Freeman v. Case Corp.

• Decision Date: 19 April 1996
• Docket Number: Civil A. No. 94-0063.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia
• Parties: Daniel FREEMAN, Plaintiff, v. CASE CORPORATION, Defendant.

924 F. Supp. 1456

Daniel FREEMAN, Plaintiff, v. CASE CORPORATION, Defendant.

Civil A. No. 94-0063.

United States District Court, W.D. Virginia, Abingdon Division.

April 19, 1996.

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J.F. Taylor, J.K. Givens, Dothan, AL, and Thomas Dossett, Kingsport, TN, for Plaintiff.

Michael Gladstone and Dabney Carr, Richmond, VA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

GLEN M. WILLIAMS, Senior District Judge.

This products liability case is before the court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332. Plaintiff Daniel Freeman was injured in a tractor accident. Freeman sued defendant Case Corporation ("Case") under theories of defective design and breach of warranty, and, following a jury trial, was awarded $3.8 million. Case now moves for judgment as a matter of law, or, in the alternative, for a new trial, and also moves for remittitur of the damages awarded against it. The motion for judgment as a matter of law is granted.

FACTS

Daniel Freeman ("Freeman") is an experienced owner and operator of a wide variety of heavy and light industrial, home, and recreational equipment. Before buying the Case 1130 tractor that is the subject of this case, Freeman had used a smaller John Deere riding mower for many years to mow his lawn. The Deere comes equipped with an operator presence control ("OPC"), a safety device that quickly stops the mower blades if the operator's weight leaves the seat. Freeman decided to purchase a Case 1130 after seeing and admiring one owned by an acquaintance. He visited a dealer, where he requested a Case 1130 and asked that it be fitted with a belly mower attachment. The tractor, so equipped, was later delivered to his home.

The Case 1130 does not have an OPC, but it comes with a rollbar and a seat belt. Together, a rollbar and seat belt are known in the trade as a Rollover Protection System, or ROPS. A ROPS is designed to protect an operator in a tractor tipover situation: the rollbar keeps the tractor from rolling all the way over, or provides protection if it does, and the seat belt keeps the operator within the zone of safety.

Upon receiving his Case 1130, Freeman examined portions of the accompanying manual, and also inspected the tractor itself. Prior to the accident, he had mowed his yard twice and spread fertilizer once with the tractor. On the day of his injury, Freeman was not using the seat belt. While mowing near a steep embankment in his back yard, Freeman drove the tractor over a partially buried boulder. Although the Deere had never done so, the mower blades of the Case 1130, being set slightly lower, struck the top of the boulder. Freeman immediately stopped the tractor, depressed the clutch to disengage power to the blades and the wheels, and raised the mower deck so that the blades would not strike the rock when restarted. His plan was to then release the clutch to spin the blades in the air, in order to determine if they had been warped by striking the rock. Freeman claims that his foot was on the brake pedal, which is located in close proximity to the speed ratio control pedal ("SRC").¹ He in fact had both the brake and the SRC depressed. Thus, when he released the clutch, the tractor moved forward over the edge of the embankment. Freeman was unable to stop or to regain control of the tractor. He leapt from the machine, but was struck by the blades and severely injured as the tractor rolled down the hill.

ANALYSIS

A postverdict motion for judgment as a matter of law is evaluated by the same standard as one made during trial. See Crown Central Petroleum Corp. v. Brice, 427 F.Supp. 638, 640 (E.D.Va.1977). The standard for a party to receive judgment as a matter of law is a high one. The court will construe all evidence and inferences in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and will grant the motion only if a reasonable trier of fact could reach no other conclusion. Winant v. Bostic, 5 F.3d 767, 774 (4th Cir. 1993). In doing so, the court will consider neither the weight of the evidence nor the credibility of witnesses. Singer v. Dungan, 45 F.3d 823, 826 (4th Cir.1995); L.M. Everhart Const. v. Jefferson County, 2 F.3d 48, 51 (4th Cir.1993).

The standard for granting a new trial is lower than that for judgment as a matter of law. Under Rule 59, the court will weigh the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses, and may in its discretion grant a new trial if it considers the verdict to be against the clear weight of the evidence. Poynter v. Ratcliff, 874 F.2d 219, 223 (4th Cir.1989).

