Hunt v. Ford Motor Co.
| Decision Date | 10 January 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 13113,13113 |
| Citation | 341 So.2d 614 |
| Parties | Travis G. HUNT and Annie Mae Hunt, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Lunn, Irion, Switzer, Johnson & Salley by James B. Gardner, Shreveport, for defendant-appellant.
Johnston, Thornton, Greer & Cage by James J. Thornton and L. Edwin Greer, Shreveport, for plaintiffs-appellees.
Before HALL, MARVIN and JONES, JJ.
This products liability case arises out of a one car accident which occurred when the steering wheel of plaintiff's car allegedly froze, causing the car to run off the highway and overturn, resulting in severe injuries to plaintiff.
Plaintiffs, Mrs. Hunt and her husband, sued Ford Motor Company, manufacturer of the automobile, Buster Gant Ford, Inc. of Oil City, Louisiana, the dealer from whom the automobile was purchased, and Gant's insurer. Plaintiffs and Gant compromised their suit as the trial commenced. After trial, the jury returned a verdict against Ford Motor Company in favor of Mrs. Hunt for $100,000 and in favor of Mr. Hunt for $17,000. Answering a special interrogatory the jury also found Gant negligent, and, accordingly, the amount awarded plaintiffs against Ford was reduced by one-half in view of the earlier compromise with Gant in accordance with the rule established by Harvey v. Travelers Insurance Company, 163 So.2d 915 (La.App.3d Cir. 1964) and approved by the Supreme Court in Canter v. Koehring Company, 283 So.2d 716 (La.1973).
Ford appealed seeking to reverse the finding of liability on its part. Plaintiffs answered the appeal seeking reversal of the finding of negligence on the part of Gant and the consequent reduction of the amount awarded by the jury. Neither side questions the amount awarded by the jury, if there is liability.
For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
The only evidence as to how the accident happened is the testimony of plaintiff herself, the testimony of the state trooper who investigated the accident, and the testimony of a witness who was driving near the scene but did not actually see the accident.
Mrs. Hunt, a 57 year old wife and mother of three, employed as a nurses aide at a hospital in Shreveport, testified she was on her way home from work about 4:00 on the afternoon of December 5, 1972. She was driving north on Highway 1, north of Shreveport, at a speed of 55--65 miles per hour. The posted speed limit at the time was 60 miles per hour. It was raining and the two-lane paved highway was wet. She pulled into the left lane to pass a car and as she did so she heard a loud 'pop' in the steering column. When she got past the car she was passing and attempted to turn back into the right lane, the steering wheel 'froze' and would not turn. This is the last thing she remembers although she was fairly certain she then applied her brakes.
The car left the highway on the left-hand side, struck a mailbox, a culvert, several small pine trees, overturned and came to rest against a stump, some 110 feet from where it left the highway.
E. L. Newland was driving south on Highway 1 near the scene of the accident. He saw a car in front of him put on his brakes and 'fish tail' indicating the highway was slick. He then saw Mrs. Hunt's car in the ditch to his right, but did not actually see Mrs. Hunt's car leave the road. The driver of the car in front of him went to call for help and apparently did not return to the scene. Newland stopped to help.
Mrs. Hunt was pinned under the steering wheel of the car. Large clippers were used to cut the steering wheel so she could be removed from the automobile.
Mrs. Hunt was seriously injured, was in intensive care for about three weeks and was in the hospital for about nine months.
The car was a total loss and was sold to Willie Veditz, co-owner of Jake's Auto Parts, for $300--$400. The car remained in his salvage yard, but he sold some parts related to the steering mechanism including the steering linkage and steering gear.
