Halsey v. A.B. Chance Co.
Decision Date | 14 March 1997 |
Citation | 695 So.2d 607 |
Parties | Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 14,896 Antoinette V. HALSEY, etc. v. A.B. CHANCE COMPANY. 1950235. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied May 16, 1997.
Tom Dutton and Chris T. Hellums of Pittman, Hooks, Marsh, Dutton & Hollis, P.C., Birmingham, for appellant.
Samuel H. Franklin, Lee M. Hollis, and Madeline H. Haikala of Lightfoot, Franklin & White, L.L.C., Birmingham, for appellee.
Antoinette V. Halsey, as administratrix of the estate of her husband, Roderick M. Halsey, appeals from a summary judgment for the defendant A.B. Chance Company in this wrongful death action. Mrs. Halsey claims that Chance negligently or wantonly designed, manufactured, and sold the epoxiglas platform from which her husband, an Alabama Power Company lineman, fell. He died from injuries received in the fall. Mrs. Halsey also alleges in her complaint that Chance negligently or wantonly failed to warn her husband regarding the potential dangers of using a "keeper pin" to splice a chain. Mrs. Halsey seeks to impose on Chance liability under the Alabama Extended Manufacturer's Liability Doctrine (AEMLD). The trial court entered a summary judgment for Chance on all counts. We affirm the summary judgment as to the wantonness claims, but as to all other claims we reverse the summary judgment and remand.
The evidence before the trial court when it entered the summary judgment, considered in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, the nonmoving party, indicates that the platform upon which Mr. Halsey was working gave way after Mr. Halsey, attempting to follow the instructions of his foreman, spliced the chain on the platform in order to extend the chain around a utility pole. The chain was used to secure the platform to the pole at a point over 50 feet above the ground. Mr. Halsey spliced the chain by inserting a padlock through the keeper pin, which was located at the end of the chain. The keeper pin later gave way or opened up while Mr. Halsey was working on the outer end of the platform, causing the platform and Mr. Halsey to fall. 1
First, Mrs. Halsey claims that Chance is liable to her under the AEMLD. We have said:
Yamaha Motor Co. v. Thornton, 579 So.2d 619, 621 (Ala.1991) (quoting Casrell v. Altec Indus., Inc., 335 So.2d 128, 132-33 (Ala.1976))....
Williamson v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 626 So.2d 1261, 1263-64 (Ala.1993) (emphasis omitted). We have also said:
Johnson, 555 So.2d at 91 ); Bullen v. Roto Finishing Systems, 435 So.2d 1256 (Ala.1983); Brown v. Terry, 375 So.2d 457 (Ala.1979) . A manufacturer or seller remains liable if the alteration or modification did not in fact cause the injury,
Sears, Roebuck and Co. v. Harris, 630 So.2d 1018, 1027 (Ala.1993), cert. denied,511 U.S. 1128, 114 S.Ct. 2135, 128 L.Ed.2d 865 (1994) (emphasis added). The question for the trial court, therefore, was whether a jury could find it foreseeable to Chance that someone would utilize the keeper pin as a load-bearing link when attempting to extend a chain. In entering the summary judgment, the trial court implicitly held that, as a matter of law, it was not foreseeable that someone would use the keeper pin as Mr. Halsey apparently did. We disagree.
Chance contended that Mr. Halsey misused the keeper pin and that it was not foreseeable to Chance that the keeper pin would be used in such a fashion. In opposition to the motion for summary judgment, however, the plaintiff offered the deposition testimony of an expert witness, Dr. Edward Karnes:
C.R. at 235-36. Dr. Karnes further testified:
C.R. 245-47. The plaintiff claims that this testimony constitutes substantial evidence requiring the trial court to submit to the jury her claim that Chance was liable under the AEMLD. We agree. In Sears, Roebuck, supra, we stated:
" ' ' .
630 So.2d 1018, 1028 (Ala.1993) (emphasis added). The expert testimony offered in opposition to the summary judgment motion constitutes substantial evidence that the misuse of the keeper pin, in this case, was foreseeable. Therefore, the plaintiff's AEMLD claim should have been submitted to the jury.
Mrs. Halsey also claims that Chance negligently or wantonly failed to warn Mr. Halsey of the dangers of using the keeper pin as a load-bearing device. Chance, in support of its motion for summary judgment, claimed that it manufactured extension chains for use under the very circumstances of this case and that Mr. Halsey should have used one of those chains when he discovered that the platform chain was too short. Instead of using such a chain, however, Mr. Halsey used a padlock to extend the platform chain and hooked that padlock through the keeper pin instead of the last link of the chain. Chance contends that the deposition testimony of several Alabama Power Company linemen offered in support of the motion for summary judgment indicated that the use of a padlock was not accepted practice.
In opposition thereto, Mrs. Halsey points to the report based on Alabama Power Company's investigation of Mr. Halsey's accident, which contains the following statements:
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