Lockley v. Deere & Co.
| Decision Date | 20 June 1991 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 89-2614,89-2701,s. 89-2614 |
| Citation | 933 F.2d 1378 |
| Parties | Prod.Liab.Rep.(CCH)P 12,917 Walter H. LOCKLEY, Appellee, v. DEERE & COMPANY, a/k/a John Deere Company, Appellant, v. Cecil Wayne LOCKLEY, Appellee. Judy A. LOCKLEY, Appellee, v. DEERE & COMPANY, a/k/a John Deere Company, Appellant, v. Cecil Wayne LOCKLEY, Appellee. Walter H. LOCKLEY, Appellant, v. DEERE & COMPANY, a/k/a John Deere Company, Appellee, v. Cecil Wayne LOCKLEY. Judy A. LOCKLEY, Appellant, v. DEERE & COMPANY, a/k/a John Deere Company, Appellee, v. Cecil Wayne LOCKLEY. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
M. Samuel Jones, III, Little Rock, Ark., for appellant.
Jefferson D. Sellers, Sapulpa, Okl., for appellees.
On the Court's own motion the opinion and judgment filed March 21, 1991, is vacated.
Order Entered at the Direction of the Court.
Before LAY, Chief Judge, and MAGILL and BEAM, Circuit Judges.
This is a strict products liability case in which the defendant, Deere & Company (Deere), appeals from a judgment entered on a jury verdict for plaintiff Walter Lockley, an Arkansas farmer whose right hand was injured when it was caught in the vertical unloading auger of a combine manufactured by Deere. Deere's chief contention is that the district court 1 erred in denying its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict because the combine presented an open and obvious danger and therefore was not unreasonably dangerous as a matter of law. Deere also contends that the court should have granted its motion for a new trial due to the erroneous admission of evidence relevant only to punitive damages and the failure of the court's cautionary instruction to cure the resulting prejudice. Deere argues further that other jury instructions were faulty, the court erred in the way it submitted the case to the jury, and plaintiffs' counsel made an improper closing argument. Walter Lockley and his wife Judy Lockley (the Lockleys) cross-appeal from the district court's grant of a directed verdict in favor of Deere on their punitive damages claim and from the jury's verdict awarding Judy Lockley zero damages on her loss of consortium claim. We affirm the district court in all respects.
In February 1981, Walter Lockley and his brother Cecil, who farm together in Arkansas, purchased a Titan series combine manufactured by Deere in December 1980, taking delivery of the machine in May 1981. The combine had to be cleaned out periodically to remove grain that accumulated in the sump and at the lower end of the vertical unloading auger. The Lockley brothers found that the only way to accomplish this effectively was to remove the lower cleanout door, a small steel plate located near the bottom of the vertical unloading auger housing, and then insert one's hand or arm into the opening to scoop out the residue grain. They also found that it was necessary to engage the auger briefly to dislodge the grain remaining inside the sump and force it down to the auger floor where it could be scooped out by hand. Since the auger had to be engaged several times to release all of the excess grain, the Lockley brothers routinely left the combine's engine running during the cleaning process.
On the evening of December 9, 1983, after having used the combine to harvest soybeans, the brothers set about the task of cleaning out the machine before placing it in storage. Walter removed the cleanout door, reached into the vertical unloading auger housing, and began scooping out soybeans into a bucket. Cecil was standing on the platform next to the combine's cab where he could reach the auger lever. Because a person in this position could not see the lower cleanout door, the brothers had worked out a system in which Walter would call out or step back and wave to indicate when it was safe to engage the auger. On this occasion, a miscommunication occurred and Cecil thought he heard Walter call out the signal to engage the auger when in fact Walter still had his hand inside the lower cleanout door opening. When the auger was momentarily engaged by Cecil, the blades spun and pinned Walter's arm against the auger housing, badly damaging his right hand.
Deere introduced the Titan series combine in 1979. By the spring of 1982, it had ceased the manufacture and sale of combines with the same vertical unloading auger cleanout door design as the Lockley brothers' combine. The design was made safer by reducing the size of the lower cleanout door so that a hand could not fit through it and by adding a second cleanout door on the floor of the auger sump. Deere admitted at trial that this alternative design was technologically and economically feasible in 1981, but contended that there were several ways the Lockley brothers could have cleaned out their combine without having the engine running with the cleanout door open. In May 1984, Deere began a field modification program to retrofit the original-design combines with the new cleanout door design.
Walter Lockley brought a strict liability action against Deere, alleging that the combine's design rendered it defective and unreasonably dangerous, and Judy Lockley filed a separate action seeking damages for loss of consortium. Both plaintiffs asserted a claim for punitive damages based on Deere's delay in implementing the alternative cleanout door design. The two actions were consolidated for trial. Deere joined Cecil Lockley as a third-party defendant, contending that his actions were negligent and caused his brother's injury.