This suit was filed December 3, 1973, alleging the accident was caused by a manufacturing defect in the steerring mechanism. This was the first Ford or Gant knew about any claims against them. About a year after the accident, when Mrs. Hunt was well enough, she and Mr. Hunt looked at the car in the salvage yard and took some photographs. In February, 1974, at the instruction of Gant's attorney, the steering wheel and column (mast jacket) were removed from the wrecked automobile and sent to Herman Warkentin of Analysis Investigation Determination in Texas for examination. He disassembled the item and examined and photographed it. The disassembled steering column was later sent to Dr. William Tonn, an engineer and accident reconstruction expert in Houston, at the request of plaintiff's counsel. The mechanism was later examined by Mr. Hoppin with Ford in Michigan. The steering assembly was preserved and offered into evidence at the trial.
There was considerable testimony at the trial related to the history of the automobile since purchase and problems with the steering wheel. The Hunts purchased the 1972 LTD new from Gant in late 1971. Within a few days they noticed a 'popping' noise in the steering wheel when turning. The steering wheel would also 'hang up .' they noticed greasy 'shavings' in their laps which came from the steering wheel or column.
The car was taken back to Gant. Employees of the dealer removed the steering wheel and looked at the column 'from the top' inside the car. It was determined that the steering wheel was warped and that the shavings were caused by the steering wheel rubbing against the column. Gant installed a new steering wheel--a black one which was temporary until a proper matching red one could be obtained.
Mrs. Hunt continued to experience the same difficulties with the steering mechanism. She and various members of her family described some of the difficulties as 'binding', 'it would bind on you', 'sluggish' and 'hard to turn.' The car was taken back to Gant and the new red steering wheel installed. Mrs. Hunt continued to have the same problems after this last installation.
Mrs. Hunt testified she took the car to Gant many times complaining about the steering and that sometimes they wrote up a ticket and other times they were too busy to work on it. Gant's records showed three occasions when a work ticket was written up, the two occasions mentioned above when the wheel was replaced twice, and a final occasion in August, 1972.
In August, Mrs. Hunt took the car to Gant again with the same complaints. Gant's work ticket shows 'steering wheel hangs when turning only at times.' At least two of Gant's people, including Mr . Gant, road tested the automobile and found nothing wrong. The steering wheel was not disassembled or inspected in any detail. No work was done and the car was returned to Mrs. Hunt.
A few days later, Mrs. Hunt wrote Ford Motor Company complaining that the steering wheel of her car was warped, that she could not get satisfaction from Gant, and asked if Ford could do anything about it. The letter was mailed to Ford in Michigan. A few days later Mrs. Hunt got the letter back in a Gant envelope. No response was made to her complaint, but a Gant employee wrote a note on the bottom of the letter asking Mrs. Hunt for payment of a $7 bill owed by her to Gant.
Mrs. Hunt then took the car to Claude DeBeaux Ford in Vivian. Some work was done on the car, but DeBeaux's records do not reveal anything related to the steering mechanism.
The accident occurred in December.
At the trial, Ford's experts, Warkentin and Hoppin, each testified they examined the steering wheel and column removed from the automobile, found some damage which in their opinion was impact damage, and found nothing which could have caused the steering wheel to 'lock' or 'freeze.' Plaintiffs offered no expert testimony. A letter from Dr. Tonn, to whom plaintiff sent the steering mechanism for examination, was filed into evidence by both sides. The letter has little probative value, merely reciting that Tonn had examined the mechanism, that the shavings indicated a defect of some nature, and that the continuation of the same problems after the steering wheel was replaced indicated that Gant had failed to repair the original defect.
The Ford experts were not asked and did not testify whether the parts sold by the salvage yard related to the steering mechanism could have played a part in the alleged failure of the steering wheel to turn. The Ford experts' testimony was limited to their examination of the particular parts examined by them, in which they found no defect accounting for the alleged failure.
The jury obviously believed Mrs. Hunt's account of how the accident happened, that is, that the steering wheel froze and would not turn. Although Ford attacks her credibility on the basis of a number of alleged inconsistencies, all of the so-called inconsistencies are very minor and there is nothing of consequence in the evidence to cast doubt on her...
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