Harsh v. Petroll
| Decision Date | 10 December 2003 |
| Citation | 840 A.2d 404 |
| Parties | Eugene S. HARSH, Lois E. Harsh, Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Co-Administrators for the Estate of Douglas Lee Harsh, deceased; Carol A. Zwoyer, Charles J. Zwoyer, Jr., Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Co-Administrators for the Estate of Connie J. Harsh, deceased; and Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Administratrix for the Estate of Tyler D. Harsh, deceased, v. Frederick W. PETROLL and HAC Farm Lines Agricultural Cooperative Association and Cyned (a/k/a Sined) Transport Corporation and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and General Motors Corporation and Chevrolet Motor Division, General Motors Corporation and Jim McKay Chevrolet, Inc. Appeal of General Motors Corporation. Eugene S. Harsh, Lois E. Harsh, Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Co-Administrators for the Estate of Douglas Lee Harsh, deceased; Carol A. Zwoyer, Charles J. Zwoyer, Jr., Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Co-Administrators for the Estate of Connie J. Harsh, deceased; and Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Administratrix for the Estate of Tyler D. Harsh, deceased, v. Frederick W. Petroll and HAC Farm Lines Agricultural Cooperative Association and CYNED (A/K/A SINED) Transport Corporation and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and General Motors Corporation and Chevrolet Motor Division, General Motors Corporation and Jim McKay Chevrolet, Inc. Appeal of General Motors Corporation. Eugene S. Harsh, Lois E. Harsh, Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Co-Administrators for the Estate of Douglas Lee Harsh, deceased; Carol A. Zwoyer, Charles J. Zwoyer, Jr., Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Co-Administrators for the Estate of Connie J. Harsh, deceased; and Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Administratrix for the Estate of Tyler D. Harsh, deceased, v. Frederick W. Petroll and HAC Farm Lines Agricultural Cooperative Association and CYNED (a/k/a SINED) Transport Corporation and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and General Motors Corporation and Chevrolet Motor Division, General Motors Corporation, and Jim McKay Chevrolet, Inc. Appeal of Frederick W. Petroll and HAC Farm Lines Agricultural Cooperative Association and Cyned Transport Corporation. Eugene S. Harsh, Lois E. Harsh, Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Co-Administrators for the Estate of Douglas Lee Harsh, deceased; Carol A. Zwoyer, Charles J. Zwoyer, Jr., Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Co-Administrators for the Estate of Connie J. Harsh, deceased; and Cheryl L. Zwoyer, Administratrix for the Estate of Tyler D. Harsh, deceased, v. Frederick W. Petroll and HAC Farm Lines Agricultural Cooperative Association and CYNED (a/k/a/ SINED) Transport Corporation and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and General Motors Corporation and Chevrolet Motor Division, General Motors Corporation, and Jim McKay Chevrolet, Inc. Appeal of Frederick W. Petroll and HAC Farm Lines Agricultural Cooperative Association and Cyned Transport Corporation. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court |
Thomas Finarelli, Philadelphia, for appellant, General Motors Corporation.
William A. Atlee, Jr., Lancaster and Carl D. Buchholz, Philadelphia, for appellees.
BEFORE: PELLEGRINI, Judge, and FRIEDMAN, Judge, and KELLEY, Senior Judge.
OPINION BY Judge PELLEGRINI.
General Motors Corporation (GM) and Frederick W. Petroll, HAC Farm Lines Agricultural Cooperative Association and Cyned Transport Corporation (collectively, Petroll Defendants) appeal from an order of the Honorable Lawrence F. Stengel of the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County (trial court) denying their post-trial motions and affirming the judgment imposing damages between them for their respective liability in causing the deaths of three people involved in an automobile accident.
