Great Dane Trailers v. Estate of Wells

• Decision Date: 14 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-0022,00-0022
• Citation: 52 S.W.3d 737
• Parties: (Tex. 2001) Great Dane Trailers, Inc., Petitioner v. Estate of Garland Fredderick Wells, deceased, Sametrius Wells, individually and as next friend of D. W., a minor child, and as administratrix of The Estate of Garland Fredderick Wells, Respondent
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 737

52 S.W.3d 737 (Tex. 2001)

Great Dane Trailers, Inc., Petitioner v. Estate of Garland Fredderick Wells, deceased, Sametrius Wells, individually and as next friend of D. W., a minor child, and as administratrix of The Estate of Garland Fredderick Wells, Respondent

No. 00-0022

Supreme Court of Texas.

Argued January 10, 2001.

Decided June 14, 2001.

On Petition for Review from the Court of Appeals for the Fourteenth District of Texas

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Justice Baker delivered the opinion of the Court.

The issue in the case is whether the plaintiffs' state common-law tort claims are impliedly preempted because they conflict with the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108. Without specifying the ground, the trial court granted the defendant's summary-judgment motion, which alleged both express and implied preemption. The court of appeals, relying on this Court's opinion in Hyundai Motor Co. v. Alvarado, 974 S.W.2d 1 (Tex. 1998), determined that the plaintiffs' tort claims were neither expressly nor impliedly preempted. 5 S.W.3d 860, 865-68. The court of appeals reversed and remanded the cause to the trial court for further proceedings. 5 S.W.3d at 868. We agree with the court of appeals that the plaintiffs' claims are neither expressly nor impliedly preempted. Accordingly, we affirm the court of appeals' judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

In October 1990, Garland Fredderick Wells was killed in a nighttime automobile accident. An eighteen-wheel tractor-trailer rig traveling immediately in front of him jackknifed and collided with an on-coming van. Wells' car struck the trailer's side. Wells' wife, Sametrius Wells, and his child were traveling with him and were injured in the accident.

Great Dane Trailers manufactured the platform trailer in 1986. At that time, Standard 108 required a three-light, three-reflector configuration on each side of the trailer. Great Dane equipped its trailers with these required lights and reflectors. Specifically, each side of the trailer had one red reflex reflector and red side-marker light near the rear, one amber reflex reflector and amber side-marker light near the front, and one amber reflex reflector and amber side-marker light near the middle.

Semetrius Wells, on her behalf, as her son's next friend, and as adminstratrix of her husband's estate, sued several defendants including Great Dane. They sought personal-injury damages as well as wrongful-death and survival damages based on negligence and products-liability theories. Initially, the Wellses alleged that Great Dane's trailer was defectively manufactured, designed, or marketed because it lacked a lateral guard, allowing Wells' car to penetrate under the trailer. After all Great Dane's co-defendants settled with the Wellses, the Wellses amended their petition and deleted the original allegations about the lateral guard's absence. Instead, they pleaded that Great Dane's trailer was defectively manufactured, designed, or marketed because it was not equipped with "reasonable or necessary conspicuity devices." In discovery responses, the Wellses claimed that the Great Dane trailer was unreasonably dangerous "because of an insufficiency of reflected [sic] material, lighting and other safety material which would have served to alert drivers . . . ." In sum, the Wellses alleged that Great Dane had a duty to add additional lights or reflectors to its trailer to make it more conspicuous at night.

Great Dane moved for summary judgment, asserting that the Safety Act and Standard 108 expressly and impliedly preempted the Wellses' common-law conspicuity claims. Great Dane's summary-judgment evidence showed that its trailer fully complied with Standard 108's requirements when Great Dane manufactured it and when it left Great Dane's possession. In response, the Wellses conceded that Great Dane's trailer fully complied with Standard 108. But they nevertheless contended that Great Dane should have increased the trailer's conspicuity; that is, Great Dane's trailer should have had additional lights or reflectors.

The trial court granted Great Dane's summary-judgment motion and dismissed the Wellses' claims. While the Wellses' appeal was pending in the court of appeals, this Court decided Alvarado. Alvarado, 974 S.W.2d at 13 (holding that the Safety Act did not expressly or impliedly preempt a tort claim based on the manufacturer's failure to install lap belts). Relying on Alvarado, the court of appeals held that the Wellses' claims were neither expressly nor impliedly preempted. 5 S.W.3d at 865-68. The court of appeals recognized that the Safety Act had not pervasively regulated the entire field of vehicle safety. 5 S.W.3d at 866. And it determined that it was not impossible for Great Dane to comply with federal law, and, at the same time, to respond in damages for breaching alleged common-law duties. 5 S.W.3d at 866. Finally, the court of appeals held that the Wellses' claims were not an obstacle to executing and adhering to congressional purposes and objectives. 5 S.W.3d at 867-68.

