Hernandez-Gomez v. Leonardo

• Decision Date: 01 November 1994
• Docket Number: No. CV-93-0202-PR,HERNANDEZ-GOME,P,CV-93-0202-PR
• Citation: 884 P.2d 183,180 Ariz. 297
• Parties: , 63 USLW 2300, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 14,066 Amparoetitioner, v. Hon. John S. LEONARDO, Judge of the Superior Court of the State of Arizona, in and for the County of Pima, Respondent, Volkswagen of America, Inc., a New Jersey Corporation, and Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft, a Foreign Corporation, Real Parties in Interest.
• Court: Arizona Supreme Court

Page 183

884 P.2d 183

180 Ariz. 297, 63 USLW 2300, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 14,066

Amparo HERNANDEZ-GOMEZ, Petitioner, v. Hon. John S. LEONARDO, Judge of the Superior Court of the State of Arizona, in and for the County of Pima, Respondent Volkswagen of America, Inc., a New Jersey Corporation, and Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft, a Foreign Corporation, Real Parties in Interest.

No. CV-93-0202-PR.

Supreme Court of Arizona, In Banc.

Nov. 1, 1994.

Haralson, Kinerk & Morey, P.C. by Gregory G. Wasley and D. Dale Haralson, Tucson, for petitioner.

Fennemore Craig, P.C. by Timothy Berg, William T. Burghart and Joseph P. Mikitish, Phoenix, and Herzfeld & Rubin by Craig L. Winterman, Los Angeles, CA, for real parties in interest.

OPINION

FELDMAN, Chief Justice.

The court of appeals denied special action relief in this case and we granted review to consider an issue of first impression in this state: Does the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (the Safety Act) preempt a state law tort action against a car manufacturer that did not incorporate a lap belt in its passive restraint system?

We have jurisdiction under Ariz. Const. art. 6, § 5(3) and Ariz.R.P.Spec. Act. 8.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The operative facts are few and undisputed. On November 6, 1988, Amparo Hernandez-Gomez (Plaintiff) was riding in the right front seat of a 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit when the driver briefly took his eyes off the road. Travelling between 30 and 35 miles per hour, the car veered off the road and ran down an embankment. It struck a drainage culvert, flipped over, and landed on its roof. Plaintiff's head and shoulders smashed against the car's roof causing a spinal cord injury that has left her paraplegic.

Plaintiff alleges that the design of the car's safety restraint system failed to adequately protect her from a foreseeable rollover and actually enhanced her injuries. The restraint system consisted of a shoulder belt that automatically moved into place diagonally across the chest when the door was shut, a knee bolster, and a seat designed to prevent the occupant from submarining under the dashboard in a head-on collision. Because it was designed to be fully automated, the system did not include a manual lap belt that arguably would have prevented Plaintiff from being thrown against the roof of the car. Plaintiff claims that the absence of a lap belt made the car defective and unreasonably dangerous to its occupants.

On January 15, 1993, Volkswagen of America and Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft (collectively VW) moved for partial summary judgment, arguing that the car's passive restraint system ¹ complied with federal design and performance standards, which required no lap belt. So finding, and concluding that the Safety Act preempted state tort law so that compliance with the Act insulated the manufacturer from common-law liability, the trial judge granted partial summary judgment in VW's favor on March 16, 1993.

Seeking relief from the trial court's order, Plaintiff brought a special action ² before the court of appeals, which declined jurisdiction on April 20, 1993. This court then accepted review of the following issues:

1. Whether the trial court incorrectly interpreted and applied the principles of federal preemption set forth in the recent U.S. Supreme Court case of Cipollone so as to abrogate Plaintiff's right to bring an action to recover damages for injuries resulting from negligent and/or defective design.

2. Whether common law product liability actions brought in Arizona are preempted by the Safety Act or [Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards].

The fundamental question is whether an automobile manufacturer can be liable under state tort law for a product design defect when that design meets Safety Act standards.

DISCUSSION

A. The Safety Act and Its Standards

Congress passed the Safety Act (15 U.S.C. § 1381 et seq.) in 1966 "to reduce traffic accidents and deaths and injuries to persons resulting from traffic accidents." ³ Congress authorized the Secretary of Transportation to formulate safety standards to protect the motoring public against an unreasonable risk of injury due to "the design, construction or performance of motor vehicles...." ⁴ The Secretary of Transportation delegated the duty of writing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (Safety Administration). 49 C.F.R. § 1.50. The federal safety standards appear at 49 C.F.R. §§ 571.1 to 571.302.

