Gaudio v. Ford Motor Co.

• Citation: 2009 PA Super 102,976 A.2d 524
• Decision Date: 01 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. 1021 EDA 2007.,1021 EDA 2007.
• Parties: Tara GAUDIO, Individually and as The Administratrix of the Estate of Andrew M. Gaudio, as well as in Her Capacity as Parent to Patricia Gaudio, Catherine Gaudio, Rocco J. Gaudio, Brooklyn Gaudio, Minors, Appellant v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Autoliv, Gibbons Ford, Masthope Rapids Property Owners Council, Appellees.
• Court: Superior Court of Pennsylvania

976 A.2d 524

2009 PA Super 102

Tara GAUDIO, Individually and as The Administratrix of the Estate of Andrew M. Gaudio, as well as in Her Capacity as Parent to Patricia Gaudio, Catherine Gaudio, Rocco J. Gaudio, Brooklyn Gaudio, Minors, Appellant v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Autoliv, Gibbons Ford, Masthope Rapids Property Owners Council, Appellees.

No. 1021 EDA 2007.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued April 30, 2008.

Filed June 1, 2009.

Reargument Denied August 6, 2009.

Larry E. Coben, Scottsdale, AZ, for appellant.

John E. Thomas, Chicago, IL and Kristen E. Dennison, Wayne, for Ford and Gibbons, appellees.

Frank P. Murphy, Norristown, for Pa. Assoc. for Justice, Amicus Curiae.

BEFORE: DONOHUE, J., McEWEN, P.J.E. and FITZGERALD^*, J.

OPINION BY DONOHUE, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant Tara Gaudio ("Gaudio"), both individually and as the administratrix of the estate of Andrew M. Gaudio (the "Deceased"), appeals from the trial court's order dated April 4, 2007 entering judgment in favor of Appellee Ford Motor Company ("Ford") after a jury trial that resulted in a verdict in Ford's favor. Gaudio appeals various evidentiary rulings made by the trial court prior to and during trial, and further contends that the trial court erred in certain of its instructions to the jury. For the reasons set forth herein, we reverse and remand for a new trial.

¶ 2 The basic factual and procedural background of this case is not in dispute. At approximately 4:15 a.m. on June 20, 2001, the Deceased was driving a 1996 Ford F-150 pickup truck in his private community association in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania on his way to work. As he approached a "T" intersection where the stop sign had been knocked down, he applied his brakes but skidded through the intersection into a ditch, where he hit a dirt embankment. When emergency personnel arrived on the scene, the Deceased was found dead in the passenger seat. The truck's air bag had deployed. The Deceased was not wearing a seat belt. Expert witnesses for Gaudio and Ford agreed that the Deceased had been traveling between 30-34 miles per hour before applying his brakes. Gaudio's experts estimated that he was traveling at a barrier equivalent speed of 8.6 mph when he hit the embankment, while Ford's experts estimated the speed at the time of impact to be 14 mph. An investigative report prepared by the National Highway Transportation Safety Association ("NHTSA"), entitled the "Veridian Report", estimated his speed at 11.6 miles per hour.

¶ 3 On November 13, 2002, Gaudio filed this civil action against, inter alia, Ford,¹ asserting claims sounding in negligence and strict liability. Prior to trial, the trial court issued a series of evidentiary rulings in response to motions in limine filed by the parties. Rulings on these motions relevant to this appeal included denials of Gaudio's motions to exclude evidence and argument related to the Deceased's non-use of a seat belt, expert testimony regarding the Deceased's pre-impact conduct, and various statistical and risk/benefit evidence.

¶ 4 The case proceeded to trial only on Gaudio's strict liability claims. Gaudio presented evidence at trial to attempt to prove that the design of the F-150's air bag system was defective because (1) the placement and quantity of the timing sensors caused the driver's side air bag to deploy at a low collision speed where it should not have deployed at all, or (2) that it deployed too late, causing the Deceased's body to be too close to the steering wheel at the time of deployment. Gaudio argued that if the air bag had not deployed at all, or had deployed in a timely fashion, the Deceased would have suffered only minor injuries, if any.

¶ 5 Ford argued that its air bag system was not defective and that the air bag deployed precisely as designed. Through expert witnesses, Ford contended that the Deceased's heavy breaking at the intersection, his failure to use a seat belt, and perhaps other pre-impact conduct (e.g., reaching for something on the truck's floor) caused him to be out of position and too close to the steering wheel at the time of air bag deployment. Ford also argued that if the air bag had not deployed, Gaudio would have suffered significant injuries in the crash.

¶ 6 The jury returned a verdict in favor of Ford, indicating on the verdict form that the F-150's air bag crash sensor system was not defective. Based upon this finding, the jury did not reach the issues of causation or damages. The trial court denied Gaudio's post-trial motions and entered judgment in favor of Ford.

