King v. Ford Motor Co., 76-2528

• Decision Date: 20 June 1979
• Docket Number: No. 76-2528,76-2528
• Parties: 4 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 512 James H. KING and Hazel King, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, a Delaware Corporation, Defendant-Third-Party Plaintiff Appellant, v. FLXIBLE SOUTHERN COMPANY, INC., a corporation, Third-Party Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 436

597 F.2d 436

4 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 512

James H. KING and Hazel King, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, a Delaware Corporation, Defendant-Third-Party Plaintiff Appellant, v. FLXIBLE SOUTHERN COMPANY, INC., a corporation, Third-Party Defendant.

No. 76-2528.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

June 20, 1979.

Michael D. Knight, Mobile, Ala., for Ford Motor Co.

Wm. D. Melton, Evergreen, Ala., Richard Bounds, Mobile, Ala., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.

Before RONEY, TJOFLAT and HILL, Circuit Judges.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

In this diversity action, James and Hazel King, pursuant to a general verdict returned by a jury, recovered a $350,000 judgment against Ford Motor Company (Ford) for personal injuries suffered by Mr. King due to the malfunction of a motor vehicle chassis manufactured by Ford. In this appeal, Ford asks us to find that none of the plaintiffs' several theories of liability was established by the evidence and to direct the district court to enter a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. If a judgment n. o. v. is not in order, Ford seeks a new trial on three independent grounds: (1) the evidence is insufficient to support each of the plaintiffs' theories of liability; (2) the amount of the verdict is excessive; and (3) the district court committed reversible error by refusing to admit photographs of the Ford chassis into evidence. For the reasons set forth below, we reject Ford's arguments and affirm.

I

James King was formerly employed by the Flxible Southern Corporation, Inc. (Flxible) in its Evergreen, Alabama plant. ¹ Flxible was in the business of purchasing partially completed chassis from the major motor vehicle manufacturers, including Ford and General Motors Corporation, constructing truck or van bodies over the chassis, and selling the completed vehicles to various purchasers. King worked on the Flxible assembly line where the incomplete chassis were converted into the finished product.

On October 4, 1974, King had become ahead in his work, so he left his assigned job station in order to help Allen Miller, a co-worker stationed directly behind him on the assembly line. Meanwhile, John Rudolph, another co-worker, was installing wiring and electrical systems in a Ford chassis (the Rudolph chassis) at the station immediately in front of King's. In order to test the effectiveness of his work, Rudolph attached the battery cables to the battery of the Rudolph chassis; as a rule, on the assembly line the cables were kept detached. The chassis motor suddenly began operation and the chassis lurched to the rear, striking the one at King's station. This chassis in turn moved to the rear, pinning King between it and the chassis at Miller's station. King thereby suffered the injuries that gave rise to this suit.

II

We first consider Ford's contention that the proof failed to establish that the accident was caused by some fault of Ford. Since the jury returned a general verdict, to be entitled to a judgment n. o. v. Ford must demonstrate that the plaintiffs failed to make out a case under any of their alternative theories of liability. To entitle it to a new trial, however, Ford need only show that the evidence is insufficient to support one of the plaintiffs' theories. ²

In diversity cases in this circuit, a district court applies the federal, rather than the state, standard for determining whether a party's evidence is sufficient to defeat a motion for a directed verdict or judgment n. o. v. Boeing Co. v. Shipman, 411 F.2d 365, 368 (5th Cir. 1969) (en banc). Under that standard,

the Court should consider all of the evidence not just that evidence which supports the non-mover's case but in the light and with all reasonable inferences most favorable to the party opposed to the motion. If the facts and inferences point so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of one party that the Court believes that reasonable men could not arrive at a contrary verdict, granting of the motions is proper. On the other hand, if there is substantial evidence opposed to the motions, that is, evidence of such quality and weight that reasonable and fair-minded men in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions, the motions should be denied, and the case submitted to the jury. . . . (I)t is the function of the jury as the traditional finder of the facts, and not the Court, to weigh conflicting evidence and inferences, and determine the credibility of witnesses.

Id. at 374-75 (footnote omitted). In our view, the court below correctly found that reasonable men might disagree concerning the cause of the accident and that it was within the jury's province to resolve the issues presented by each theory of the plaintiffs' case.

