Grimes v. Mazda North American Operations

• Decision Date: 13 January 2004
• Docket Number: No. 01-6305.,01-6305.
• Parties: Sharon Ranell GRIMES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MAZDA NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS; Ford Motor Company, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

355 F.3d 566

Sharon Ranell GRIMES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MAZDA NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS; Ford Motor Company, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 01-6305.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued September 11, 2003.

Decided and Filed January 13, 2004.

Rehearing En Banc Denied March 15, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Thomas B. Russell, J.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Thomas E. Carroll (briefed), Lance W. Turner (argued and briefed), Carroll Law Offices, Monticello, Kentucky, for Appellant.

Charles E. English, Jr. (argued and briefed), David W. Anderson (briefed), English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, Bowling Green, Kentucky, for Appellees.

Before MERRITT, GILMAN, and SUTTON, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

MERRITT, Circuit Judge.

This products liability action presents an appeal from a jury verdict in favor of defendants Mazda and Ford and against plaintiff Sharon Grimes after a rollover truck accident in Kentucky left Grimes a quadriplegic.¹ She alleges that two defects in the truck caused her injuries: (1) the truck's design gave it a high propensity to rollover under reasonably foreseeable circumstances, and (2) the seat belt unlatched during the accident. On appeal, Grimes contends that the district court did not have proper jurisdiction over the claims, made erroneous evidentiary rulings and gave erroneous jury instructions on apportionment of damages. Specifically, she raises the following issues: (1) the district court should have remanded the case to the state court because it no longer had subject-matter jurisdiction over the case when the Commonwealth of Kentucky was added as a party because (a) the court's diversity jurisdiction was destroyed and (b) the Commonwealth is immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment; (2) the trial court erred in instructing the jury on apportionment of fault (a) against the Commonwealth of Kentucky because the Commonwealth is immune from liability and (b) against the driver of the truck because plaintiff's claim was an "enhanced injury" claim; and (3) the trial court erred in admitting evidence concerning (a) drug and alcohol use on the night of the accident by both plaintiff and the truck's driver and (b) other accidents involving similar vehicles for the purpose of establishing notice to defendants of a potential defect in the seat belt, but not for the purpose of establishing a design defect in the seat belt.

For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I. FACTS

Defendant Ford Motor Company is the parent corporation of defendant Mazda North American Operations. On July 21, 1995, plaintiff Sharon Grimes, 24 years old, was a passenger in a 1994 Mazda B2300 pickup truck. The truck was manufactured by Ford and distributed by Mazda.² It was owned by Norma Bergeron but was being driven that night by her daughter, Lisa Gutierrez. Grimes, Gutierrez, and another friend, April Shae Dyer, had been riding around in the truck before the accident. Grimes was drinking beer, and there is also evidence that she and Gutierrez may have used cocaine and smoked marijuana before the accident as well. Plaintiff and Gutierrez dropped off Dyer around midnight, and plaintiff then purchased more beer.

The accident occurred as Gutierrez and plaintiff were traveling on Highway 704 in Adair County, Kentucky, a rural area. Gutierrez had not driven on the road before that night. Gutierrez was driving about 50-55 mph, within the speed limit, when she came upon a curve in the road. The truck spun; and, as she tried to correct for the spin, she lost control of the truck. Gutierrez testified that her wheels may have gone off the pavement. The truck tipped over and slid on the passenger side, landing upside down. Gutierrez was suspended upside down in the truck by her seat belt, but she was unhurt. Grimes was upside down on the passenger side of the truck, her head against the roof and her legs against the windshield. As a result of the accident, she is a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic.