In February 2000, Great Dane petitioned this Court to review the court of appeals' judgment. Great Dane presented two questions:

1. Should this Court correct and reverse its opinion in Alvarado to acknowledge what countless other courts have concluded: the Safety Act expressly and impliedly preempts common-law safety standards, not identical to those specified by the Safety Act?

2. Even if this Court is unwilling to correct and reverse its opinion in Alvarado, did the court of appeals err when it relied on Alvarado to conclude, without discussion, that Standard 108, a safety standard neither analyzed nor mentioned in Alvarado, did not impliedly preempt respondent's common-law claims?

In May 2000, while this appeal was pending, the United States Supreme Court decided Geier v. American Honda Motor Co., 529 U.S. 861 (2000). In Geier, the plaintiffs claimed that a passenger-car manufacturer was liable because it did not equip its 1987 vehicles with airbags. At the time, Standard 208 required car manufacturers to equip some, but not all, 1987 vehicles with passive restraints. The Supreme Court construed the Safety Act's preemption clause and saving clause together, unanimously concluding that the Safety Act does not expressly preempt "nonidentical state standards established in tort actions covering the same aspect of performance as an applicable federal standard." Geier, 529 U.S. at 868; see also Geier, 529 U.S. at 898 (Stevens, J., dissenting).

But the Supreme Court also held that Standard 208 impliedly preempted the Geier plaintiffs' claims because those common-law claims conflicted with Standard 208. The Court observed that preemption based on conflict is different from an agency's express statement about preemptive intent because conflict preemption turns on identifying an actual conflict and not on an express statement. Geier, 529 U.S. at 884; see also English v. General Elec. Co., 496 U.S. 72, 78-79 (1990). Additionally, the Court noted that while preemption fundamentally is a question of congressional intent, courts traditionally distinguish between express and implied preemptive intent and treat conflict preemption as implied preemption. Geier, 529 U.S. at 884; see also Freightliner Corp. v. Myrick, 514 U.S. 280, 287 (1995); English, 496 U.S. at 78-79.

After reviewing Standard 208's history, the Geier Court concluded that Standard 208 reflects the Secretary's policy that safety would be best promoted if manufacturers installed alternative passive-restraint systems in their cars rather than one particular system in every car. Geier, 529 U.S. at 881. On the other hand, the Court noted, the Geier plaintiffs' common-law claims were based on the presumption that all cars had to have air bags even if they had some other passive-restraint device. Geier, 529 U.S. at 881. Thus, the common-law claims presented an obstacle to manufacturers using the variety and mix of passive-restraint devices that Standard 208 sought to promote and an obstacle to the gradual passive restraint phase-in that Standard 208 deliberately imposed. Geier, 529 U.S. at 881. Accordingly, the Court held that the Safety Act and Standard 208 impliedly preempted the Geier plaintiffs' common-law claims because they "stood 'as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of' the important means-related federal objectives." Geier, 529 U.S. at 881 (citing Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52, 67 (1941)).

Following Geier, this Court requested full briefing from the parties. Great Dane conceded that Geier precludes our holding that the Safety Act and Standard 108 expressly preempt nonidentical state common-law standards established in tort actions covering the same performance aspect as an applicable federal standard. Thus, on the merits, Great Dane reframed the issue as:

Are the Wellses' state common-law tort claims impliedly preempted because they conflict with the Safety Act and Standard 108?

We granted Great Dane's petition to apply Geier's implied-preemption analysis to this issue.

II. APPLICABLE LAW

A. Statutory Overview

In 1966, Congress enacted the Safety Act, implemented under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's authority. The Safety Act's explicit purpose is "to reduce traffic accidents and deaths and injuries to persons resulting from traffic accidents." 15 U.S.C. § 1381 (recodified at 49 U.S.C. § 30101).¹ To accomplish this purpose, Congress empowered the Secretary of Transportation to adopt motor vehicle safety standards. 15 U.S.C. § 1392(a) (recodified at 49 U.S.C. § 30111(a)). These standards must be "reasonable, practicable and appropriate." See 15 U.S.C. § 1392(f)(3) (recodified at 49 U.S.C. § 30111(b)(3)). Additionally, the standards must meet the need for motor vehicle safety and be stated in objective terms. See 15 U.S.C. § 1392(a) (recodified at 49 U.S.C. § 30111(a)). The standards...