¶ 7 This timely appeal followed, in which Gaudio contests a number of the trial court's evidentiary rulings and jury instructions. Gaudio challenges the trial court's evidentiary rulings on the Deceased's non-use of a seat belt, Ford's introduction of evidence relating to the Deceased's pre-impact behavior, the F-150's compliance with government safety standards, various generalized statistics, and risk/benefit evidence. Gaudio raises four objections to the trial court's charge to the jury, contending that the charge failed to instruct the jury regarding the definition of crashworthiness and the irrelevance of Ford's due care, the Deceased's pre-impact behavior, and compliance with industry and government standards. Appellants' Brief at 9.

¶ 8 Before addressing these issues, we will first respond to Ford's argument that the trial court erred in denying its motions for a compulsory nonsuit and directed verdict on Gaudio's strict liability-crashworthiness claims, which Ford contends should have been granted as a result of our Supreme Court's decision in Pennsylvania Dep't of General Services v. United States Mineral Products Co., 587 Pa. 236, 898 A.2d 590 (2006) ("General Services I"). To this end, we will briefly review the history of products liability law and the crashworthiness doctrine in this Commonwealth. Our Supreme Court first adopted section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts in Webb v. Zern, 422 Pa. 424, 220 A.2d 853 (1966). To state a section 402A products liability claim in Pennsylvania, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant sold a product "in a defective condition," that the defect existed when the product left the defendant's hands, and that the defect caused the plaintiff's injuries. See, e.g., Hadar v. AVCO Corp., 886 A.2d 225, 228 (Pa.Super.2005). A product is "in a defective condition" when it lacks "any element necessary to make it safe for its intended use or possessing any element that renders it unsafe for the intended use." Azzarello v. Black Bros. Co., Inc., 480 Pa. 547, 559, 391 A.2d 1020, 1027 (1978). Because the key inquiry in all products liability cases is whether or not there is a defect, it is the product, and not the defendant's conduct, that is on trial. See, e.g., Hutchinson v. Penske Truck Leasing Co., 876 A.2d 978, 983 (Pa.Super.2005), affirmed, 592 Pa. 38, 922 A.2d 890 (2007).

¶ 9 The crashworthiness doctrine is a subset of strict products liability law that most typically arises in the context of vehicular accidents. See, e.g., Colville v. Crown Equip. Corp., 809 A.2d 916, 922 (Pa.Super.2002), appeal denied, 574 Pa. 742, 829 A.2d 310 (2003). First explicitly recognized as a specific subset of product liability law by this Court in Kupetz v. Deere & Co., Inc., 435 Pa.Super. 16, 644 A.2d 1213 (1994), the term "crashworthiness" means "the protection that a motor vehicle affords its passenger against personal injury or death as a result of a motor vehicle accident." Id. at 1218. The doctrine extends the liability of manufacturers and sellers to "situations in which the defect did not cause the accident or initial impact, but rather increased the severity of the injury over that which would have occurred absent the design defect." Id. To avoid liability, a manufacturer must design and manufacture the product so that it is "reasonably crashworthy," or, stated another way, the manufacturer must include accidents as intended uses of its product and design accordingly. Id.

¶ 10 A crashworthiness claim requires proof of three elements. First, the plaintiff must prove that the design of the vehicle was defective, and that at the time of design an alternative, safer, and practicable design existed that could have been incorporated instead. Id. Second, the plaintiff must identify those injuries he or she would have received if the alternative design had instead been used. Id. Third, the plaintiff must demonstrate what injuries were attributable to the defective design. Id.

¶ 11 In recognizing the crashworthiness doctrine in Kupetz, this Court relied upon our Supreme Court's prior decision in McCown v. International Harvester Co., 463 Pa. 13, 342 A.2d 381 (1975), which adopted the principle tenet of the crashworthiness doctrine, i.e., manufacturers are strictly liable for defects that do not cause the accident but nevertheless cause an increase in the severity of injuries that would have occurred without the defect. In McCown, the plaintiff's truck hit a guardrail as he was attempting to make a right turn. The collision caused the steering wheel to spin rapidly to the left, and when this occurred the spokes of the steering wheel struck plaintiff's right arm, resulting in fractures to his wrist and forearm. The manufacturer admitted that the steering wheel mechanism was defective, but claimed that the defect was not the cause of the accident. Our Supreme Court rejected the manufacturer's contributory negligence defense (i.e., that the plaintiff's careless driving caused the accident) and affirmed the judgment in plaintiff's favor. Id. at 17, 342 A.2d at 382. In so doing, the Court recognized that for purposes of a products liability claim, the defect does not have to be the cause of the accident resulting in the plaintiff's injuries, and instead acknowledged that a strict liability claim may allow recovery for injuries resulting after the collision occurred. Id.

¶ 12 Against this background,...