Jaurequi v. Carter Mfg. Co., Inc.

Decision Date06 April 1999
Docket NumberNo. 97-3142,97-3142
Citation173 F.3d 1076
PartiesProd.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 15,525 Juan JAUREQUI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CARTER MANUFACTURING CO., INC., Defendant, John Deere Company; Deere & Company, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

James R. Branit, Chicago, IL (Maurice B. Graham, Michael D. Murphy, St. Louis, MO, James Randall A. Carlisle, Chicago, IL, on the brief), for appellant.

Daniel K. Barklage, St. Charles, MO (John L. Oliver, Jr., Cape Girardeau, MO, on the brief), for appellee.

BEFORE: McMILLIAN and HANSEN, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS, 1 District Judge.

HANSEN, Circuit Judge.

Juan Jaurequi brought this diversity action against John Deere Company and Deere & Company (collectively "Deere"), alleging that design and warning defects associated with a Deere corn head proximately caused an accident in which Jaurequi's legs were amputated. Shortly before trial, Deere moved for the exclusion of Jaurequi's proffered expert testimony and for summary judgment. The district court 2 granted both motions, and Jaurequi appeals. We affirm.

I.

Deere manufactures mobile combines which harvest and process various crops, including corn, beans, and milo. Although the same combine may be used for all of these crops, each crop requires the use of a different "head" to gather the standing crop and convey it into the combine for processing. For example, when harvesting corn, a corn head must be attached to the front of the combine. This case involves a 1974 Model 343 Deere three row corn head. The corn head contains several moving parts which draw the corn stalks in and separate the ears of corn from the stalks as the combine moves down the rows of corn. A cross auger then moves the separated ears to the rear center of the head where the ears are deposited at the throat of the combine and are then taken up into the bowels of the combine where they are husked and shelled. A corn head is intended to be used only for corn, and only while the combine is moving through a field harvesting standing corn.

The corn head at issue in this case was manufactured and sold by Deere in Moline, Illinois, in 1974. In 1986, Carter Manufacturing (Carter) acquired the already used corn head on behalf of Texas Triumph Seed Company (Texas Triumph). Texas Triumph, a specialty seed company, required a unit specially suited for harvesting small test plots of corn. Carter constructed this specialty unit out of a 1961 Massey-Harris combine and the Deere corn head. Both components were significantly modified so that they could work together and so that they could accomplish Texas Triumph's needs. This new combination unit was suitable only for research plot use and was named the "Carter Plot Combine." Deere was never informed or consulted regarding the modifications made to its corn head.

When Carter purchased the corn head, all of the original warnings Deere had placed on it had been obliterated with green paint by a previous owner. Rather than replacing the warnings with updated ones available from a Deere dealer, or uncovering the original warnings, Carter again painted over the entire corn head, including the already painted over warnings, with red paint to match the red Massey combine.

The plaintiff, Juan Jaurequi, was an employee of Texas Triumph when the injuries giving rise to this suit occurred. On the day he was injured, Jaurequi, together with other Texas Triumph employees, was using the Carter Plot Combine to harvest milo, also known as sorghum. The Carter Plot Combine had not been constructed with this use in mind, and the unit was in fact incapable of harvesting standing milo. However, it was possible to place hand-picked milo heads directly on the cross auger at a point well behind the corn head's dangerous crop gathering parts where it would then be transported to the throat of the combine. This is what Jaurequi and his coworkers were doing on the date of the accident. The workers hand-picked the standing milo and brought this milo in bags to the stationary but operating combine. The workers, standing to the side and near the rear of the corn head, then dumped the bags of milo onto the cross auger at the rear of the corn head at a point behind the corn head's uselessly churning snapping rolls and gathering chains and hooks. This process was necessary because Texas Triumph had neglected to bring its milo harvester to the Missouri test plots.

