Knippen v. Ford Motor Co.

• Decision Date: 08 November 1976
• Docket Number: 75-2049,Nos. 75-1892,s. 75-1892
• Parties: George R. KNIPPEN, Appellant, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, et al. George R. KNIPPEN v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Appellant, and Winifrede B. DeWeese.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 993

546 F.2d 993

178 U.S.App.D.C. 227

George R. KNIPPEN, Appellant, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, et al.

George R. KNIPPEN v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Appellant, and Winifrede B. DeWeese.

Nos. 75-1892, 75-2049.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued May 19, 1976.

Decided Nov. 8, 1976.

Paul Martin Wolff, Washington, D.C., with whom David N. Webster and William W. Graham, Washington, D.C., were on the brief for George R. Knippen.

Frank J. Martell, Washington, D.C., for Ford Motor Co.

Before BAZELON, Chief Judge, TAMM, Circuit Judge and CHRISTENSEN, ^* United States Senior District Judge for the District of Utah.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TAMM.

TAMM, Circuit Judge:

The issues presented in these consolidated appeals arise out of an automobile accident in which George R. Knippen (Knippen) was struck by a 1968 Mercury station wagon manufactured by Ford Motor Company (Ford). After a full trial Judge Robinson entered a judgment against Ford on the jury's special verdict that Ford had breached its duty to design a vehicle which protects against unreasonable risk of injury and had proximately caused enhancement of Knippen's injuries. Ford's three pronged attack on this judgment alleges that the trial court erred in: 1) holding that Ford owed Knippen a duty to avoid unreasonably dangerous features in its automotive designs which may enhance the injuries received in a highway collision even though the collision itself is not caused by the vehicle's design, 2) finding that Knippen was not guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, and 3) refusing to admit into evidence photographs of automobiles other than 1968 Mercury station wagons which had been offered to show that Knippen would have suffered the same injuries in collisions with other vehicles. Knippen cross-appeals alleging error in the trial court's award of a directed verdict denying his punitive damages claim against Ford. Our examination of the record and the law leads us to the conclusion that Judge Robinson ruled correctly on each of the issues raised by the parties and consequently we affirm the judgment of the district court.

On March 28, 1970 Knippen was riding north on his motorbike. A 1968 Mercury station wagon approached him from the opposite direction and attempted to turn left across his lane. Knippen was struck by the left front of the automobile and as a result suffered very serious injuries including severe tearing away of the muscles and soft tissue in his lower left leg. Knippen filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against Ford and the driver of the 1968 Mercury station wagon which had struck him. He filed a separate action against the owner of the station wagon. These actions were consolidated and tried together before a jury. The trial court granted Ford a directed verdict denying Knippen's claim for punitive damages and submitted the case to the jury. The jury, in answer to special interrogatories, found that the driver's negligence had proximately caused Knippen's injuries and that Ford had been negligent in the design of its 1968 Mercury station wagon and thereby proximately caused the enhancement of Knippen's injuries. The trial court entered judgment against the driver and owner for $300,000 of which Ford was ordered to pay $250,000. Ford's motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or alternatively for a new trial was denied. These appeals followed.

Knippen's leg injury was due in large part to contact with a sharply pointed triangular metal projection behind the plastic lens hood of the 1968 Mercury's turning signal and parking light assembly. The turning signal bulb and parking light bulb on this model are located vertically one above the other at the outside edge of the front fender. These bulbs must be separated by an opaque or reflective divider so that the parking light does not obscure the turning signal. Ford met this functional requirement with a rigid metal divider in the shape of an isosceles triangle with its base firmly attached to the body of the car and its tip extending four inches out to the inside edge of the plastic lens hood which covers the entire turning signal and parking light assembly.

I. SCOPE OF MANUFACTURER'S DUTY

Ford argues that as a matter of law it cannot be liable to Knippen because a manufacturer of a motor vehicle owes a duty only to those injured through the use of its vehicle for its intended purpose. Ford reasons that injuries arising from highway collisions which are not caused by any defect in the vehicle are remote possibilities for which manufacturers should never be liable. Ford relies on language in Jamieson v. Woodward & Lothrop, 101 U.S.App.D.C. 32, 247 F.2d 23, cert. denied, 335 U.S. 855, 78 S.Ct. 84, 2 L.Ed.2d 63 (1957) to support its contention that this is the law in the District of Columbia.

