Hoover v. New Holland N. Am., Inc.
| Decision Date | 01 April 2014 |
| Citation | 23 N.Y.3d 41,11 N.E.3d 693,2014 N.Y. Slip Op. 02215,988 N.Y.S.2d 543 |
| Parties | Lori HOOVER et al., Respondents, v. NEW HOLLAND NORTH AMERICA, INC., Formerly Known as Ford New Holland, Inc., et al., Appellants, et al., Defendants. CNH America LLC, Third–Party Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Kyle P. Andrews, Treasurer of Niagara County, as the Temporary Administrator for the Estate of Gary Hoover, Deceased, Third–Party Defendant–Respondent. (And Another Third–Party Action.). |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Phillips Lytle LLP, Buffalo (Paul F. Jones and Joanna J. Chen of counsel), and Nixon Peabody LLP (Vivian M. Quinn and Laurie Styka Bloom of counsel), for appellants.
Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP, Buffalo (John A. Collins of counsel), for respondents.
Augello & Matteliano LLP, Buffalo (Joseph A. Matteliano and Danielle K. Crowley of counsel), for third-party respondent.
Herzfeld & Rubin, PC, New York City (Michael Hoenig and David Hamm of counsel), Hugh F. Young, Jr., Reston, Virginia, and Jonathan M. Harrison for Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., amicus curiae.
Plaintiff-respondent Jessica Bowers sustained severe injuries when she was caught and dragged into the rotating driveline of a tractor-driven post hole digger distributed by defendant-appellant CNH America LLC (CNH) and sold by defendant-appellant Niagara Frontier Equipment Sales, Inc. (Niagara) (collectively, defendants). Prior to the accident, Peter Smith, the owner of the post hole digger, removed a plastic safety shield from the machine after years of use had left the shield damaged beyond repair. The main issue presented on this appeal is whether defendants were entitled to summary judgment dismissing plaintiff's design defect claims based on the substantial modification defense articulated in Robinson v. Reed–Prentice Div. of Package Mach. Co., 49 N.Y.2d 471, 426 N.Y.S.2d 717, 403 N.E.2d 440 (1980). We conclude that, on this record, plaintiff raised triable issues of fact concerning the defective design of the safety shield that were sufficientto defeat summary judgment based on substantial modification.
A Model 906 HD post hole digger (the digger) is an agricultural implement manufactured by Alamo/SMC Corporation (SMC) that is designed, as its name implies, to dig holes in the ground for posts. The digger is tractor-driven and has a drive-line that connects at one end to the tractor's power take-off (PTO), allowing the digger to draw power from the tractor's engine. The other end of the driveline terminates at a universal joint (U-joint) with two yokes, one of which attaches to the input shaft of the digger's gearbox. A collar around the U-joint yoke is secured to the gearbox input shaft using a bolt that extends through both the collar and the input shaft, and is fastened by a nut. The bolt head and nut are not recessed, but instead protrude beyond the yoke collar's outer surface.
The digger is operated via controls near the tractor seat. When the digger is engaged, the PTO rotates the driveline, transmitting power to the gearbox that, in turn, rotates a spiral auger that extends downward from an output shaft at the bottom of the gearbox into the ground. The rotating driveline articulates vertically as the auger moves up and down to bore post holes.
The digger comes equipped with several safety guards and shields, including a bell-shaped plastic shield manufactured by GKN Walterscheid (GKN) that is bolted to the gearbox. This shield, which is made of durable high-density polyethylene, covers the gearbox input shaft and most of the U-joint, including the protruding nut and bolt. The digger's operating manual provides numerous safety warnings about keeping all the digger's safety shields in place, and several safety decals on the digger itself give warnings, including and “KEEP ALL SHIELDS IN PLACE AND IN GOOD CONDITION.”
On October 1, 2004, plaintiff's stepfather, former third-party defendant Gary Hoover (Gary), borrowed the digger and a tractor from Smith, a family friend and grape farmer. Gary was not aware when he borrowed the digger that Smith had previously removed the safety shield from the gearbox and never replaced it. The following day, Gary was using the digger to dig holes for a backyard fence at his home. Gary operated the digger from the tractor seat and he initially had plaintiff's mother, plaintiff Lori Hoover (Lori), assist him by holding the gearbox, which steadied the auger so that it dug a straight hole. Lori would step away from the digger before Gary initialized the drilling. They dug five holes using this method until Lori had to go to work.
