Hayles v. General Motors Corp.

• Decision Date: 21 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. CIV. A. H-98-0598.,CIV. A. H-98-0598.
• Citation: 82 F.Supp.2d 650
• Parties: Brenda J. HAYLES, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

Page 650

82 F.Supp.2d 650

Brenda J. HAYLES, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Defendant.

No. CIV. A. H-98-0598.

United States District Court, S.D. Texas, Houston Division.

June 21, 1999.

Gerald Kendrick Payte, Houston, TX, for Brenda J Hayles, plaintiff.

Carmody Cronin Baker, Fulbright & Jaworski, Houston, TX, for General Motors Corporation, defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND OPINION

ROSENTHAL, District Judge.

Brenda J. Hayles sued General Motors Corporation after she was injured in a single-vehicle accident. She alleged that the air bag and seat belt systems were defectively designed or manufactured and made the vehicle uncrashworthy. Hayles asserted causes of action for strict liability, negligence, and breach of warranty. General Motors moved for summary judgment and submitted detailed affidavits from three experts on the design and manufacture of the air bag and seat belt systems at issue. These experts all concluded that there was no defect that caused Hayles' injuries. Hayles filed a terse response to General Motors' motion, consisting of her own brief affidavit describing her recollection of the accident and her injuries. She also submitted an excerpt from the vehicle owner's manual describing the air bag. Plaintiff did not designate an expert under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2). Plaintiff submitted no evidence from any expert witness in response to the summary judgment motion.

The issue presented in this summary judgment motion is whether defendant is entitled to summary judgment because plaintiff has failed to provide competent summary judgment evidence to controvert the evidence from defendant's experts that there was no product defect that contributed to plaintiff's injuries. Defendant asserts that because plaintiff failed to submit competent evidence to raise a fact issue on defect and causation, summary judgment is required.

I. Factual Background

On February 2, 1996, Hayles lost control of her 1995 Chevrolet Silverado while driving on an icy freeway overpass in Houston, Texas. She hit a concrete wall. On January 29, 1998, Hayles sued General Motors in the 334th Judicial District Court in Harris County, Texas, alleging that she was "injured when the airbag restraint system failed to deploy during a frontal collision." (Docket Entry No. 13, Ex. 1, ¶ III). Hayles asserted causes of action for strict liability, negligence, and breach of warranty. She alleged that the "products," defined as "including airbag restraint systems and the motor vehicles in which they are installed," were "negligently, defectively designed so as to render them unreasonably dangerous .... A safer alternative design existed at the time the products were manufactured." (Id., ¶¶ II, V). Hayles also alleged res ipsa loquitur as the basis for her claim of negligent design and manufacture. (Id., ¶ VII).

The only allegation as to seat belts in Hayles' petition is that she "sustained serious personal injuries when her body struck the interior of the vehicle and the shoulder and lap belts retained her momentum." (Id., ¶ VIII).

General Motors removed the suit to this court on February 27, 1998, on the basis of diversity of citizenship. After discovery closed and the deadlines for designating expert witnesses passed, on April 12, 1999, General Motors moved for summary judgment. General Motors asserted that the undisputed facts disclose no genuine issue of material fact as to the absence of a defect in the air bag or seat belt systems in Hayles' vehicle that caused her injuries.

General Motors submitted detailed summary judgment evidence to support its assertion that there was no evidence of defect or causation.

• Ronald Orlowski, a Staff Analysis Engineer in the Product Analysis Department at General Motors, submitted an affidavit and a report. Orlowski, a mechanical engineer with 36 years of automotive design experience, including experience in vehicle impact crashworthiness, examined Hayles' vehicle, including the seat belt system. Orlowski also reviewed the police report, photographs of the truck, medical reports, a transcript of Hayles' deposition, and General Motors' documents relating to the seat belt system. Orlowski inspected and tested the seat belt to determine whether the system worked as designed. Orlowski performed functional tests, a static test, and a dynamic test on the lap/shoulder seat belt system. He concluded that the seat belt system, including the retractors and buckle assembly, worked properly, was properly installed, and was in the design position. Orlowski concluded that the system was designed to exceed the "requirements of all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards," was "a reasonably safe system," functioned properly, and did not cause any "enhanced injuries to Mrs. Hayles." Orlowski concluded that in his expert opinion, the lap/shoulder belt system in Hayles' vehicle functioned properly at the time of the accident. (Docket Entry No. 13, Ex. 6-B).