(S)o far as foreseeability is concerned, not only may the usual be foreseen, but the unusual may often be foreseen as a remote possibility. A manufacturer may foresee as a remote possibility that a metal decoration on a jewelry box may scratch one and cause an infection; the heel of a lady's shoe may break . . . causing serious injury; or that a stickpin may stab a man to the heart. Yet for these remote eventualities the law imposes no liability on the manufacturer. "Reasonably foreseeable" . . . does not encompass the far reaches of pessimistic imagination.

Id. at 29 (footnotes omitted).

Jamieson, however, is both factually and legally distinct from the case presently before us. Jamieson held that a manufacturer of a rubber exercise rope was not liable for the injury caused by the rope when it slipped off the soles of the user's feet and snapped into her eye while she was exercising. The court specifically noted that the case did not raise the issue of negligent design but rested on the manufacturer's alleged negligence in failing to warn the purchaser of the elastic characteristics of the rope. Id. at 25. Moreover, although the Jamieson opinion at times speaks in terms of "no duty" the holding of the case can easily be explained as a finding that the manufacturer acted as a reasonable person and discharged any duty that it had. We cannot say that the Jamieson conclusion that a manufacturer does not have to warn users that "if an elastic band . . . is stretched and . . . slips, the elastic snaps back," id. at 28, settles the question of whether an automobile manufacturer has a duty to design its product to avoid unreasonably dangerous features that may enhance injuries in a collision.

Knippen cites five decisions from this court to counter Ford's statement of the law in the District of Columbia and argues that they establish the broad principle that reasonably foreseeable negligence does not relieve a defendant of liability. Becker v. Colonial Parking, Inc., 133 U.S.App.D.C. 213, 409 F.2d 1130, 1136 (1969); Kendall v. Gore Properties, Inc., 98 U.S.App.D.C. 378, 236 F.2d 673 (1956); Hecht Co. v. Jacobsen, 86 U.S.App.D.C. 81, 180 F.2d 13 (1950); Howard v. Swagart, 82 U.S.App.D.C. 147, 161 F.2d 651 (1947); Ross v. Hartman, 78 U.S.App.D.C. 217, 139 F.2d 14, cert. denied, 321 U.S. 790, 64 S.Ct. 790, 88 L.Ed. 1080 (1943). Like Jamieson each of these cases is distinguishable on the facts; ¹ none addresses the question of an automobile manufacturer's liability for enhanced injuries when its negligent design has not caused the accident.

Our own research has not revealed a case from this jurisdiction which deals dispositively with the issue raised by Ford. A growing number of states and several federal courts, however, have dealt with this issue. The cases can be divided into two contrary lines of authority generally represented by Evans v. General Motors Corp., 359 F.2d 822 (7th Cir. 1966), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 836, 87 S.Ct. 83, 17 L.Ed.2d 70 (1967) and Larsen v. General Motors Corp., 391 F.2d 495 (8th Cir. 1968).

In Evans the driver of an automobile was killed when the left side of his car collapsed in upon him as it was struck from the side by another vehicle. Plaintiff alleged that the manufacturer had been negligent in using an X-frame design without side frame rails rather than a perimeter frame. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff's suit and held that a manufacturer does not have a duty to make its automobile "accident-proof". Evans, supra, 359 F.2d at 824. The court noted that each case cited by the plaintiff involved a product unfit for its intended use and concluded:

The intended purpose of an automobile does not include its participation in collisions with other objects, despite the manufacturer's ability to foresee the possibility that such collisions may occur. . . . (A manufacturer) also knows that its automobiles may be driven into bodies of water, but it is not suggested that (a manufacturer) has a duty to equip them with pontoons.

Id. at 825.

In Larsen the plaintiff alleged that the negligent design of an automobile's steering assembly enhanced the injuries he received in an accident which admittedly was not caused by the vehicle's design. The trial court granted summary judgment for the defendant-manufacturer relying on Evans. The Eighth Circuit reversed and after a thorough review of prior case law found that

(w)here the injuries or enhanced injuries are due to the manufacturer's failure to use reasonable care to avoid . . . an unreasonable risk of injury, general negligence principles should be applicable.

Larsen, supra, 391 F.2d at 502. The court rejected a narrow construction of "intended use" as unrealistic, reasoning that while automobiles are not made for the purpose of colliding, accidents are statistically inevitable incidents of normal, expected use. Id. In summation the Larsen court stated:

We perceive of (sic ) no sound reason . . . why the manufacturer should not be held to a reasonable duty of care in the design of its vehicle consonant...