McCann v. Atlas Supply Company, Civ. A. No. 68-1103.
| Decision Date | 28 January 1971 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 68-1103. |
| Citation | 325 F. Supp. 701 |
| Parties | John R. McCANN and Mary Jane McCann, Plaintiffs, v. ATLAS SUPPLY COMPANY and Humble Oil & Refining Company, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Thomas J. Shorall, Pittsburgh, Pa., for plaintiffs.
John M. Duff, Jr., Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay, Pittsburgh, Pa., for defendants.
On a bright clear day in August, 1967, the plaintiff, John R. McCann, was driving his automobile, an Oldsmobile 98, along the Ohio Turnpike not far from Lorain, Ohio. He had five members of his family and relatives as passengers, and was towing a trailer which had been rented for the purpose of taking a camping-type vacation. The car was proceeding along at a speed of about 50 to 55 miles per hour when a sound like air escaping was heard, the car began to fishtail and the trailer jackknifed. The automobile went out of control onto the berm on the right side of the road, where the trailer overturned. As McCann alighted from the car, he noticed the left rear tire of the automobile was smoking and shortly thereafter it burst into flame. The car and its contents were severely damaged by the fire.
In anticipation of the vacation trip, the plaintiff had purchased two pairs of new Atlas Plycron tires in separate transactions, the earliest being June 22, 1967, the second approximately three or four weeks later. McCann was unable to state whether the tire which had burned had been bought in June or July but, in any event, it appears that the automobile had been driven no more than 2,000 miles from the date of the earlier acquisition and substantially less when measured from the time of the July sale.
The plaintiff and his family had driven from Pittsburgh to Lorain, Ohio where the rental organization made the necessary modifications to attach a hitch to the Oldsmobile and hookup the trailer. A few minutes before that work was begun, the plaintiff bought gasoline and had the tires and brakes checked by the attendant at a service station nearby.
Lorain was about an hour's drive from the accident scene and in that interval the testimony disclosed nothing unusual which might have caused damage to the tires. The trip was on paved roads, the trailer handled properly and the brakes operated in approved fashion as the plaintiff drove at less than normal turnpike speed.
McCann did not know how far the Oldsmobile went after he heard the sound of air escaping but there were skid marks of 50 to 100 feet on the road surface, some of which gave the appearance of metal scraping. Before the tire burst into flames, the plaintiff observed that it was all chewed up and parts had been torn off including a portion of the bead.
A hissing sound from the butane storage tanks on the front part of the trailer caught the plaintiff's attention and he immediately turned off the gas. He did not believe that enough of the gas escaped to cause the fire at the left rear wheel.
The plaintiff relied upon the doctrine of strict liability as set out in Section 402A of the Restatement of Torts. His contention was that the loss of air from the tire was a malfunction which was evidence of a defect in the product. The tire itself could not be analyzed since it was totally destroyed in the fire. There was no proof that the fire began before the tire was deflated or whether combustion occurred when the heat of the deflated tire increased while it was being squeezed between the rim and the concrete before the vehicle came to a stop.
The defendant was the distributor of the tires which had been manufactured by the Uniroyal Company. Its defense consisted of what might be classified as the "it can't happen" type of testimony.
An expert called by the defense admitted that the size of the tires, 9.00 × 14, was the proper size for the automobile which the plaintiff was driving, and did not contend that the attachment of the trailer resulted in an overload. It was admitted further that a speed of 50 to 55 miles per hour was not excessive under the load and weather conditions then prevailing. The defendant's expert was quite positive in stating that he had never encountered a case of a tire burning, at least while it was properly inflated, and that the very best methods and design were followed in the manufacture of the tires.
Since the tires were purchased in Pennsylvania and the plaintiff was a resident of this state,...
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