On the day before the accident, when the machine had been used to harvest corn, Jaurequi was warned by a coworker, Jerry Anquiano, that he should never go in front of the corn head, because the machine's dangerous moving parts would pull him into the corn head. Additionally, on the day of the accident, Jaurequi was twice warned by Ronald Terrell, another coworker, that he should not feed the corn head from the front because he risked being pulled in by the moving parts. Terrell instructed Jaurequi to stand to the side of the corn head when feeding the machine. However, Jaurequi persisted in feeding the machine from the front. On one occasion, Jaurequi moved too close to the corn head's moving parts which gather the stalks and snap off the ears. His legs became enmeshed in the machinery, and he sustained severe injuries to both legs which have left him a double amputee. After the accident, Jaurequi admitted to at least four people and on at least eight occasions that the accident was entirely his fault and that he had been warned of the dangers. (See Jt.App. at 740-42, 748-50, 847, 850-52, 945-49, 981-82, 1066, 1093-96).

Jaurequi later brought this products liability action against Deere, alleging that Deere was both strictly liable and liable in negligence for failures to warn and for design defects associated with the corn head. Central to Jaurequi's case was the proffered "expert" testimony of Terrence Willis and Harold Wakely.

Terrence Willis, a mechanical engineer, was prepared to testify that Jaurequi "was not provided the necessary detail which would identify where the hazard zone ended and the safety region began," and that "[s]uch specific information cannot be determined visually ... because of the speed at which the gathering chains suddenly emerge from under the snout...." (Jt.App. at 188). It was Willis's opinion that although "the motion of the gathering chains in the immediate vicinity of the snapping rolls is open and obvious," the risk is not obvious at the point at which the gathering chains emerge, which is closer to the tips of the snouts. (Id. at 189). At the point of emergence, Willis stated that the gathering hooks are invisible because they are moving so fast. Willis admitted, however, that he had never observed the corn head at issue while it was running (id. at 344) and that he had never seen any corn head in operation except from the roadside during his various trips through the Illinois countryside. (Id. at 337). When asked for the basis of his opinion that the gathering hooks are invisible when they emerge from under the snout, Willis stated, "I guess as an engineer, I know what it looks like in the running mode." (Id. at 344).

Willis believed that the corn head should have been equipped with "larger and more prominent warnings." (Id. at 188). In particular, Willis proposed "a plastic covered snout area colored with black and yellow stripes." (Id. at 189). Willis speculated in his affidavit that, had the warnings been designed as he suggests, they would not have been painted over. (Id. at 189). However, he admitted in his deposition that he had no basis for this belief. (Id. at 351).

In his affidavit, Willis stated that Jaurequi was not warned of the "specifics of this hazard zone." (Id. at 188). In his deposition, however, Willis admitted that he had not evaluated Jaurequi's behavior and had focused his analysis only on the question of whether the mechanical design of the corn head was defective. (Id. at 338). He admitted that he did not actually know what Jaurequi knew or did not know. (Id. at 343).

Willis further opined that Deere should have incorporated "awareness barriers" into its corn head. (Id. at 190-91, 351-55). Specifically, Willis opined that awareness barriers would foster safety and would not interfere with the operation of the machine. (Id. at 352-53). Willis admitted, however, that he had not studied the feasibility of this idea, much less designed and tested it. (Id. at 354). He additionally admitted that he was unaware of any studies indicating the effectiveness of awareness barriers, (id. at 354), and that he had never before designed an awareness barrier of any kind. (Id. at 359). Finally, Willis admitted that he was aware of no manufacturer of corn heads which had ever put awareness barriers in front of the gathering chains as he proposed should be done. (Id. at 354).

Jaurequi also proffered the expert testimony of Harold Wakely, a human factors engineer who holds a doctorate in experimental psychology. Wakely was prepared to testify that the corn head was defective because the original warning signs were too small, too far from the point of danger, and oriented at an angle which made them difficult to read. Additionally, Wakely was prepared to testify that the warning did not emphasize the precise point at which the danger was concentrated. Wakely admitted, however, that he had never read the original warnings on the corn head and did not know what these warnings actually said. (Id. at 302-03).

Wakely felt that alternative warnings were necessary because the gathering hook on the gathering chain "is not visible at the time of danger but only after the greatest hazard is passed as it moves away from the subject." (Id. at 178). Wakely stated in his affidavit that although Jaurequi had been warned by his coworkers of general dangers associated with the combine, Jaurequi was not aware of "the exact location of the danger," i.e., the gathering hooks at the point...

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