On April 21, 1995, Douglas L. and Connie J. Harsh, husband and wife, and their infant son, Tyler, were driving in their new 1995 Chevrolet Lumina on Route 30 in Lancaster County. At approximately 3:38 p.m., traffic on Route 30 began slowing and backing up, and according to eyewitnesses, the Harsh's vehicle, which was moving slowly, was struck from behind by Frederick Petroll, who was driving an empty tractor trailer truck at approximately 40 miles per hour and failed to slow down.1 The Harsh's vehicle was almost immediately engulfed in flames, and all three passengers died from smoke inhalation and severe burns. Suit was filed by the decedents' estates (Plaintiffs) against GM and the Petroll Defendants.2 The case against GM was based upon two theories of strict liability: 1) a design defect, i.e., that the fuel system of the vehicle was designed so that a fuel-fed fire could occur upon impact to the vehicle from the rear; and 2) a manufacturing defect, i.e., that the fuel system in the Harsh vehicle was improperly manufactured causing gasoline to escape upon impact and a fuel-fed fire to erupt.3 (See Counts XIX through XXX of Plaintiffs' Complaint.)4 Negligence was the basis for the suit against the Petroll Defendants. (See Counts I through XV of Plaintiffs' Complaint.)
The trial convened on May 20, 2001, and on June 20, 2001, a jury returned a verdict in favor of Plaintiffs in the amount of $8.2 million5 after finding GM 60% responsible and the Petroll Defendants 40% responsible for the three deaths.6 Punitive damages, which were sought against GM, were not awarded because the jury determined that GM's conduct was not outrageous. Plaintiffs then filed a petition for delay damages to be awarded against both GM and the Petroll Defendants and after a hearing was held, an award was entered against GM and the Petroll Defendants in favor of Plaintiffs in the amount of $2,429,165.75. Both GM and the Petroll Defendants filed extensive post-trial motions. The trial court heard arguments on November 13, 2001, and an order was entered on February 5, 2002, denying both GM's and the Petroll Defendants' motions. These appeals by GM and the Petroll Defendants followed.7 However, before addressing GM's appeals, a further explanation of Plaintiffs' claims against GM sounding in tort is necessary in order to understand some of their contentions.
Plaintiffs' complaint against GM specified that GM was negligent by failing to design and manufacture a crashworthy vehicle, and GM was strictly liable for injuries resulting from its design, manufacture and assembly of the 1995 Chevrolet Lumina. Essentially, Plaintiffs were suing GM under two theories of product liability: 1) negligence and 2) strict liability. Under the first theory, in order to prove negligence, Plaintiffs had to show that GM had a duty to conform to a certain standard of conduct and failed to conform to that standard in the design and manufacturing of the Harsh's 1995 Chevrolet Lumina, and that there was a causal connection between GM's conduct and the resulting injury with actual damage resulting. William L. Prosser, Law of Torts § 30, at 143 (4th ed.1971).8 However, in Pennsylvania, our Supreme Court has rejected the negligence theory in strict liability cases stating that negligence concepts have no place in a case based on strict liability under a Section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts analysis.9 Lewis v. Coffing Hoist Division, Duff-Norton Co., 515 Pa. 334, 528 A.2d 590 (1987). As the Third Circuit has explained Pennsylvania law in this area:
Griggs v. BIC Corporation, 981 F.2d 1429, 1438 (3rd Cir.1992). See also DeSantis v. Frick Company., 745 A.2d 624, n. 5 (Pa.Super.1999)
()10
Under one prong of the strict liability claims, Plaintiffs were alleging that GM defectively designed and manufactured the 1995 Chevrolet Lumina in which the Harsh family was riding on the day they were killed. There are varying methods of proving whether a product was defectively designed. One method is to prove that the product failed to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used in an intended or reasonably foreseeable manner. Lewis. In Lewis, our Supreme Court also stated that its decision in Azzarello v. Black Brothers Company, Inc., 480 Pa. 547, 391 A.2d 1020 (1978), set forth an alternative approach to determining whether a design defect existed:
[A]fter holding that the supplier of a product is a guarantor of its safety, ... "the jury may find a defect where the product left the supplier's control lacking any element necessary to make it safe for its intended use or possessing any feature that renders it unsafe for the intended use."
Lewis, 515 Pa. at 340, 528 A.2d at 593.11 In this case, the trial court utilized the alternate approach set forth in Azzarello when instructing the jury, which GM argues...
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