Dura Corp. v. Harned

• Decision Date: 19 July 1985
• Docket Number: No. S-445,S-445
• Citation: 703 P.2d 396
• Parties: Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 10,842 DURA CORPORATION, Appellant, v. Charles HARNED and Providence Washington Insurance Company of Alaska, Appellees.
• Court: Alaska Supreme Court

Page 396

703 P.2d 396

Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 10,842

DURA CORPORATION, Appellant, v. Charles HARNED and Providence Washington Insurance Company

of Alaska, Appellees.

No. S-445.

Supreme Court of Alaska.

July 19, 1985.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 14, 1985.

Mary Louise Molenda and Timothy M. Lynch, Lynch, Farney & Crosby, David H. Thorsness and Kenneth P. Jacobus, Hughes, Thorsness, Gantz, Powell & Brundin, Anchorage, for appellant.

Mark A. Sandberg and Henry J. Camarot, Camarot, Sandberg, Hunter & Smith, Anchorage, for appellees.

Before RABINOWITZ, C.J., and BURKE, MATTHEWS, COMPTON and MOORE, JJ.

OPINION

MOORE, Justice.

This case involves a personal injury claim by Charles Harned against Dura Corporation, a manufacturer of portable air tanks, based on strict liability in tort and negligence. At the close of evidence, the superior court directed verdicts against the manufacturer on the issues of negligence per se, defective product, superseding cause, comparative negligence and proximate cause. The jury then found that Dura manufactured the air tank and assessed damages. Dura appeals the directed verdicts on superseding cause, comparative negligence, and proximate cause, and also claims that the trial court should have directed a verdict on the issue of brain damage. In addition, Dura contends that the trial court erred in several evidentiary rulings, in denying its motion for a new trial or remittitur and in its award of attorney's fees. We affirm the decision of the superior court.

I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Charles Harned, an employee of A & M Motors, was filling a small portable tank with air from a compressor outlet when the tank suddenly exploded and severed his left arm at the elbow. In this trial, the jury found that Electronics, Inc. manufactured the portable air tank under the Electro-Magic brand label. Dura acquired Electronics, Inc. in 1964 and admits liability for torts committed by its predecessor.

This appeal follows a retrial of the case after we reversed and remanded it in Harned v. Dura Corporation, 665 P.2d 5 (Alaska 1983). In Harned, we stated that Alaska law incorporated by reference the applicable design and construction standards for pressure vessels set out in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code. Id. at 10 n. 17. Consequently, the ASME Code established the statutory standard of care for Dura's construction of pressure vessels under Section 286 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1971). ¹ Id. at 14. Since the trial judge had not given a negligence per se instruction to the jury, we remanded the case for a new trial.

In the new trial, Harned claimed that Dura caused his injury by negligently manufacturing the pressure tank. He also alleged that Dura was strictly liable in tort based on its defective design and manufacture of the tank.

Electronics, Inc., Dura's predecessor in interest, manufactured portable tanks for compressed air for several years in the early 1960s. The tank consisted of two separate pieces welded together to form an aspirin shape. Wendell Shouse, a part-time Electronics employee who tested the tanks, stated that no one actually designed the tank for public use. Instead, someone probably welded the two pieces together for convenient use in the manufacturing plant and later sold the product to the public as a portable air tank. To Shouse's knowledge, no blueprint existed for the tank.

Both Harned and Dura presented expert testimony about the cause of the accident. Harned's expert, Dr. Taggart, testified that Dura originally manufactured the tank too thin to withstand its intended pressure of 150 pounds per square inch (psi). The tank's thin material violated the ASME Code. When the tank was filled with air, moisture also entered the tank and began to corrode the tank, making it thinner. The tank failed at the bend (the "knuckle") because at that point the stress was highest and the corrosion worst. When a crack gradually formed at the knuckle, the tank could not sustain the force of the compressed air. The force of the escaping air split the tank's two pieces apart and blew the halves a considerable distance.

Dura's expert, Dr. Selz, testified that low-cycle fatigue caused the tank failure. Low-cycle fatigue occurs when a tank is pressurized beyond the steel's yield strength. When its yield strength is exceeded, steel will not return to its original shape but instead acts like "taffy with a spring inside. It comes back but not quite all the way." Because A & M Motors pressurized and depressurized the tank many times, cracks grew in the steel and caused the explosion. Dura asserted that the tank was intended only for emergency use. Dr. Selz testified that despite the tank's thinness, it would not have failed under its intended infrequent use.

