Hofstedt v. International Harvester Company, 37747
| Decision Date | 23 October 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 37747,37747 |
| Citation | 256 Minn. 453,98 N.W.2d 808 |
| Parties | Henry HOFSTEDT, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY et al., Defendants, International Harvester Company, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Where plaintiff is permitted to proceed to examine an expert witness and to elicit his opinion upon the assurance that a foundation for the opinion will be supplied later, it is not error to strike such testimony at the close of plaintiff's case when he fails to supply the requisite foundation.
2. A manufacturer of a chattel may become liable to those who use the chattel if it fails to exercise reasonable care in the design thereof or the use of material suitable for the purpose for which it is intended or if it negligently assembles the chattel, but, before liability may attach for negligent assembly of the chattel, it must appear that the alleged defect existed at the time the chattel was sold and delivered.
I. L. Swanson, Elbow Lake, for appellant.
Cummins, Cummins, Hammond, Cummins & O'Brien and Robert Gislason, St. Paul, for respondent.
This is an appeal from an order denying plaintiff's motion for a new trial.
Defendant International Harvester Company is a corporation engaged in the manufacture and sale of farm implements, including tractors. Defendant Traverse Implements, Inc., is a corporation engaged in a retail implement business at Wheaton, Minnesota, and is a sales agent for implements manufactured by International Harvester Company.
Plaintiff is a farmer living in Traverse County in this state. On or about June 27, 1956, Traverse Implements, Inc., sold to Hjalmer Hofstedt, a brother of plaintiff, a 400 Series Farmall tractor. Plaintiff and his brother live together in the same household. They operate separate farms but work together and own most of their machinery together as a partnership. Hjalmer owned the Farmall tractor individually. The tractor sold to Hjalmer was equipped with an independent power take-off used to operate machinery attached to the tractor. An independent power takeoff is distinguished from other power takeoffs in that the power transmitted to the shaft to which machinery is attached can be shut off without stopping the forward motion of the tractor. In other words, the power takeoff can be operated independently of the mechanism that propels the tractor itself. Hjalmer had owned other tractors with power takeoffs, but this was the first one he had owned having an independent power takeoff. While a detailed description of the power takeoff is unnecessary for the purpose of this decision, a general understanding of the manner in which it operates may be enlightening.
The power takeoff consists substantially of a transmission consisting of a planetary gear system involving a ring gear attached to the crankshaft of the engine which revolves at all times when the engine is operating and a system of planetary gears and a so-called sun gear which is attached to the drive shaft protruding from the rear of the tractor to which implements to be driven by the power takeoff are attached and operated. The drive shaft is activated or held in a stationary position by two brake bands which operate on steel drums within the transmission much the same as the brakes on an automobile. These two brake bands are so constructed that they are tightened or loosened by means of a lever operating on a teeter-totter lever in such a way that when one band is tightened the other is loosened. They are referred to as the operating drum and the anticreep drum. The tension on the bands is regulated two adjusting screws. The operating lever is located on the right-hand side of the tractor and is in a disengaged position when pushed forward and in an engaged position when pulled backward. In other words, the power takeoff is activated when the lever is pulled backward and stopped when the lever is pushed forward.
After the tractor was sold to Hjalmer Hofstedt, it was inspected by Traverse Implements, Inc., and found to be working properly. The inspection included the power takeoff.
The power takeoff was first used on August 6, 1956, when Hjalmer began to harvest some oats. The crop was heavy, and the ground was wet on the day the harvesting began. A swather--an implement consisting of a sickle bar which cuts the grain and a revolving endless apron which moves the grain to one end of the machine and deposits it on the ground in rows--was attached to the tractor and the power takeoff. There was no difficulty in making the attachment, the power takeoff control lever being placed in a disengaged position, and during the operation the power takeoff did not revolve.
The power from the tractor was used on this implement only for the purpose of driving the sickle bar. The rest of the swather was operated from power derived from the wheels on the implement itself. Power from the tractor takeoff turned a V-belt pulley at the end of a shaft which was attached to the power takeoff. A V-belt connected this pulley with another pulley which in turn operated the sickle through means of a Pitman rod attached in an offset manner to the latter pulley. This V-belt was used not only to cut down the speed of the sickle but also as a safety slip clutch. If the sickle became clogged the belt would slip. Such a belt requires tightening from time to time because of wear and the stretching of the belt. If the belt becomes too loose it will slip unnecessarily.
As Hjalmer began to cut the oats, he tested the power takeoff and it worked properly. While Hjalmer drove the tractor, plaintiff walked behind the swather in order to determine whether it was too wet to proceed with the operation. Three times the sickle bar became clogged and the sickle stopped cutting. When the sickle became clogged, Hjalmer stopped the forward motion of the tractor, leaving the power takeoff in an engaged position, and the sickle would start up again. The fourth time the sickle stopped, Hjalmer stopped the tractor, but this time the sickle did not start. Plaintiff then came around the swather, took hold of the V-belt mentioned above, and as he did so it moved, drawing his hand between the belt and the pulley, as the result of which he sustained the injuries for which he now sues to recover. Hjalmer claims that when he stopped the tractor, and before plaintiff touched the V-belt, he placed the power takeoff control lever in a disengaged position. In a pretrial deposition he stated that he pulled the lever back, which would have placed the lever in an engaged position, but at the time of the trial he stated that he pushed the lever forward.
The power takeoff on the tractor was next used in September 1956. At that time it was attached to a two-row cornpicker. Hjalmer had no trouble in hooking up the cornpicker to the power takeoff. In the operation of a cornpicker the power transmitted by the tractor from the power takeoff activates the entire machinery. This being a heavy piece of machinery, it requires considerable power for its operation. Everything worked normally except that after he had operated the machine about 60 rods in a heavy stand of corn he began to have some slippage due to the fact that the band around the operating drum in the power takeoff mechanism was too loose. This was the opposite maladjustment from one which would cause the power takeoff to 'creep' if the control lever was in a disengaged position. Hjalmer then disconnected the cornpicker, took the tractor to Wheaton where the brake drums were adjusted by a mechanic employed by Traverse Implements, Inc., and thereafter he had no further difficulty with it. At no time has Hjalmer or plaintiff observed the power takeoff move when the control lever was in a disengaged position, except that they claimed that it moved at the time when plaintiff was injured.
On April 4, 1958, nearly 2 years after this accident occurred, the power takeoff assembly was dismantled by one B. J. Robertson, who was professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota. His field of teaching was mainly confined to that involving internal combustion engines. He also had considerable experience as a consulting engineer, and at the time of the trial he was engaged in working for Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company in advising young, inexperienced engineers in mechanical engineering. At the trial he was called as an expert witness...
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