The relevant safety standards are "Occupant Crash Protection," 49 C.F.R. § 571.208 (Standard 208), and "Seat Belt Assemblies," 49 C.F.R. § 571.209. Since the inception of these standards, there has been a national controversy on the question of whether passive restraints such as airbags should be mandatory or optional. Standard 208 originally required nothing more than seatbelts in newly manufactured automobiles. The United States Supreme Court cited 32 Fed.Reg. 2415 as the primary source. Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n v. State Farm Mut., 463 U.S. 29, 34, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 2862, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983). Responding to sporadic seatbelt use by the public and a high rate of traffic injuries and fatalities, in 1969 the Department of Transportation began requiring installation of passive restraints in new cars. Id. at 35, 103 S.Ct. at 2862.

The Safety Administration reviewed two kinds of passive restraint crash protection systems--airbags and automatic seatbelts. Keith C. Miller, Deflating the Airbag Pre-emption Controversy, 37 EMORY L.J. 897, 902 (1988). Over the next fifteen years, other passive restraint systems were proposed and rejected due to their unpopularity with the public or carmakers. In addition, changes in administrations and national priorities during these years brought a number of successors with different agendas to the position of Secretary of Transportation. As a result, about sixty rulemaking notices were issued that "imposed, amended, rescinded, reimposed, and now rescinded again" the requirement for car manufacturers to install passive restraints. Motor Vehicle Mfrs., 463 U.S. at 34, 103 S.Ct. at 2862. ⁵

In effect since 1973, Standard 208 allowed manufacturers to choose one of three options for cars made between 1973 and 1986. Passive protection need not be by airbag but must meet specific Standard 208 criteria. By giving carmakers a choice of safety restraint options, Congress hoped to stimulate research, development, and competition. S.Rep. No. 1301, 89th Cong., 2d Sess. 1, 4 (1966), reprinted in 1966 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2709, 2712. The element of choice is considered a central feature of the Safety Act's regulatory scheme. See, e.g., Pokorny v. Ford Motor Co., 902 F.2d 1116, 1123 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 853, 111 S.Ct. 147, 112 L.Ed.2d 113 (1990); Taylor v. General Motors Corp., 875 F.2d 816, 827 (11th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1065, 110 S.Ct. 1781, 108 L.Ed.2d 783 (1990).

The industry's reluctance to install airbags has led to numerous lawsuits against carmakers by people injured in automobiles not equipped with airbags. See, e.g., Wood v. General Motors Corp., 865 F.2d 395, 400 (1st Cir.1988) ("In addition to the present action, about two dozen other suits have been recently filed claiming that an automobile was defectively designed because it lacked passive [airbag] restraints."), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1065, 110 S.Ct. 1781, 108 L.Ed.2d 782 (1990). The issue in those cases--whether, in light of the Safety Act options permitting but not requiring airbags, a manufacturer can be liable in a common-law action for not installing an airbag--parallels the issue here. In the present case, instead of an airbag claim, Plaintiff sued the carmaker for failing to install a lap belt even though the Safety Act allegedly permitted the option of a two-point passive restraint system without a manual lap belt. We recognize, as did the Supreme Court and the Safety Administration, that airbags and three-point seatbelts significantly reduce traffic accident injuries and fatalities. ⁶

B. The Car's Crash Protection System--Compliance with Standards

For this 1981 model car, VW attempted to comply with one of the available options by designing a belt-type passive restraint system for the front-seat occupants. The design used an automatic two-point shoulder belt with no lap belt. In its motion for summary judgment, VW offered evidence that this restraint system satisfied Standard 208 and that a lap belt was not required to comply with option two. Finding that Plaintiff did not produce evidence sufficient to raise a genuine issue of material fact on the question of compliance, the trial judge held that the car's passive restraint system satisfied Standard 208. The court concluded, therefore, that the Safety Act preempted Plaintiff's claim and granted VW's motion for summary judgment. ⁷

For purposes of this opinion, we assume that the trial judge correctly decided that the design in question complied with option two. Thus we address only the preemption issue.

C. Preemption and Savings Clauses and Federal Preemption Doctrine

When this court accepted jurisdiction, the relevant sections of the Safety Act appeared at 15 U.S.C. § 1392(d) (1994 supp.) (preemption clause) and § 1397(k) (1994 supp.) (savings clause). Congress revised the language and recodified these subsections at 49 U.S.C. § 30103(b) and (e), respectively, effective July 5, 1994. Because the parties' briefs referred to the prior sections and language, we use those citations. The original preemption clause provided in relevant part:

Whenever a Federal motor vehicle safety standard established under this subchapter is in effect, no State or political subdivision of a State shall have any authority either to establish, or to continue in effect, with respect to any motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment any safety standard applicable to the same aspect of performance of such vehicle or item of equipment...