Knudson v. Edgewater Automotive Division

• Decision Date: 20 July 1971
• Docket Number: No. 11859,11859
• Citation: 486 P.2d 596,157 Mont. 400
• Parties: Archie R. KNUDSON, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. EDGEWATER AUTOMOTIVE DIVISION, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

Page 596

486 P.2d 596

157 Mont. 400

Archie R. KNUDSON, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. EDGEWATER AUTOMOTIVE DIVISION, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 11859.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted Nov. 18, 1970.

Decided June 17, 1971.

Rehearing Denied July 20, 1971.

Korn, Warden & Walterskirchen, Kalispell, Merritt N. Warden and Gary R. Christiansen, argued, Kalispell, for appellant.

Murphy, Robinson, Heckathorn & Phillips, Kalispell, I. James Heckathorn, argued, Kalispell, for respondent.

DALY, Justice.

This is a personal injury action by a mechanic employed by the Smith Motors of Polson, Montana, against the manufacturer of an automotive jack. The jack was designed and distributed for use by garages, service stations and auto repair shops. The jack had been purchased new by plaintiff's employer and was being used by plaintiff in his employment at the time he was injured. A jury in the district court of Flathead County, the Honorable Robert C. Sykes, district judge presiding, returned a general verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $99,907 and judgment was entered thereon. From this final judgment the defendant appeals.

Plaintiff Archie R. Knudson, while employed by Smith Motors at Polson, Montana, on July 19, 1963, as a mechanic, used a 'Fleet' brand jack, Model 5-31, manufactured by defendant to raise the front and of an automobile.

The jack in question is designed to be placed at the front or rear of an automobile. It has horizontal metal arms encased in a metal sleeve and the arms overlap each other inside the sleeve. There are bumper saddles on each end of the arms which make contact with the automobile bumper so that the car can be raised. The arms can be extended or contracted horizontally to accommodate the car bumper to which it is to be fitted to raise the vehicle. The jack is designed so that the arms to remain rigid and hold the bumper properly and not roll or tilt forward and drop the vehicle, must overlap each other inside the sleeve. When mdaximum extension and minimum overlap of the arms is achieved the arm ends inside the sleeve contact a 'roll pin' in the center of the sleeve. This is designed to stop the arms and prevent the arms from bieng over-extended, because upon over-extension the design allows the arms to turn. A word description of the jack function is difficult. The jack was demonstrated before the jury and was demonstrated by counsel before this Court. A visual observation clearly demonstrates a design that, without a foolproof pin-it not being capable of being visually inspected-would permit a jury to find as it did that the design was faulty.

Plaintiff extended the jack arms and raised the automobile, rolled under the car on his creeper, put his wrench onto the head of a bolt and that is all he remembered.

Warren P. Morse, shop foreman for Smith Motors, was listed as a witness by plaintiff at pretrial and several days prior to trial, which was to begin on Monday, November 10, 1969, advised he was to enter the hospital for back surgery. Upon motion and hearing the court ordered his deposition taken and his testimony was admitted at the trial by deposition. Morse testified he did not witness the accident but after assisting Mr. Knudson to the hospital returned to Smith Motors and examined the jack which had been used by Kundson. He stated he found the pin that stops the arms from extending too far was broken and the top of the pin was still in place but the other part of the pin had dropped out through the bottom. He examined the pin and found it beat and bent with impressions on it from usage. It was bent in an 'S' from the extension arms contact. The extension arms were tilted forward in an unnatural position. The jack in question had been purchased new from Polson Auto Parts on November 24, 1959 and had a useful life of approximately 15-20 years. Mr. Roy Curry, owner of Polson Auto Parts testified he tested the jack before delivery and there was a stop pin in place. He carried repair parts for the jack but had no inquiries from Smith Motors for parts. Mr. Morse testified the jack was in good condition and no repairs or alterations had been made to his knowledge at the time of the accident. Further, in his opinion it was not possible and there was no reason for anyone to have made any alteration to the jack until the accident. He admitted, however, he did not have his eyes on the jack for the entire period up to the accident.