Dr. Taggart also addressed the issue of low-cycle fatigue. In his opinion, low-cycle fatigue did not cause the tank failure. If the steel were stressed by the cycle of pressurization, corrosion would also occur due to the air's moisture. Since corrosion would destroy the tank before low-cycle fatigue caused any crack, corrosion would be the predominant or "rate controlling" process. Taggart also stated that thickening the steel would lessen the problem of low-cycle fatigue and corrosion. On cross-examination, Dr. Selz agreed that the problem of low-cycle fatigue could be avoided by building a thicker air tank. He also stated that corrosion caused the tank to fail sooner than it would have under low-cycle fatigue.

The two experts also testified about other violations of the ASME Code. Dr. Selz stated that the tank's shape did not comply with code standards. The tank that injured Harned also lacked an identification nameplate required by the code. The nameplate should contain the manufacturer's name, the maximum designed pressure and temperature, a serial number and the year of manufacture. The code also requires a manufacturer to "hydrotest" a pressure vessel to one and one-half times the designed pressure. In a hydrotest, the tank is filled with water and observed for a defect as pressure is applied to determine the tank's working pressure. The portable tank was originally designed for use at 140 psi and its safety valve was set at 150 psi. During a hydrotest, Wendell Shouse noted some deformation in Dura's pressure tanks at 200 psi when the tanks were new. Dr. Taggart testified that Dura should never have sold these tanks to the public, because they failed the code's hydrotest.

Dr. Taggart stated that the ASME Code required that air tanks subject to corrosion be supplied with a drain valve at the lowest practicable point to empty accumulated moisture. In his opinion, Dura's failure to provide the tank with a drain valve violated the code. Dr. Selz believed that the tank could be emptied by inverting it and forcing the water out of the valves on the tank's top. He thought it would be poor design practice to add another opening to the tank.

Dura claims that it affixed a decal on its portable air tanks when the air tanks left the factory. The tank that injured Harned had no identification label. Harned suggests that Dura may have placed labels only on a different model tank. Harned's expert, Dr. Taggart, stated that the tank's label should be brazed or soldered into position. A gummed label such as Dura's decal would wear off. In any event, Dura's label stated:

Electro Magic Emergency Air Tank

Used by Farmers, Garages, Service Stations

Safety Valve set at 150 lbs.

Electronics, Inc., Vermillion, So. Dak.

It is undisputed that Dura's label failed to comply with the ASME Code because it did not list the year of manufacture, the maximum designed temperature or a serial number.

Dura sought to show that A & M Motors' misuse of the air tank caused the accident. Winston Chance, A & M Motors' owner, obtained the tank in used condition sometime between 1963 and 1967. Al Chance, A & M Motors' service manager, and Winston Chance, Jr., the business manager, both testified that the portable air tank was never inspected. The tank's safety relief valve was never tested and A & M personnel never drained the tank. In addition, neither Harned nor any of the Chances recalled seeing a pressure gauge on the tank.

Al Chance testified also that the portable air tank had no drain. Since the tank lacked a drain, he never knew that it needed to be drained. He did drain a large compressor tank at A & M once or twice per week. Chance also testified that a pressure gauge on the tank would have been useless without an information plate stating the tank's maximum pressure.

After the close of testimony, Harned moved for a series of directed verdicts: on the issue of negligence per se based on the ASME Code violations, on the issue of product defect, on superseding cause, on comparative negligence, on the issue of the identity of the tank's manufacturer, and on proximate cause. Dura moved for a directed verdict on the issue of brain damage. The superior court ruled that Dura was negligent per se because of four violations of the ASME Code: (1) the thinness of the tank, (2) its inappropriate shape, (3) the failure to hydrotest, and (4) the lack of an information plate. The superior court also ruled that the tank was defective and that the defect caused Harned's injury. Although the court denied a directed verdict on the tank's identity and on the issue of brain damage, it granted directed verdicts on the issues of proximate cause, superseding cause and comparative negligence.

After the jury found that Dura manufactured the tank that caused Harned's injury, it returned a verdict for Harned and awarded him $2,161,000 in compensatory damages. Dura's motion for a new trial and entry of remittitur was denied. The court also granted $348,264 in attorney's fees to Harned pursuant to Civil Rule 82, and denied defendant's motion for reconsideration of its order.

Dura does not question the jury's finding that it manufactured the...