L.R.3d 112 (1972); Rourke v. Garza, 530 S.W.2d 794 (Tex.1975); Cintrone v. Hertz Leasing and Rental Service, 45 N.J. 434, 212 A.2d 769 (1965).
In Francioni v. Gibsonia Truck Corporation, supra, the Pennsylvania court pointed out:
We adopt this reasoning, finding it to be in line with the public policy of this state as espoused in Kirkland. We perceive no substantial difference between sellers of personal property and non-sellers of personal property such as lessors. In...
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...liability to retailers in Moss v. Polyco, 1974 OK 53, 522 P.2d 622, and our extension of strict liability to lessors in Dewberry v. LaFollette, 1979 OK 113, 598 P.2d 241. They also cite to the few jurisdictions which have extended strict liability to commercial sellers of used ¶ 15 In Moss ......
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Waggoner v. Town & Country Mobile Homes, Inc., 64507
...as defined in section 2-105(1)."). A mobile home has been treated as a "product" only when personal injury occurred. See Dewberry v. LaFollette, 598 P.2d 241 (Okla.1979) (lessor who placed mobile home into stream of commerce was answerable in manufacturers' products liability for personal i......
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