Hudson v. Snyder Body, Inc., 51670
| Decision Date | 29 November 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 51670,51752.,51670 |
| Citation | 326 NW 2d 149 |
| Parties | Donald and Lena HUDSON, Respondents, v. SNYDER BODY, INC., Appellant (51670), Perfection Cobey Co., Appellant (51752), Potomac Ford Truck Sales, third party defendant, Respondent, Jack L. Olsen, Inc., third party defendant, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Hanft, Fride, O'Brien & Harries and Gaylord W. Swelbar, Duluth, for Snyder Body, Inc.
Johnson, Fredin, Killen, Thibodeau & Seiler, John J. Killen and Nicholas Ostapenko, Duluth, for Perfection Cobey Co.
Halverson, Watters, Bye, Downs & Maki and Don L. Bye, Duluth, for Hudson.
Donovan, McCarthy, Crassweller, Larson & Magie and Robert H. Magie III, Duluth, for Potomac Ford Truck Sales.
Mathias & Brown and Mark L. Knutson, Duluth, for Jack L. Olsen, Inc.
Considered and decided by the court en banc without oral argument.
This action is based on claims arising from an accident in which respondent Donald Hudson was injured when the box of a dump truck dropped on his shoulder. Hudson and his wife, Lena Hudson, brought their claim in negligence and strict liability against Perfection-Cobey Company (Perfection), the manufacturer of the hoist that raised the box of the truck; Potomac Ford Truck Sales, Inc. (Potomac), the dealer that supplied the chassis on which the box was mounted; and Snyder, the company that assembled the truck. Perfection brought a third-party action for indemnity and contribution against Hudson's employer, Jack L. Olsen, Inc. (Olsen). The trial court, St. Louis County District Court, entered judgment pursuant to a jury verdict in Hudson's favor. Snyder, Perfection and Potomac appeal from that judgment. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
On October 28, 1974, Hudson began working for Olsen as a dump truck driver on a road-building project in Taconite Harbor, Minnesota. He made seven or eight round trips from a gravel pit to the dump site on his first day of work and then was injured on the second day while trying to empty his fourth or fifth load for that day.
Hudson was driving a brand new dump truck which Olsen had purchased from Potomac. Snyder had installed the box of the truck which it had manufactured according to Perfection's design. Perfection manufactured the hoist which Snyder then mounted on the box. After installing the box and mounting the hoist, Snyder returned the truck to Potomac, where Olsen picked it up on October 23, 1974. The truck was then driven from Maryland to Minnesota, where it was turned over to Hudson on October 26, 1974.
In order to examine the basis for Hudson's claims, it is necessary to understand the operation of the truck's tailgate and hoist as explained by witnesses at trial. The "dump lever," which is on the front end of the box, is connected by a series of shafts and cams to two hooks that keep the tailgate closed. When the lever is pulled, the shafts are rotated; this rotation in turn raises a hook on either side of the tailgate and opens the gate. Perfection manufactured the parts for this release mechanism, and Snyder followed Perfection's design in installing the mechanism on the box.
A critical component of the release assembly is a cam, located on the underside of the box, which consists of an arm and a shaft. The dump lever is connected to a shaft which, when the lever is pulled, moves an arm which is welded to a horizontal shaft. When the horizontal shaft rotates, it moves two shafts that are connected to the tailgate.
The driver activates the hoist from inside the cab. When he puts the hoist lever in the "up" position and accelerates the engine of the truck, a hydraulic pump forces oil into the hoist cylinder under pressure. The oil causes the telescoping hoist to extend, one sleeve at a time. First the larger sleeve extends, then the one just inside that, and so on until the box is at its full height or the operator stops its rise.
Hudson testified that he followed his usual procedure when trying to dump the load that caused him trouble. He activated the hoist mechanism and, while the box was in motion, tried to pull the dump lever. However, the lever did not work, despite the fact that he pulled hard on it. Hudson next put the hoist on "hold" in order to stop the box from rising any further, then tried to lower the box by putting the hoist lever in the down position. When the box would not come down, he put the hoist control on "hold" again and left the cab of the truck. He stepped up on the battery box, hoping to reach the tailgate lever, and was reaching up with his left arm when the box came down and hit him on the shoulder.