• Brian Everest, a Product Engineer in the Product Analysis Department at General Motors, is trained as an electrical engineer. Since 1989, he has worked at General Motors and is familiar with air bags generally and the particular air bag system at issue. In addition to inspecting Hayles' vehicle and examining the police report, photographs, and plaintiff's deposition, Everest also reviewed General Motors' crash tests. Everest's vehicle inspection included an examination of the internal record of the air bag sensor for Hayles' vehicle. Everest stated that the air bag system is designed to deploy when the sensor records frontal impact forces sufficiently high to meet a threshold for deployment. The sensor also records "fault codes" if the air bag system malfunctions. Everest concluded that the vehicle air bag record showed no evidence of any malfunction. He also noted that the Hayles vehicle had "contact damage" only at the left side of the front bumper and "induced" damage "along the left fender only to about the wheel well." The hood was not crumpled; the grill suffered only minor damage; and the headlights were not broken. The physical evidence showed a glancing blow to the left front side of the truck, at an angle and speed below the threshold for air bag deployment. Everest concluded that the air bag was designed properly; functioned as designed; and should not have deployed. (Docket Entry No. 13, Ex. 7, Affidavit of Brian J. Everest, p. 3). Everest concluded that the "collision made the basis of this case did not warrant air bag deployment and the air bag system in the plaintiff's truck functioned as designed and manufactured by not deploying during the collision." (Id.).

• Tawfik B. Khalil, a Senior Engineer in the General Motors North American Operations Engineering Center, has a doctorate in mechanical engineering and has worked for General Motors since 1973. Khalil works in developing technology for designing and analyzing occupant restraint systems and occupant responses to vehicle crashes. Khalil analyzed the police report, photographs of the vehicle, the medical records and plaintiff's deposition, barrier crash tests of similar trucks, and photographs of an exemplar truck with a surrogate in the driver's seat. Khalil concluded that Hayles' injuries "would not have been avoided, and were not enhanced, by air bag deployment"; to the contrary, she would have received more severe injuries had the air bag deployed. Khalil described Hayles' injuries from the medical records, including bruises on her chest, right knee tenderness, nose bleed and cut to lower lip, and pain to the right inguinal area. Khalil noted Hayles' statement that she was wearing a seat belt, but noted that her injuries were more consistent with a lack of restraint. He concluded that the air bag and seat belt system in the plaintiff's vehicle functioned as designed; the non-deployment of the air bag did not enhance the plaintiff's injuries; and the injuries would not have been avoided by the deployment of the air bag. (Docket Entry No. 13, Ex. 8, Affidavit of Tawfik B. Khalil, p. 3).

In her response, Hayles submitted her own affidavit. She stated that she was wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident but that it did not prevent her from hitting her mouth on the steering wheel, then being thrown back against the seat. She asserts that the collision "knocked my jaw out of socket" and strained her neck. (Docket Entry No. 15, Affidavit of Brenda J. Hayles). Hayles stated that she was traveling approximately 45 to 55 miles per hour when she hit the concrete wall with the left front of her vehicle. She attached a copy of the vehicle owner's manual page describing the air bag, which states that the air bag is "designed to inflate in moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal crashes.... If your vehicle goes straight into a wall that doesn't move or deform, the threshold level is about 12 to 16 mph." (Id., Attachment). General Motors responds by pointing to evidence that the vehicle did not go "straight into a wall," but rather struck a glancing blow to the left front side of the truck.

General Motors argues that it has presented uncontroverted summary judgment evidence that the seat belt system and air bag had no defect in design or manufacture that caused Hayles' injuries. General Motors asserts that Hayles' response is inadequate to raise a fact issue as to either of these elements that would preclude summary judgment.

II. The Summary Judgment Standard

Summary judgment is appropriate if no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. FED. R. CIV. P. 56. Substantive law identifies the facts that are material. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A dispute over a material fact is genuine only if the evidence in the summary judgment record suffices for a reasonable fact-finder to return a verdict in favor of the nonmoving party. Id....