Hoch v. Allied-Signal, Inc.

• Decision Date: 12 April 1994
• Docket Number: No. A056472,INC,ALLIED-SIGNA,A056472
• Citation: 29 Cal.Rptr.2d 615,24 Cal.App.4th 48
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Carl J. HOCH et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents; Carl J. Hoch, as Special Administrator, etc., Plaintiff and Appellant, v./BENDIX SAFETY RESTRAINTS DIVISION, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 615

29 Cal.Rptr.2d 615

24 Cal.App.4th 48

Carl J. HOCH et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents Carl J. Hoch, as Special Administrator, etc., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. ALLIED-SIGNAL, INC./BENDIX SAFETY RESTRAINTS DIVISION, Defendant and Appellant.

No. A056472.

Court of Appeal, First District, Division 3, California.

April 12, 1994.

Certified for Partial Publication ^*

Review Denied July 28, 1994.

Geoffrey Becker, Becker & Becker, South San Francisco, for plaintiffs and appellants.

Stuart M. Gordon, Fletcher C. Alford, Gordon & Rees, San Francisco, for defendant and appellant.

Harvey M. Grossman, Los Angeles, for amicus curiae on behalf of defendant and appellant.

WERDEGAR, Associate Justice.

Sharon J. Hoch (decedent) was killed when she was ejected from her 1987 Ford Bronco II, which was equipped with seat belts made by Allied-Signal, Inc./Bendix Safety Restraints Division (Allied-Signal), during a single-vehicle accident. Her parents, Norma and Carl J. Hoch, sued Ford Motor Company (Ford), Allied-Signal and others for wrongful death, alleging negligence and strict product liability; in addition, Carl J. Hoch, as special administrator of his daughter's estate, sought punitive damages in a survival action.

Plaintiffs went to trial against Allied-Signal after settling with Ford and other defendants. At the close of plaintiffs' case, the trial court granted nonsuit on the issue of punitive damages, finding insufficient evidence Allied-Signal had consciously disregarded decedent's rights. Carl Hoch, as special administrator, seeks review of the nonsuit in his appeal.

The jury, by special verdict, found decedent was wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident, the buckle design was defective, and Allied-Signal was negligent. The jury assigned comparative fault 35 percent to Allied-Signal, 45 percent to Ford, and 20 percent to decedent. The total damages, before subtraction of decedent's comparative fault, were found to be $500,000. The court entered judgment on the special verdict against Allied-Signal for $175,000, from which judgment Allied-Signal cross-appeals. The Product Liability Advisory Counsel, Inc., as amicus curiae, joins Allied-Signal in urging modification of the judgment to account for pretrial settlements of other defendants.

FACTS

Decedent was driving alone on Interstate Highway 280. Her mother saw her get into the car, but did not see or hear whether decedent put on her seat belt. An eyewitness estimated her speed before the accident at about 65 miles per hour. The vehicle began swerving right and left, "teeter-totter[ed]," then rolled over two or three times. Decedent was ejected through the sunroof during the rollover and died from injuries sustained when her head hit the pavement.

Decedent's father and a close friend testified decedent always wore her seat belt. Two expert witnesses called by plaintiffs opined a set of linear markings on the left side of decedent's neck was caused by contact with the chest portion of the seat belt. A defense expert disagreed, stating the marks were caused instead by the edge of the sunroof during a period of partial ejection. Plaintiffs' expert testified to the absence of any discernible marks on the interior of the roof, which he would have expected to be present if decedent had been unrestrained during the first part of the rollover; he also thought it likely decedent would have sustained a neck injury, of which there was no evidence in the autopsy report, had she been unrestrained in the first roll. The defense expert, however, found a bent and scuffed grab handle on the passenger side, indicating to him contact with an unrestrained occupant.

The buckle of the driver's seat belt in decedent's vehicle, referred to at trial as a "type one" buckle, has the push button on the front of the buckle. Plaintiffs' theory of design defect was that such a buckle can unlatch inertially. If the housing of the buckle is rapidly accelerated in the forward direction, the button and attached portions of the latching mechanism may momentarily remain at rest relative to the housing, allowing the buckle to unlatch in the same manner as if the button had been pushed. The same effect could be produced by rapid deceleration of a housing moving backward; the button would tend to continue its backward motion relative to the housing.

Allied-Signal did not and does not dispute inertial unlatching is possible when the buckle is removed from the automobile and manipulated in various ways. The principal disputed technical issue was, rather, whether the necessary acceleration or deceleration could be produced on a buckle in use in an automobile and, in particular, during a rollover accident.