The pin from the jack was not salvaged by the garage and they placed a large 16 penny nail in its place and continued to use the jack for around six years until the trial. Therefore the jack when exhibited at trial was not in the same condition and the hole designed for the safety pin had become elongated from use with the nail. There was no other testimony offered by either party concerning the jack and pin or condition on the day of the accident. Mr. Knudson drew a sketch of his remembrance of the top of the pin and later retracted it on the basis he did not remember. Mr. Morse drew a sketch of the top of the pin as he remembered it, more or less of a mushroom top. These impressions were to a degree contradicted by Mr. Arthur Achterberg the design engineer for defendant. Achterberg produced a roll pin he testified was used in this jack when manufactured containing no head but explained it was pressed into place. However, on cross-examination he said the top of the pin is 'peened' over normally. He further testified its sole function was a safety feature to prevent over-extension. He testified to it being heat hardened to Rockwell C 46 to 50, equivalent to spring steel or file hard, which cannot be marked with a carbon file. Engineer Bell in his testimony contradicted this and testified to file marks on the roll pin which is exhibit 'F' in evidence. Achterberg testified on cross-examination that during 1955 to 1961 it came to their attention twice that a pin had fallen out of this model jack. He further agreed that without the stop pin the jack was not safe. If a mechanic on visual inspection failed to note an absent pin there was no other way to determine if the arms were over-extended. There are no visual marks or warnings on the jack.

Mr. Thomas M. Bell is a mechanical engineer who is employed as chief engineer for Mountain Mfg. Company and works primarily in design and studied in his education strees analysis of mechanical devices, strength of materials and mechanics of force factors, etc.

Bell testified he examined the jack and the pin used in the jack was not large enough to withstand the stresses that were placed on it; that the stops inside on the arms hit the pin, one high and one low and the pin will eventually break; that it constituted an unreasonably dangerous condition; that it could have been made safe economically in several different ways by design improvement. Both experts agreed the jack was safe if the arms were not extended past the pin and operated within the designed load limits. Bell testified that the nail replacement would be safer than the original roll pin.

There was considerable conflicting testimony about the use of safety stands under cars while on a jack but it was established through shop foreman Morse that it was not a shop requirement that they be used at Smith Motors especially in a case like this one when the plaintiff was only to be under the car for a brief time. He also testified that in placing the stand under the machine the worker's body was partially exposed to danger in event the car fell.

As a result of the automobile falling on plaintiff Knudson's head he suffered the following injuries: he was rendered unconscious; suffered several skull fractures, fracture of the left maxilla with depression of the lateral wall, fracture of the inferior orbital ridge with displacement of the lateral fragment, fracture of the left zygoma and of the zygomatic arch, fracture of the right mandible with inversion of the anterior fragment; suffers double vision; misalignment of his jaws; partial destruction of sense of taste; has almost constant headaches; a fibrillary muscular twitching in the face; his mouth is drawn to the left; suffered injury to his ears and loss of hearing; damage to his eyes with loss of vision; injury to branches of the facial nerve; injury to the tri-facial nerve; constant abnormal sensations on the surface of his skin; suffers distortion of speech and pronunciation of words; dryness and distortion of his tongue and lips when talking; soreness of eyes and blurring when under stress and exertion; damage to his teeth; suffers from a nasal discharge and his sinus passages have been affected; his right ear drum was broken and he has a constant ringing and hissing in his ears; suffered pain and will continue to suffer pain in the future.

Plaintiff filed this suit on June 29, 1966. Discovery was had and a pretrial order entered which limited the issues and at conclusion of plaintiff's case and on motion of defense the court further limited the issues contained in the pretrial order to 4(a), 4(h) and 4(i) which are as follows:

'4(a) Said jack was manufactured in such manner that when the arms were extended and weight placed on them, the arms would tilt allowing the supported object to fall from the jack.'

'4(h) That the jack was manufactured without adequate safeguards to prevent objects lifted by it from falling.'

'4(i) That the Defendant negligently failed to inspect said jack for defects in materials and workmanship and negligently failed to warn Plaintiff of the dangerous characteristics and propensities of said jack.'

Because of this negligence plaintiff asked for $150,000 general damages, $12,500 past loss of wages and $25,000 loss of future earning capacity.

The defense admitted it manufactured this jack but denied the remaining allegations and asserted various affirmative defenses including contributory negligence and assumption of risk.

The case came on for jury trial in the...