Several credible witnesses testified that at the time of the accident the ignition of the Rudolph chassis was turned off and the automatic transmission was set in park. Thus, when the battery was connected the vehicle should not have started and moved in reverse; both the ignition sequence and the transmission had to be defective for this accident to occur. At trial, testimony was offered by the plaintiffs to show that the chassis's solenoid (starter relay) was defective thereby causing the chassis to start even though the ignition was turned off, and that the transmission was misaligned so that it was in reverse when the transmission indicator pointed to "P" (park). Ford disputed the testimony that the solenoid was defective and argued that any misalignment of the transmission occurred on Flxible's assembly line, not at the Ford factory.

The district court charged the jury that the Kings could recover against Ford if the accident were proximately caused by any one of the following: (1) a Rudolph chassis manufactured and sold by Ford to Flxible with (a) a defective solenoid or (b) a misaligned transmission; (2) Ford's negligent inspection of the Rudolph chassis; (3) a transmission whose misalignment occurred on Flxible's assembly line because Ford negligently failed to warn Flxible that its assembly line procedures could cause such misalignment; or (4) Ford's breach of an implied warranty that the Rudolph chassis was fit for the ordinary purpose for which it was sold. ³ We now discuss the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the alternative theories of liability that were submitted to the jury. In doing so, we concentrate on the evidentiary deficiencies cited to us by Ford.

A. The Defective Solenoid.

Soon after the accident, Edward Tatum, the service manager for the Ford dealership in Evergreen, was asked by Flxible to inspect the Rudolph chassis. ⁴ Tatum had considerable training and experience in the operation and maintenance of Ford vehicles and was familiar with the type of vehicle involved in the accident. Tatum testified as an expert witness on behalf of the plaintiffs. He stated that when he inspected the Rudolph chassis ⁵ and hooked the cables to a fully charged battery, the chassis starter engaged the flywheel, thereby turning the engine even though the ignition was in an "off" position. Record, vol. II, at 177. Tatum therefore concluded that the chassis's starter solenoid was defective. A new solenoid ordinarily should last until its vehicle is driven from thirty to forty thousand miles. Tatum pointed out, however, that "a particular solenoid unit that is exposed to weather, for instance, is subject to collect moisture in that unit, therefore causing corrosion" and creating a direct connection through the solenoid unit. Id. at 195-97. A direct connection, Tatum explained, could cause the defective ignition system he found on the Rudolph chassis; his opinion was that such had occurred in this case. Id. at 197. He felt that the defect might manifest itself only occasionally, however; the solenoid "might have worked two or three, or four or five or a half a dozen times, and all of a sudden it could happen, could have made its contact." Id. at 219. Tatum was confident about his testimony even though he never examined the interior parts of the solenoid in question. Tatum's opinion was buttressed by Fred Weinheimer, Ford's district service engineer, who agreed that corrosion caused by exposure to weather could cause a solenoid to malfunction, Id. at 334-35, 342-43, and by Earl Sadler, Flxible's supervisor of inspectors, who recalled that when Tatum tested the chassis after the accident, Tatum had to jar the solenoid in order to break the contacts loose because they were sticking. Record, vol. III, at 517-18, 531.

With this testimony in the record, there was substantial evidence to warrant jury deliberation of the question whether the Rudolph chassis's solenoid was defective. In reaching this conclusion, we have not overlooked Ford's argument that the "physical facts" doctrine requires a finding that the solenoid was not defective as a matter of law. Under Ford's expression of that doctrine, Tatum's opinion that the solenoid was defective due to corrosion must be completely discounted because there was evidence that an independent physical examination of the Rudolph chassis's solenoid disclosed no such corrosion. In the face of this examination, Ford's argument proceeds, the jury could not have found the solenoid defective because the plaintiffs failed to establish some other cause for the malfunction. Consequently, Ford concludes, every theory of the plaintiffs' case that depends upon the existence of a defective solenoid must fall.

The problem with Ford's argument is that the record contains competent, probative evidence that the solenoid was corroded. The physical facts evidence, in our view, consisted of nothing more than the testimony of Ford witnesses who insisted that they saw no signs of corrosion when they examined the solenoid. The conflict between these witnesses and the plaintiffs' expert, Tatum, was plainly one for the...