Ford Motor Company v. McDavid

• Decision Date: 29 August 1958
• Docket Number: No. 7624.,7624.
• Citation: 259 F.2d 261
• Parties: FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Appellant, v. J. W. McDAVID, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

259 F.2d 261 (1958)

FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Appellant, v. J. W. McDAVID, Appellee.

No. 7624.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued April 17, 1958.

Decided August 29, 1958.

Certiorari Denied December 8, 1958.

H. Fletcher Padget, Jr., and N. A. Turner, Columbia, S. C., for appellant.

Augustus T. Graydon, Columbia, S. C., and John C. West, Camden, S. C. (C. T. Graydon, Columbia, S. C., on brief), for appellee.

Before SOPER and HAYNSWORTH, Circuit Judges, and PAUL, District Judge.

Certiorari Denied December 8, 1958. See 79 S.Ct. 234.

HAYNSWORTH, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff was a passenger in an automobile, owned and driven by his wife, when there was a blowout of the right front tire. Mrs. McDavid lost control of the automobile, which ran into a ditch, and the plaintiff was thrown to the floor. He sought compensation for his personal injury from the manufacturer of the automobile upon the theory that the blowout was caused by excessive wear of the tire which, in turn, was attributable to negligence of the manufacturer in aligning the wheel. The defendant's motions for a directed verdict and, after the verdict, for judgment notwithstanding the verdict were denied. The appeal presents the question of the sufficiency of the proof to support the verdict.

Although the automobile had been driven only 2600 miles, the blowout occurred because the tire had worn through the fabric. The wear of the left front tire was less extensive, but greatly excessive for the distance travelled.

From the appearance of the tires, it was established that a major cause of the excessive wear was the "toe-in" of the front wheels. Toe-in is adjusted by turnbuckles on the tie rods by means of which the front wheels may be rotated on their vertical axes. Proper front wheel alignment on most automobiles requires a small degree of toe-in, so that the distance between the center lines of the two tires measured at the front is less than the distance between them measured at the rear of the tires. Obviously, if there is too much toe-in, the front tires will scrape and scuff along the roadway, and wear will be rapid and excessive. Toe-in may be so maladjusted as to cause new tires to wear-out in a few hundred miles of travel.

It is apparent that the center of the wear of the right front tire of the McDavid automobile did not coincide with the center line of the tire, and the outer edge shows greater wear than the inner. This indicates maladjusted camber. Proper front wheel settings require some positive camber, a tilting of the wheel along its horizontal axis so that the distance between the two front tires is greater at their tops than at the road surface. The weight and springing of the loaded vehicle counteracts optimum positive camber, however, so that the center line of tire wear should coincide approximately with the center line of the tire's tread. Excessive positive camber shifts the center line of wear outwardly from the center line of the tread and will reduce the useful life of the tread.

The witnesses differed greatly in their estimates of the contribution of the camber adjustment to the excessive wear of the right front tire. Some thought it negligible, explaining that excessive toe-in causes more rapid wear of the right front tire than of the left.¹ A witness for the plaintiff, however, attributed the difference in the wear of the two front tires entirely to excessive camber in the right front wheel.

While it is obvious that the scraping action which excessive toe-in occasions can quickly result in complete tire failure and that excessive camber holds no comparable threat of early danger, it is apparent from the foregoing that the proof established that failure of the tire was caused by misalignment of the front wheels and would warrant a finding that the misalignment consisted of a combination of excessive toe-in and excessive camber in the right front wheel. The plaintiff, however, could carry in no such satisfactory manner his burden of proving that Ford Motor Company was responsible for the condition which existed at the time of the accident.

This particular automobile was delivered by Ford in February 1954 to Clem Davis, Inc., an authorized Ford dealer in Jackson, Michigan. It was held in stock there for almost six months, until August 23, 1954, when it was sold to Mrs. McDavid. Meanwhile, however, on August 14, 1954, the power steering with which it had been equipped was removed for installation upon another automobile and was replaced by conventional steering. This exchange included the tie rods and other members of the steering linkage, so that all of the controls of the toe-in, as set in the factory, were completely removed and replaced by others. The toe-in was then reset with the controls associated with the substituted steering apparatus. Whatever the toe-in adjustment immediately after the exchange of power steering for conventional steering, it was the work of Clem Davis, Inc., not of Ford Motor Company.

