Jones v. Hutchinson Mfg., Inc.
| Decision Date | 15 June 1973 |
| Citation | 502 S.W.2d 66 |
| Parties | Melinda JONES, etc., et al., Appellants, v. HUTCHINSON MANUFACTURING, INC., et al., Appellees. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
J. D. Ruark, Tom D. Harris, Morganfield, for appellants.
Clarence Bartlett, Bartlett, McCarroll & Nunley, Owensboro, J. Quentin Wesley, Wathen & Wesley, Morganfield, for appellees.
This is a product liability case. The issue is whether the manufacturer of a grain auger, an item of farm machinery, is subject to liability for negligence or for using an unreasonably dangerous design of its product in the factual circumstances presented.
Richard Jones, a farmer and father of two infant girls, Melinda, age 5, and Melissa, age 7, contracted with Adamson to harvest a corn crop on Jones' mother's farm. Adamson furnished the combine, two dump-bed type trucks and the auger type grain elevator. On the occasion of the accident in October 1968, Jones assumed charge of the operation of the trucks, the grain auger, the tractor that operated it, and the unloading process; he was assisted by Adamson's 15-year-old son. Jones allowed his two young daughters to ride upon a load of corn in the bed of a dump truck. Jones stated that he backed this truck up to the hopper and told his children to get down from the truck; they replied something he did not understand. Jones then left the truck and went to the rear of the grain bins and activated the scatterer, which was located on the bins; then he started the tractor, which was attached to the grain auger and elevator. Jones said he walked to a point near the left rear of the truck and sat down on a five-gallon can to direct young Adamson, who was then in the cab of the truck, in raising the front end of the truck to permit the corn to run out a trap door located at the rear of the truck. Jones stated that he looked on the corn for the children but did not see them.
When all the corn had gone into the auger except some which had lodged in the corners of the truck bed, young adamson went into the truck bed to shovel out the remaining corn. At this time, he saw the children standing on the truck bed holding to a chain that connected the two sides of it. For some reason Melinda, the five-year-old, let loose of the chain and slid through the trap door onto the grain auger. The auger tore off her left foot and part of her left leg before Jones could remove her from the machinery.
Melinda Jones, the plaintiff by her next friend, sued the manufacturer of the auger, Hutchinson Manufacturing, Incorporated, and its local retailer who had sold the auger to Adamson. The manufacturer and the retailer brought in Melinda Jones' father, Richard Jones, as third-party defendant. Without detailing preliminary procedural skirmishes, we deem it sufficient to say that the trial judge disposed of the action on summary judgment based on the evidentiary material submitted by the parties. The trial judge concluded: (a) the action could not be maintained under the so-called 'strict liability' theory because this state had not extended this doctrine to bystanders who were not consumers of the product that was the alleged cause of the harm; (b) the action, insofar as it was based on negligence, was not maintainable because Richard Jones' negligence was a superseding cause of the harm, which under the circumstances presented insulated the manufacturer and its retailer from liability for negligence as a matter of law. Judgment was entered dismissing the suit, and Melinda Jones appealed. The appeal contends that we should extend the doctrine of strict liability to protect bystanders and that we should hold that the action should be submitted to a jury under both the doctrines of strict liability and negligence and that the issue of whether Richard Jones' negligence was the sole legal cause of the harm should be submitted to the jury.
The auger was guarded by three one-half-inch iron rods running lengthwise and spaced three and one-fourth inches apart. The plaintiff admits that the design in question has been continuously used in the industry since at least 1962. No witnesses claimed ever to have seen a grain auger that was designed or constructed differently. The plaintiff introduced evidence that two adult farmers in the neighborhood had been injured when their feet were caught in a similarly guarded auger. Adamson said that after the accident he placed a protective shield over the auger and the machine operated satisfactorily.
The plaintiff's expert opinion evidence consisted of the statement of a professor of agricultural engineering who was a safety engineer . The expert said that from his examination of the auger it was his opinion that the plaintiff's injury was caused by the failure of the manufacturer to adequately shield the auger; this expert further said that in his opinion the manufacturer could have manufactured and provided a shield to prevent hands and feet from getting into the revolving auger. He also stated: His conclusion was that this design would protect the feet and hands of the user or anyone in the vicinity of the auger while it was in use without interfering with the function and satisfactory use of the auger, which would operate properly with his recommended design whether the grain handled was dry or moist.
The manufacturer produced several experts who deposed that the auger in question was designed and constructed as all others are designed and constructed throughout this country and in other parts of the world. According to these experts, it had been found that shielding or guarding more than was done by the design of this auger, impairs the efficiency of the machine and makes it undesirable for the purposes intended.
It appears, therefore, that we are confronted with the first case of alleged deficient design of a product by a manufacturer since we adopted the so-called doctrine of strict liability as enunciated in section 402A of the Second Restatement of Torts in Dealer's Transport Co. v. Battery Distributing Co., Ky., 402 S.W.2d 441 (1965). An additional element relevant to our consideration of the problems raised is that aside from our 1965 adoption of the strict liability concept we have previously subscribed to the general view espoused in section 395 of the Second Restatement of Torts that a manufacturer is subject to liability to those whom he should expect to use his product or to be endangered by its probable use where the product is made under a design which makes it dangerous for the uses for which it is manufactured. See Herme v. Tway, Ky., 294 S.W.2d 534 (1956), wherein we approved application of the standard of reasonable care to the manufacturer under the generalized statement of Section 395 of the Second Restatement of Torts. Section 398 of the same work is a special application of the general rule contained in Section 395. Under Section 398 the standard of conduct required is to 'exercise reasonable care in the adoption of a safe plan or design.'
Section 402A of the Second Restatement expresses the so-called 'strict...
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