Frith v. Bic Corp.
| Decision Date | 15 January 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 2000-CT-01124-SCT.,2000-CT-01124-SCT. |
| Parties | Billy Wayne FRITH and Wanda Frith as Parents and Natural Guardians of Joshua Brent Frith, A Minor v. BIC CORPORATION. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Dana J. Swan, Clarksdale, attorney for appellants.
Jeremy Luke Birdsall, D. Collier Graham, Jr., Michael B. Wallace, Jackson, attorneys for appellee.
EN BANC.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI
¶ 1. Today's case is before us based on our prior grant of a writ of certiorari on the petition filed by the BIC Corporation as a result of the Court of Appeals' reversal of the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of BIC. Finding that the Court of Appeals erred, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and affirm the grant of summary judgment, and the final judgment consistent therewith, as entered by the Circuit Court of Scott County.
¶ 2. On December 19, 1994, Joshua Brent Frith (Joshua), who was ten years old at the time of the unfortunate incident giving rise to this action, was playing alone in his backyard in Morton, Mississippi. That day Eva Odom, Joshua's maternal grandmother who lived in the home with Joshua and his parents, was in charge of Joshua's care. Joshua found a disposable cigarette lighter in the drainage ditch behind his house. Not surprisingly, Joshua was curious and attempted to operate the lighter. Although Joshua's persistent flicking of the lighter produced no flame, it did produce sparks. Joshua continued to flick the lighter as he walked by a gasoline container located near the rear of his house. The resulting sparks produced an explosion which caused Joshua to receive severe burns. Although the lighter was never recovered, Joshua believed the lighter to be one commonly referred to as a "BIC lighter." In fact, Joshua would later identify an exemplar lighter, identified as a J-26 Model Child Guard lighter manufactured by the BIC Corporation (BIC), as being similar to the one he was operating on the day of the accident.
¶ 3. Because of this accident, Joshua's parents, Billy Wayne and Wanda Frith, filed suit in the Circuit Court of Scott County, seeking damages on negligence and products liability theories. The named defendants were BIC (the manufacturer of the cigarette lighter); Gott a/k/a Gott Corporation and Rubbermaid Specialty Products, Inc. (the entities believed to have manufactured the gasoline container); and, the Estate of Eva Odom. Mrs. Odom, who was looking after Joshua on the day of the accident, died prior to the commencement of the lawsuit. The defendants (save the Odom Estate) removed this case to federal court on the allegation that Eva Odom's estate had been fraudulently joined as a party defendant for the sole purpose of defeating diversity jurisdiction. In due course, the Friths filed a motion in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi to have the case remanded back to state court. Judge William H. Barbour, Jr. determined that while the Friths' claims against BIC were preempted by federal law, the federal court lacked removal jurisdiction to enforce federal preemption inasmuch as the Estate of Mrs. Odom (a necessary party) had failed to join in the petition for removal to federal court. Frith v. BIC Corp., Civ. Ac. No. 3:98CV280BN (S.D.Miss. 1998).
¶ 4. Upon remand to state court, BIC filed a motion for summary judgment, alleging inter alia that the Friths' claims, which were state-based common law claims, were preempted by federal law. The circuit court agreed and granted summary judgment in favor of BIC. Subsequent to the entry of the Memorandum Opinion and Order granting summary judgment, the trial court likewise entered its final judgment in favor of BIC. See Miss. R. Civ. P. 54(b). Aggrieved by the circuit court's adverse judgment, the Friths appealed to this Court, which assigned the case to the Court of Appeals for disposition. The trial court stayed any further proceedings against the remaining defendants until such time as the issues presented on this appeal had been resolved.
¶ 5. By the time this case reached the Court of Appeals, the Friths had abandoned their common law negligence claim and were pursuing only their strict liability claim under a products liability theory. The Court of Appeals, in a 7-3 decision, initially affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of BIC. However, the Court of Appeals subsequently granted the Friths' motion for rehearing, withdrew its original opinion, and substituted a new opinion in its stead. In its substituted opinion, the Court of Appeals, by a 6-3-1 vote, reversed the trial court's grant of summary judgment and remanded the case for a trial on the merits. Frith v. BIC Corp., 852 So.2d 592 (Miss.Ct.App. 2003). After the Court of Appeals denied BIC's motion for rehearing, this Court granted BIC's cert, petition to consider the federal preemption issue.