Lee Sapetta, a mechanical engineer, testified as an expert witness on the Hudsons' behalf. Sapetta inspected the truck in the spring of 1975 and took several pictures, which were admitted as plaintiffs' exhibits. The crux of Sapetta's testimony was that the cam was defective in that the end of the arm that extended beyond the shaft was superfluous and that there was not enough clearance between the end and the underside of the box. When Sapetta examined the box, he noticed that its floor was severely dented from the impact of large rocks. He stated that the denting had interfered with the operation of the arm of the linkage assembly to the extent that the arm had worn a groove in the floor of the box. Since the arm extension was superfluous to the operation of the cam, Sapetta testified that this was a defect in the design of the dumping mechanism. James Snyder, of Snyder Body, agreed that the extension served no useful purpose and that Snyder could have changed Perfection's design of the arm.
Sapetta also testified that the drop of the dump box was caused by excessive air in the hydraulic system, excessive binding or friction in the linkage assembly, and/or a failure of the hoist components to go up in the proper sequence. However, when Sapetta examined the truck, he found no evidence of either excessive friction, leaking oil, or sticking and binding of the components of the hoist.
Roland Kennedy, Perfection's project manager of hydraulics, and Clare Cleland, a Perfection vice-president, testified to their opinion that the drop of the box was caused by a pullout of the telescopic hoist. A pullout occurs when the load pulls the cylinder up instead of oil pumping the cylinder out. Pullout, which is a rare phenomenon, happens only when the angle of the box combines with a shift in the center of gravity to produce enough force to pull out the telescopic hoist.
Kennedy also testified that Perfection tests each front mounting telescopic hoist by running it up and down before it leaves Perfection's plant. Snyder testified that Snyder Body tests both the hydraulic unit and the tailgate release mechanism before delivering a truck to its purchaser. Lee Linger, of Potomac, stated that Potomac inspected the chassis before it went to Snyder for installation of the box and hoist. After Snyder returned the truck, Potomac checked to see that it was built to specification and that the hoist was operating properly. Jacob Lepak, an employee of Olsen, inspected the truck when it arrived in Duluth; he said the tailgate release mechanism was within normal range and that the hoist performed properly at that time.
Although Hudson had been in Olsen's employ only a day and a half before his accident and had never operated a truck with a full load, he was somewhat familiar with the operation of a dump truck because he had formerly been employed to install dump boxes and to service trucks. Walter Celusta, another of Olsen's employees, instructed Hudson on the operation of the truck on the Saturday before Hudson went up to Taconite Harbor. During that 1½ hour instruction time, Hudson drove the truck around Duluth and operated the hoist and the dump release mechanism. Both on that day and on the first day of the job, Hudson noticed that the dump lever was stiff and difficult to operate. On one occasion he got out of the truck cab in order to use both hands to pull the lever down. He had no trouble with the hoist at that time.
LeRoy Sipes, another truck driver employed by Olsen, was the first person to drive the truck after the box came down on Hudson's shoulder. He arrived at the dump site after the accident and tried to raise or lower the box. Sipes testified that he was unable to move the box up or down because of the slope the truck was on but that he then drove the truck forward to level ground and operated both the hoist and the dump release mechanism without difficulty. Sipes then used the truck for a couple of days after the accident and had no problems with it.
Robert Sippo, another of Olsen's drivers, had no difficulty with either the hoist or the dump release mechanism during the 5-year period after the accident when he was driving Hudson's truck. Sippo, who had 24 years of truck-driving experience, testified that the two devices worked in the same manner as similar mechanisms on numerous other dump trucks he had driven. Sippo also serviced the truck some 2 or 3 weeks after the accident. He examined the tailgate release mechanism at that time and found no denting in the area of the cam. He said there was no interference with the free operation of the release mechanism.
The court heard testimony from three employees of Erie Mining Company who had been working in the vicinity of the accident when the box dropped on Hudson's shoulder. Del Furgason, who was about 50 feet from the truck, stated that the box was raised to its full height and that Hudson was standing in back of the cab reaching for a rope that was attached to the dump lever when the box dropped and hit him on the shoulder. The testimony of Steven Peterson and James Schmidt, the other Erie workers, agreed in its essentials with that of Furgason, although they were less sure that a rope had been hanging from the lever. Hudson testified that there was no rope attached to the lever.
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