A team of two emergency medical technicians responded to the accident. Both testified that plaintiff was conscious and able to talk to them. The two responding technicians gave conflicting testimony at trial as to whether plaintiff was wearing her seat belt when they arrived. One of the responding emergency medical technicians testified that when he arrived at the accident scene, plaintiff, on the passenger side of the now-upside down truck, had her right arm entangled in the shoulder strap of a seat belt. The other responding technician testified that plaintiff was not entangled in her seatbelt, and he further testified that plaintiff told him that she had not been wearing her seatbelt. She also told him that she had consumed alcohol, cocaine and marijuana before the accident. Plaintiff also told the emergency room nurse that first treated her that she had not been wearing her seat belt and that she had consumed drugs and alcohol before the accident. Another nurse present in the emergency room when plaintiff arrived confirmed that plaintiff said she had not been wearing her seatbelt. In contrast to her statements the night of the accident, plaintiff testified at trial that she always wore her seat belt and was wearing it the night of the accident.

Also giving differing accounts of the situation at different times was the driver, Lisa Gutierrez. At the time of the accident, Gutierrez told the responding state trooper that both she and plaintiff had been wearing their seat belts at the time of the accident. However, Gutierrez testified at trial that plaintiff was not entangled in her seat belt after the accident. In addition, the responding officer testified that he tested Gutierrez and she was not intoxicated at the time of the accident. Her blood alcohol level was consistent with her testimony that she had consumed one or two beers.

At trial, both sides presented expert testimony about the rollover propensities of the Ford Ranger/Mazda pickup truck. Defendants' expert testified that the likely cause of the rollover was that the left wheels of the truck left the roadway. The expert concluded that under the same conditions (curve in the road and driving at about 55 mph), many cars and light trucks would experience a rollover if the driverside wheels left the road. Another expert for Ford/Mazda testified that this particular truck does not experience rollovers anymore frequently than other similar vehicles.

Plaintiff's expert testified that there was no evidence that the truck's tires had left the road, and it was his opinion that the truck was on the road when it flipped over. Another expert for the plaintiff testified that the type of suspension in this model of truck enhances the propensity to rollover because it raises the center of gravity. He testified that design changes to the wheel rims, use of smaller tires and switching to different shock absorbers would make the vehicle much less likely to rollover under dry, flat pavement conditions.

Both sides also presented expert testimony about whether the seat belt was defective, thereby causing it to unlatch during the rollover. Defendants presented two experts, both of whom testified that they did not find any marks on the passenger-side seat belt (plaintiff was in the front passenger seat) that would likely have been present if plaintiff had been wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident. One of defendant's experts testified that the condition of the passenger side seat belt indicates that it was in the "stowed" position at the time of the accident. The seat belt worn by the driver, Gutierrez, showed the expected signs of having been in use during the accident. Based on their findings, Ford/Mazda's experts concluded that plaintiff was not wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident.

Conversely, plaintiff presented expert testimony on "inertial unlatching," where the button that releases the belt is subjected to forces during the accident that cause the button to move to the position it would be in if pressed to unlatch by the user. One of plaintiff's experts, an engineer, testified that the bracket that anchored the seat belt to the frame of the truck was bent as if the seat belt had been in use during the accident. His opinion was that plaintiff had been wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident. Plaintiff's other seat belt expert testified that the wear on the seat belt in question was consistent with the belt having been in use for at least part of the rollover accident and his opinion was that the belt came unlatched during the rollover. Finally, a forensic pathologist testified that had plaintiff's seat belt been on and stayed on during the accident and if the truck had not rolled over, she would not have suffered such a serious injury.

The action was originally filed on May 28, 1996, in Adair (KY) Circuit Court against Lisa Gutierrez, the driver, Gutierrez's mother, Norma Bergeron, who owned the truck at the time of the accident, Larry Bergeron, who is Gutierrez's father, and Meridian Mutual Insurance Company. Larry Bergeron was dismissed shortly thereafter. An amended complaint was filed adding Mazda and Ford as defendants six weeks later. Plaintiff alleged theories of negligence, breach of warranty and strict liability. Defendants removed the case to the Western District of Kentucky based on diversity of citizenship, 28 U.S.C. § 1332. After learning that plaintiff had filed an action against the Commonwealth in the Kentucky Board of Claims alleging that her injuries were caused by the Commonwealth's negligence in maintaining, designing and constructing its roads and for failing to warn of a known dangerous curve, defendants filed a third-party complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 14(a) against the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Department of Highways, seeking apportionment of fault and contribution under Kentucky law....