¶ 6. We are called upon today to determine whether the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of BIC was appropriate based on our civil procedure rules [Miss.R.Civ.P. 56] and the applicable case law. This Court applies a de novo standard of review on appeal from a grant of summary judgment by the trial court. Hudson v. Courtesy Motors, Inc., 794 So.2d 999, 1002 (Miss.2001); Jenkins v. Ohio. Cas. Ins. Co., 794 So.2d 228, 232 (Miss.2001); Russell v. Orr, 700 So.2d 619, 622 (Miss.1997); Richmond v. Benchmark Constr. Corp., 692 So.2d 60, 61 (Miss.1997); Northern Elec. Co. v. Phillips, 660 So.2d 1278, 1281 (Miss.1995). The proponent of a summary judgment motion bears the burden of showing that there are no genuine issues of material fact such that he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Collier v. Trustmark Nat'l Bank, 678 So.2d 693, 696 (Miss.1996). The motion may not be defeated merely by responding with general allegations, but must set forth specific facts showing that issues exist which necessitate a trial. Drummond v. Buckley, 627 So.2d 264, 267 (Miss.1993). After viewing evidentiary matters in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party, this Court will only reverse the decision of the trial court if triable issues of fact exist. Travis v. Stewart, 680 So.2d 214, 216 (Miss.1996). See also Brown v. Credit Ctr., Inc., 444 So.2d 358, 361-65 (Miss. 1983),
for a thorough discussion of our summary judgment procedure.
¶ 7. In order to resolve the issue of the appropriateness of the Court of Appeals' reversal of the trial court's grant of summary judgment, we must consider whether federal preemption precludes the Friths' state law claims. Of the various claims initially viable before the trial court, the crucial claim asserted against BIC is that of a design defect in a disposable lighter resulting in an allegedly insufficient child resistant product which enabled a ten-year-old boy to use the lighter in such a way as to produce sparks which ignited fumes from a nearby gasoline container.
A.The Consumer Product Safety Commission.
¶ 8. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a federal commission, previously underwent a comprehensive process to establish uniform child resistance standards for disposable lighters which would most effectively and feasibly achieve the federal safety objectives of reducing fire-related injuries and deaths involving children. After considering many alternatives, the CPSC made an obviously knowing and conscious regulatory decision intended to encourage public acceptance and use of child resistance lighters by adult consumers. The CPSC determined that it was certainly not incomprehensible that it could create safety enhanced standards so strict that the lighters would prove too difficult to use by adult consumers who might then choose less safe alternatives to produce fire (i.e., matches).
B. The Consumer Product Safety Act.
¶ 9. The Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), is codified as Title 15, United States Code, §§ 2051-2083. The CPSA contains a preemption clause:
Whenever a consumer product safety standard under this chapter is in effect and applies to a risk of injury associated with a consumer product, no State or political subdivision of a State shall have any authority either to establish or to continue in effect any provision of a safety standard or regulation which prescribes any requirements as to the performance, composition, contents, design, finish, construction, packaging, or labeling of such product which are designed to deal with the same risk of injury associated with such consumer product, unless such requirements are identical to the requirements of the Federal standard.
15 U.S.C. § 2075(a) (1997).
C. The CPSC Regulations.
¶ 10. In order to implement the CPSA, the CPSC enacted certain regulations. 16 C.F.R. §§ 1210.1-1210.20. 16 C.F.R. § 1210.3 states in pertinent part:
¶ 11. Subsequent to removal to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Judge Barbour, en route to remanding the case to state court because all defendants did not join in the notice of removal, found that the Friths'"cause of action for design defect of the cigarette lighter necessarily `arises under' federal law and presents a federal...
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