With these standards in mind, the court now turns to the issues before it. Case's brief sets forth seven major arguments or classes of arguments: (1) Freeman failed to present sufficient evidence of an unreasonably dangerous design defect; (2) Freeman failed to present sufficient evidence that the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose was breached; (3) Freeman failed to prove that the alleged defects were the proximate cause of his injuries; (4) the expert testimony offered by Freeman should have been excluded as inadmissible; (5) the affirmative defenses of open and obvious danger, contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, and unforeseeable misuse bar recovery; (6) two jurors improperly tested the tractor during a showing; and (7) the verdict was excessive. Although the court's decision to grant Case's motion for judgment as a matter of law renders many of Case's arguments moot, the issues raised are of legal interest and are likely to be useful to any court that may review this decision. Each shall be discussed in turn.

I. Evidence of Unreasonably Dangerous Defect

At trial, Freeman attempted to prove two design defects in the Case 1130 tractor. First, he presented evidence that the brake pedal was placed dangerously close to the SRC, and that this proximity created an unacceptable risk of inadvertent engagement of the SRC by an operator trying to brake. Second, he contended that the absence of an OPC made the tractor unreasonably dangerous.

Under Virginia law, two factors are relevant to the determination of whether a product contains an unreasonably dangerous defect: industry or government safety standards, and consumer expectations. Alevromagiros v. Hechinger Co., 993 F.2d 417, 421 (4th Cir.1993); Mears v. General Motors, 896 F.Supp. 548, 551 (E.D.Va.1995). Proving a violation either of a safety standard or of consumer expectations can discharge a plaintiff's burden. Alevromagiros, 993 F.2d at 422.² If published safety standards exist, the court will rely on these. Otherwise, it is "a matter of opinion of trained experts what design was safe for its intended use." Ford Motor Co. v. Bartholomew, 224 Va. 421, 430, 297 S.E.2d 675, 679 (1982). Merely conclusory expert testimony without substantial foundation will not discharge this burden. Compare id. (accepting sufficiency of expert testimony supported by manuals, data compiled by federal agency, consultation with other experts, experiments with product in question and other similar products, and mockup of product) with Alevromagiros, 993 F.2d at 421 (rejecting sufficiency of expert testimony based solely on inspection of the product in question).³

To demonstrate consumer expectations, the plaintiff may use "evidence of actual industry practices, knowledge at the time of other injuries, knowledge of dangers, published literature, and ... direct evidence of what reasonable purchasers consider defective." Alevromagiros, 993 F.2d at 420-21 (citing Sexton By and Through Sexton v. Bell Helmets, 926 F.2d 331, 337 (4th Cir. 1991) (applying Kentucky law)). Expert testimony on this issue may not simply be conclusory, but "requires a factual examination of what society demanded or expected from a product." Sexton, 926 F.2d at 337.

A. Pedal Configuration

Freeman offered the expert testimony of Smith Reed, a mechanical engineer, to demonstrate that both the pedal configuration and absence of an OPC were unreasonably dangerous design defects. Reed testified to no published government or industry standard violated by the pedal configuration.⁴ The court must therefore determine whether Reed's testimony was sufficient to establish violation of an applicable unpublished safety standard. Bartholomew, 224 Va. at 430, 297 S.E.2d at 679. Reed stated that, in preparation for his testimony, he reviewed extensive trade literature and notes pertaining to the design of the Case 1130 and of other tractors of varying sizes and configurations, the design of tractors generally, trade journals, accident statistics, industry and military specifications, and other assorted materials. Transcript for 10/25/95 at 18-24. Reed inspected the tractor that injured Freeman, and performed "tests" on it by manipulating various controls, operating the tractor while attempting to recreate the sudden forward movement described by Freeman, and placing his foot on the brake and SRC pedals to test his theory that both could be engaged simultaneously. Id. at 28-29. He stated that his opinion that the pedal configuration was a design defect was based on "sound engineering judgment," on "what the competition is doing," and on various standards that were either not proven or not relevant. Id. at 39-40. Reed's "sound engineering judgment" was not a basis for his opinion, but rather a mere restatement of that opinion. Reed characterized his "sound engineering judgment" as follows: "when one knows that it is possible to cause a machine to unexpectedly come on, spontaneously start moving, and when one has the ability to minimize or eliminate the problem by the design and when the design has not been eliminated ... the design should not be released for production." Id. at 39.

The foundation for Reed's opinion is somewhere between the extensive testing found sufficient in Bartholomew and the near-total absence of evidence rejected in Alevromagiros. The primary difference between Alevromagiros a...