Gary subsequently asked plaintiff to assist him with the digger. Plaintiff, then 16 years old, had never seen, used, or assisted in the operation of a post hole digger. Gary had plaintiff, who at the time was wearing a tank top, pajama bottoms, flip flops, and a jacket, perform the same task as Lori; she held the gearbox to steady the auger before Gary commenced drilling from the tractor seat. While Gary was operating the digger, plaintiff's jacket caught in the rotating driveline, dragging her into the machine. By the time Gary disengaged the digger, plaintiff's jacket and hair were wrapped around the driveline over the protruding nut and bolt at the U-joint connection. Smith later observed, as he unwound plaintiff's jacket from the driveline, that its lower pocket had caught on the protruding nut. Plaintiff's right arm was severed above the elbow; she also sustained fractures to her left scapula, left clavicle, and right humerus.
Plaintiff commenced this products liability action 1 against defendants, SMC, GKN, and the component maker NEAPCO, Inc., asserting causes of action sounding in negligence and strict products liability for manufacturing defect, design defect, and failure to warn, among other claims. Plaintiff brought a separate negligence action against Smith, and CNH and GKN commenced third-party actions against Gary seeking indemnification and contribution. 2 These actions were consolidated prior to trial.
At his deposition, Smith testified that he purchased the digger in 1996 to dig holes for trellis posts in his vineyard. When Smith used the digger, the shield and driveline would at times contact the ground. This contact would occur, according to Smith, when he drilled holes for end posts, and when under certain soil conditions, the auger would “suck” into the ground inadvertently, pulling the driveline, gearbox, and the shield down despite efforts to stop it. End post holes needed to be dug deeper and at a quicker pace than regular post holes; to accomplish this, Smith would position the digger at about a 60–degree angle to the ground and submerge the entire auger and part of the gearbox assembly into the ground. At the time of the accident, Smith did not know that the manual instructed operators not to submerge the auger beyond the flighting (i.e., the spiral blade on the auger shaft) because, as stated in the manual, “this will cause binding and overloading.” The manual does not warn, however, that the gearbox safety shield could become damaged if it contacts the ground.
Smith testified that, two to three years after he purchased the digger, the safety shield “got broke up and tore off” due to regular “wear and tear.” Each time the shield “broke off,” Smith would reattach it to the gearbox using a succession of larger washers beneath the bolt heads. After about four years of use, Smith (or one of his employees) removed the broken shield from the digger when “[i]t finally got to the point where [the shield] ... wasn't going to stay on anymore.” Smith estimated that he used the digger to install 1,000 to 2,000 posts per year before removing the shield, and that five to 10 percent of those were end posts.3
Prior to plaintiff's accident, Smith replaced certain parts on the digger as they became worn out, including the auger. Smith testified that he did not replace the shield before the accident because it was “only going to get bent up, broke up, and tore off again.” Smith was aware that the shield was intended to provide protection from rotating components near the gearbox, and in June 2005, he replaced the shield “[p]robably because of the accident.” Smith purchased the new shield from Niagara for $40 and installed it in about 15 to 30 minutes using tools in his toolbox.
The parties also deposed several engineers employed by the various defendants. These witnesses opined that the safety shield was not intended to be removed because it fully protected against the entanglement hazard posed by the rotating components near the gearbox, and that the digger was not intended to be operated without the shield in place. SMC engineering manager David Horrman testified that the expected life of a safety shield “depends on the condition it's subjected to”; “if it's in an abusive situation, those guards [or shields] can become damaged and they should be immediately replaced once they're damaged.” Horrman further testified that the digger's safety shields are intended to be “replaced when they become damaged or worn,” and that replacement should be part of “the normal routine maintenance of the [digger].” CNH engineers Stephen Schlotterbeck and John Riffanacht agreed that a safety shield should last the life of the machine on which it is installed provided it is not “abused.” Riffanacht further opined that it would be a “misuse” to operate the digger without all of the shields installed, and that a farmer should replace a shield if it becomes broken. SMC agricultural engineer Kermit Hillman acknowledged, however, that it was “always a possibility” that a user would remove a shield from the digger and not reattach it.
Hillman testified that the prototype post hole digger CNH provided to SMC employed a metal shield around the gearbox. SMC abandoned that design, however, after CNH's...
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