Near the conclusion of Deere's case, the district court decided to grant its motion for a directed verdict on the punitive damages claim. The jury returned a general verdict for Walter Lockley and awarded actual damages in the amount of $300,000, but rejected his wife's loss of consortium claim. Deere's claim against Cecil Lockley for contribution was then submitted to the jury, which specifically found that he was not negligent. The district court denied Deere's motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and a new trial, and these appeals followed.
To recover on a strict products liability claim under Arkansas law, a plaintiff must prove that the offending product was supplied "in a defective condition which rendered it unreasonably dangerous." Ark.Code Ann. Sec. 4-86-102(a)(2) (1987). "Defective condition" is defined in the Arkansas Product Liability Act of 1979 as "a condition of a product that renders it unsafe for reasonably foreseeable use and consumption." Ark.Code Ann. Sec. 16-116-102(4) (1987). The Act defines "unreasonably dangerous" as follows:
"Unreasonably dangerous" means that a product is dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by the ordinary and reasonable buyer, consumer, or user who acquires or uses the product, assuming the ordinary knowledge of the community or of similar buyers, users, or consumers as to its characteristics, propensities, risks, dangers, and proper and improper uses, as well as any special knowledge, training, or experience possessed by the particular buyer, user, or consumer or which he or she was required to possess. However, as to a minor, "unreasonably dangerous" means that a product is dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by an ordinary and reasonably careful minor considering his age and intelligence.
Deere's principal argument on appeal is that the district court should have granted its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the ground that the combine was not unreasonably dangerous as a matter of law because the auger presented an open and obvious danger. Deere bases its argument on Melton v. Deere & Co., 887 F.2d 1241 (5th Cir.1989), a strict products liability case in which the court affirmed a directed verdict against a plaintiff injured by a Deere combine in an accident almost identical to Walter Lockley's. Melton was decided under the law of Mississippi, which has adopted the doctrine of strict liability as stated in the Restatement (Second) of Torts Sec. 402A (1965), 3 and employs a "consumer expectations" test to determine when a product is "unreasonably dangerous." Id. at 1243. Adhering to the Fifth Circuit's previous interpretation of Mississippi law, the Melton court concluded that under the consumer expectations test applied in Mississippi, a product that has an open and obvious danger can never be unreasonably dangerous. Id. Based on this rule, the court held that Deere was entitled to judgment as a matter of law because "the danger of injury from the auger while the combine's engine was running was open and obvious." Id. at 1244. Deere argues that the same result must be reached under Arkansas law because the Arkansas Product Liability Act defines "unreasonably dangerous" in terms that closely follow the description of the consumer expectations test in comment i to Restatement Sec. 402A. 4
The district court denied Deere's motion on the basis of the Arkansas Supreme Court's pronouncements regarding the open and obvious danger rule in Forrest City Mach. Works, Inc. v. Aderhold, 273 Ark. 33, 616 S.W.2d 720 (1981). The district court concluded that Aderhold rejected the rule as an absolute bar to recovery in a strict products liability action. We review this state-law ruling de novo. See Salve Regina College v. Russell, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1217, 1219, 113 L.Ed.2d 190 (1991). Aderhold involved a products liability action based on theories of negligence and strict liability. The defendant in Aderhold argued on appeal that the issue of negligence should not have been submitted to the jury because an open and obvious hazard is not unreasonably dangerous as a matter of law. The Arkansas Supreme Court began its discussion of the open and...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Delaney v. Deere and Co., No. 82,630.
...`open and obvious danger' rule as an absolute exception to strict products liability in a defective design case. See Lockley v. Deere & Co., 933 F.2d 1378 (8th Cir. 1991) (applying Arkansas law); Restatement (Third) of Torts § 2, Reporters' Note to § 2, cmt. d, part "The Kansas Supreme Cour......
-
Rowson v. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
...and obvious is only one factor in determining whether a product is unreasonably dangerous in design. See, e.g., Lockley v. Deere & Co., 933 F.2d 1378, 1383-84 (8th Cir.1991) (applying Arkansas law and citing with approval cases from other jurisdictions); Linegar v. Armour of America, Inc., ......
-
Am. Family Mut. Ins. Co. v. Hollander
...defense had been raised in the district court, American Family waived the argument on appeal. See Lockley v. Deere & Co., 933 F.2d 1378, 1386–87 (8th Cir.1991) (noting an argument is abandoned and, therefore, unreviewable if not raised on appeal). 10. The amount was established through calc......
-
In re Gen. Motors LLC
...not prejudicial .... The undisputed evidence shows that appellant lost time from his business or occupation."); Lockley v. Deere & Co. , 933 F.2d 1378, 1388 (8th Cir. 1991) ("[O]ne of the elements of damage the jury could consider was the loss of time needed to receive necessary medical tre......