David James Biss, an engineer, testified for plaintiffs as an expert on occupant restraint. Biss stated the acceleration needed to unlatch the buckle inertially was in the range of 100 times the acceleration due to gravity. Because of the light weight of the buckle and the "cabling" effect created when a slack belt is suddenly pulled tight, accelerations in that range could be produced in an automobile accident even though the vehicle itself decelerated at a lesser rate. Because seat belts have some slack in them, in a rollover accident the occupant will tumble against and tug on the belt many times. An acceleration or deceleration to or from a speed of 7 or 8 miles per hour in a distance of .2 to .4 inches would be sufficient to open the buckle and could occur in a rollover accident. Biss opined the potential for inertial unlatching makes the type one buckle defective.

The defense expert, Daniel Davee ("reliability engineer" for Allied-Signal), testified to the results of tests he conducted, during the pendency of this action, to evaluate the possibility of inertial unlatching in an impact between the occupant's hip and the buckle. He determined the stopping time of the buckle hit against his hip was 8-10 milliseconds. The relative velocity needed to unlatch the buckle in a stopping time of 8.4 milliseconds was 19.5 miles per hour. He did not believe it was possible in a rollover accident, where the occupant was wearing the belt with the lap portion snug, to develop relative velocities in this range between the hip and the buckle.

Plaintiffs' negligence claim was based on Allied-Signal's previous failure to test the type one buckle for inertial unlatching. Davee did not know of any previous attempts by anyone at Allied-Signal or its corporate predecessors to evaluate through testing the possibility of inertial unlatching, although he noted that "each time that we run a test, okay, whether it be a sled test or other testing that we may do, it confirms to me that that event didn't occur." Dan M. Davey, director of seat belt sales for Allied-Signal, testified neither Allied-Signal nor Jim Robbins Seat Belt Company (Jim Robbins), which Allied-Signal acquired, had tested seat belts for accidental release.

Davee testified Allied-Signal and Jim Robbins had supplied approximately 130 million seat belts with type one buckles to Ford between 1972 and 1987. Approximately 500 million type one buckles were put into domestic cars from 1972 to 1991. Davee was unaware of any claims of inertial unlatching in a vehicle during the 1972-1987 period. He was also unaware of any lawsuit in which the trier of fact had determined a buckle made by Allied-Signal inertially unlatched in an accident.

According to Davee and Davey, Ford actually designed the type one buckle, sending Allied-Signal or Jim Robbins detailed drawings and requiring the buckle be manufactured to Ford's specifications. In contrast, plaintiffs' witness Thomas Feaheny, former Ford vice-president for car engineering and vehicle research, testified Ford specified only exterior appearance, style and configuration, while the suppliers designed the internal latching mechanism.

The Bronco II seat belt assembly was tested by an independent testing company for compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 209, which requires in part that seat belts be designed to remain on the occupant's pelvis during an accident. There was no evidence, however, the testing company evaluated or tested for the possibility of inertial unlatching.

Peter Bertelson, former manager of impact dynamics at Ford, supervised occupant safety crash testing in 1967-1968. His group did about 500 crash tests, usually with two restrained dummies in the car. Standard production restraints of the period, with a push button buckle, were used; some of the restraints were made by Jim Robbins. About 15 percent of the dummies were not restrained at the end of the test. Bertelson, however, was unsure whether their belts had released or were not securely coupled at the outset. Dan Davey, who started at Jim Robbins in 1969 as liaison engineer to Ford, never heard data were being lost in crash tests because Jim Robbins's buckles were opening accidentally.

Stephen Syson, an automotive safety engineer, testified that in about 1965, Ford, General Motors and the seat belt manufacturers, including Jim Robbins, presented a "joint position paper" to United States Senator Ribicoff "explaining inertial seat belt separation and indicating ... they would redesign seat belt buckles over the near term so that they would not inertially separate." Syson first testified no such redesign was made, but on cross-examination, he stated Ford attempted to modify the buckles by introducing stiffer springs. Syson did not have the "position paper," and it was not produced by any other witness.

DISCUSSION

I. The Estate's Appeal

A. Appealability

Decedent's estate in a survival action sought punitive damages from Allied-Signal in the seventh cause of action of the complaint. At the close of plaintiffs' case, defendant moved for nonsuit as to the punitive damages claim. The court orally granted the motion, but at that time (Oct. 31, 1991) did not dismiss the cause of action. Nor did the...