Hall v. Ashland Oil Co.

• Decision Date: 15 January 1986
• Docket Number: Civ. No. H-81-600 (MJB).
• Citation: 625 F. Supp. 1515
• Parties: Rose Mary HALL, Administratrix of the Estate of Powell Oscar Hall, and Rose Mary Hall, Individually v. ASHLAND OIL CO. a/k/a Ashland Chemical Co. and XYZ Companies.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut

625 F. Supp. 1515

Rose Mary HALL, Administratrix of the Estate of Powell Oscar Hall, and Rose Mary Hall, Individually v. ASHLAND OIL CO. a/k/a Ashland Chemical Co. and XYZ Companies.

Civ. No. H-81-600 (MJB).

United States District Court, D. Connecticut.

January 15, 1986.

Matthew S. Shafner, Peter J. Bartinik, O'Brien, Shafner, Bartinik, Stuart & Kelly, Groton, Conn., for plaintiff.

John J. Bogdanski, Hadleigh H. Howd, H. Franklin Hostetler, III, Jill A. Hanau, Howd & Ludorf, Hartford, Conn., for defendant.

RULING ON MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

BLUMENFELD, Senior District Judge.

This product liability claim arises out of the exposure of plaintiff's decedent, Powell Oscar Hall, to benzene allegedly manufactured and sold by the defendant to the decedent's employer. The plaintiff, Rose Mary Hall, brought action as administratrix of her husband's estate and on her own behalf, seeking damages for his personal injury and death, punitive damages, and damages for loss of consortium. Her complaint is based upon theories of strict products liability, negligence, and breach of warranty for failure to test the product, warn of its dangers, or instruct as to its safe use. The defendant, Ashland Oil, Inc., is a Kentucky corporation which sold benzene to Pfizer, the decedent's employer.

Ashland has moved for summary judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(b), claiming that there are no issues of material fact in dispute and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Ashland's argument, in capsule form, is that a manufacturer is not required to warn the employees of its industrial customers of dangers associated with its products where the customer is a knowledgeable user. Both parties have submitted briefs supported by affidavits and deposition testimony. Oral argument was heard on the motion on October 29, 1985.

Summary Judgment

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(b) "a party against whom a claim ... is asserted ... may, at any time, move with or without supporting affidavits for a summary judgment in his favor as to all or any part thereof." Subsection (c) provides that the judgment sought shall be rendered "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R. Civ.P. 56(c).

The party opposing summary judgment must set forth some specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(e); Donnelly v. Guion, 467 F.2d 290, 293 (2d Cir.1972). The burden, however, is on the moving party to demonstrate the absence of any genuinely-disputed issues of material fact. Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 157, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1608, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970); Hayden Publishing Co., Inc. v. Cox Broadcasting Corp., 730 F.2d 64, 68 (2d Cir.1984). The facts are to be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655, 82 S.Ct. 993, 994, 8 L.Ed.2d 176 (1962); and any ambiguities or inferences to be drawn from the facts must be resolved in favor of the non-moving party. United States v. One Tinteretto Painting Entitled "The Holy Family with Saint Catherine and Honored Donor", 691 F.2d 603, 606 (2d Cir.1982).

On a motion for summary judgment, the court's role is to determine whether issues remain to be tried, and not to try issues of fact. Heyman v. Commerce and Industry Insurance Co., 524 F.2d 1317, 1320 (2d Cir.1975); American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Co. v. American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc., 388 F.2d 272, 279 (2d Cir.1967), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 1063, 92 S.Ct. 737, 30 L.Ed.2d 752 (1972). Summary judgment is a convenient device for disposing of a case efficiently when there are not significant issues of fact to be tried. American Mfrs. Mut. Ins. Co., 388 F.2d at 278. At the same time, it is a drastic measure that deprives the opposing party of the chance to present its case to a jury. Heyman, 524 F.2d at 1320; Donnelly v. Guion, 467 F.2d at 291. For this reason, a motion for summary judgment should be considered with prudence and should not be granted unless the moving party clearly meets its burden of showing the absence of any genuine issue of fact. See Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. at 153, 90 S.Ct. at 1606.

Applying these well-established principles to this motion, the court must interpret the facts presented in the affidavits and pleadings of the parties in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Ashland has the burden of demonstrating that no genuine issues of material fact remain to be tried and that, as a matter of law, there is no possibility that the plaintiff could prevail. Because plaintiff has raised substantial unresolved issues of material fact, as discussed below, Ashland has not met its burden and the motion for summary judgment will be denied.