Camber, under the procedures followed by Ford at that time, was gaged and tested by machine. Camber, itself, as caster, the rearward inclination of the top of the kingpin, is adjusted on Ford automobiles of that model year by the insertion or removal of shims, or fillers, on bolts at two control points. Each testing machine is checked each four hours, and, if found to be inaccurate, there is a manual re-check of the caster and camber settings on all cars which had passed through during the preceding four-hour period.

In addition to the machine tests of the camber setting at the factory, there is testimony that this factor in wheel alignment and the toe-in were checked on the McDavid automobile (1) by Clem Davis, Inc., on August 14, 1954, when the exchange of the steering systems was accomplished, (2) by Clem Davis, Inc., on August 23, 1954, as part of the routine pre-delivery procedure, at which time the original tires were replaced with others, (3) by Clem Davis, Inc., on August 31, 1954, as part of the "300 mile inspection," and (4) by Eger Motors, Inc., of McKeesport, Pa., as part of the "1000 mile inspection." The mechanics who did the work did not recall the particular automobile, but they described the procedure and testified generally that if the camber or toe-in was maladjusted, their checks would have revealed the fact and it would have been corrected.

At the time of the "1000 mile inspection," the actual mileage was 1287, approximately half of the total mileage at the time of the accident. If the misalignment which caused the complete failure of the tire at 2600 miles was present at the time of purchase, the wear, particularly the feather edges characteristic of wear from excessive toe-in, should have been obvious upon the most casual inspection at 1287 miles.

Alignment of front wheels requires the coordinate adjustment of several related angles. Disruption of one may affect others, and perfect alignment is not so permanent that it may not become maladjusted in the course of normal use. Excessive toe-in and excessive camber can be caused by hitting a curb while parking diagonally against it, by glancing blows, when driving, against curbs, pavement edges, railroad tracks, holes and bumps. The plaintiff's principal expert said of excessive toe-in, "It can also be caused by the type roads the person drives over. I have a few farmers as my customers. And they really take a terrific licking out there. You know, some of them go through the pasture with their cars and so forth and hitting holes in the road * * *." One of the witnesses also testified that excessive toe-in, itself, increases positive camber, because of the great pressure under weight against the bottom of the scuffing tire.

Mrs. McDavid testified that from the time of her purchase of the car, she alone drove it, except on one occasion in Michigan and she was a passenger in the automobile then. She had parked it diagonally to curbs, but very carefully, and she did not recall having hit a bump or a hole. In parking lots, she said, she always parked the car herself, "and I usually parked it into a place where I can lock it and the attendants wouldn't have to move it."

Mrs. McDavid was asked, however, if "just prior to the accident" she had noticed her tires "squeaking." She replied that she had, that on turns, even at slow speeds, they would screech. Excessive toe-in will cause tires to screech at normal speeds on curves, but it is significant that she does not suggest that this screeching, even at slow speeds, was noticeable during the early weeks of her use of the automobile.² At the time of the first inspection, she had complained of a noise in the radio and, at the second inspection, of vibration in the left side of the dash, but, apparently, she made no mention of screeching tires.

We held in Pierce v. Ford Motor Co., 4 Cir., 190 F.2d 910, applying the laws of Virginia, that an automobile manufacturer was liable in a tort action for injuries sustained by occupants of a new automobile, driven only 900 miles, when it appeared that the turnbuckles on the tie rods were not secured in the final assembly of the car, so that in use they turned, causing excessive toe-in, the complete failure of one of the front tires and the resultant injuries. We need not consider whether a similar conclusion would be reached under the laws of South Carolina³ if the proof showed that the camber of a front wheel was misset at the factory, a condition which will shorten the useful life of the tire tread, but which, unlike loose turnbuckles and excessive toe-in, will permit many thousands of miles of safe operation before it, alone, can create a present threat of danger,⁴ for we think the proof insufficient to support the inference that the factory setting of the camber was excessive in this instance.

Examination of the automobile after the accident disclosed no mechanical defect, nor any error or omission in the assembly or...