Facts

Many elements of the scenario underlying this claim appear to be undisputed. From 1970 until 1980 the decedent was employed by Pfizer, Inc., a chemical and pharmaceuticals manufacturer. During most of that period Hall worked as a chemical operator in the Ascorbic section of Building 123 at Pfizer's Groton plant. Pfizer used benzene as a solvent in the manufacture of bulk pharmaceutical products. Although benzene was not used in the Ascorbic department where Hall worked, it was used in the Organics II department which was located in the same building.

Ashland Oil is a manufacturer and distributor of petrochemicals, including benzene, a substance found in the natural environment. From 1972 to 1977 Pfizer purchased benzene from Ashland. Ashland delivered the benzene in bulk liquid form to Pfizer in 4,000 gallon tank trailers. At the Groton plant, the benzene was piped from the trucks into storage tanks located at the side of Building 123.

Hall died of leukemia on October 1, 1980. His widow claims that his leukemia was caused by exposure at the Pfizer plant to benzene supplied by Ashland.

Discussion

Ashland's motion for summary judgment focuses on the question of whether it breached a duty to warn of the risks associated with its product. Ashland argues that there is no claim that the benzene, a natural substance, was improperly manufactured or contaminated, and that the only thing that could render it defective would be a breach of a duty to warn. This approach to the problem is supported by comment k to § 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which discusses "unavoidably unsafe products":

There are some products which, in the present state of human knowledge, are quite incapable of being made safe for their intended and ordinary use.... Such a product, properly prepared, and accompanied by proper directions and warning, is not defective, nor is it unreasonably dangerous. Emphasis in original.

See also Basko v. Sterling Drug, Inc., 416 F.2d 417 (2d Cir.1969) (applying Connecticut law).

From this point, Ashland goes on to claim that in the circumstances of this case it satisfied any duty to warn and is therefore entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Ashland's theory is based upon the "learned intermediary" and "knowledgeable user" exceptions to the duty to warn. The manufacturer argues that where "a bulk product is sold to a skilled industrial user which is familiar with the risks attendant thereto and which totally controls its use, the manufacturer's duty to warn is limited, as a matter of law, to the learned or informed intermediary, and not to an employee thereof." Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment at 10. In addition, the argument continues, the skilled industrial user is held to the standard of an expert concerning the products it uses in its manufacturing processes, and therefore is a knowledgeable user to whom no warning is necessary. The bottom line is that Ashland claims that it could satisfy its duty to warn in this case without actually furnishing any warning, and therefore that it could not have breached any such duty.

Ashland's contention involves the application of several legal arguments. Dissected into its component parts, it asks the court to hold as a matter of law that: (1) the only ground for holding Ashland liable is a failure to warn; (2) when a product is sold in bulk to an industrial user for use by its employees the supplier's duty to warn extends only to the employer as a learned intermediary and not to the users; (3) a manufacturer such as Pfizer can be held to the knowledge of an expert as to all of the risks associated with each of the components involved in its manufacturing processes; and (4) a supplier's duty to warn an industrial purchaser of risks to its employees is excused where the purchaser is held by law to know of the risks independently. If any one of these legal arguments is rejected, Ashland's theory falls apart. In this case, the applicability of each of these legal assumptions is open to serious doubt. The most troublesome are the learned intermediary and knowledgeable user doctrines, especially when combined in this way.

a. Learned intermediary

The learned intermediary theory developed in the area of prescription drugs, where courts have held that a manufacturer can fulfill its duty to warn by supplying an adequate warning to the medical profession concerning risks attendant upon use of a drug. Basko v. Sterling Drug, Inc., 416 F.2d 417 (2d Cir.1969) (applying Connecticut law); Davis v. Wyeth Laboratories, Inc., 399 F.2d 121 (9th Cir.1968) (Montana law); Goodson v. Searle Laboratories, 471 F.Supp. 546 (D.Conn.1978) (Connecticut law). These decisions reflect the unique circumstances that surround the dispensing of prescription drugs and which make a warning to the medical profession an appropriate and reliable means of fulfilling the duty to warn the ultimate users.

The selection of medication for a patient "is essentially a...