Miles v. General Motors Corp., 00-2602

• Decision Date: 09 April 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-2602,00-2602
• Citation: 262 F.3d 720
• Parties: (8th Cir. 2001) COLUMBUS MILES, APPELLANT, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, APPELLEE. Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 720

262 F.3d 720 (8th Cir. 2001)

COLUMBUS MILES, APPELLANT, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, APPELLEE.

No. 00-2602

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

Submitted: April 9, 2001

Filed: August 17, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

Before Hansen and Bye, Circuit Judges, and Melloy,¹ District Judge.

Hansen, Circuit Judge

Columbus Miles, a resident of Arkansas, collided with the rear bumper of a 1983 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck while riding his motorcycle on a northern Louisiana highway. Miles's left leg was amputated below the knee as a result of the collision. Miles filed this diversity suit against General Motors Corporation (GM), the truck's manufacturer, and Harley Davidson, the manufacturer of his motorcycle, alleging a breach of implied warranty, negligence, and strict products liability. Before trial, Harley Davidson was dismissed as a party. After a jury found in favor of GM, Miles filed a motion for a new trial, asserting newly discovered evidence, discovery abuse by GM, and that the district court erroneously admitted expert testimony and testimony surrounding Miles's alleged odor of alcohol after the accident. The district court² denied Miles's motion on all counts, and Miles appeals. We affirm.

I.

On October 28, 1995, at around 7:30 in the evening, Miles was traveling north on Highway 142 in Louisiana while riding his Harley Davidson Sportster motorcycle. The driver of a Silverado pickup truck attempted to turn south onto Highway 142 from an intersecting side road, but the truck stalled after crossing the center line and came to a stop partially blocking the northbound lane. Miles was traveling at approximately 55 miles per hour when he approached the stalled pickup truck, but he did not apply his brakes. Instead, Miles attempted to avoid hitting the truck by swerving around the rear, but at the last second straightened his bike because he thought he was about to hit a tree. By straightening the bike, however, the lower portion of Miles's left leg hit the truck's back bumper and his leg was irreparably damaged.

Immediately after the collision, the driver of the pickup truck and a nearby neighbor, who was a registered nurse, rendered first aid to Miles while awaiting an ambulance. Both the driver and the neighbor stated that Miles smelled of alcohol. A law enforcement officer, Fred Murphy, arrived at the accident scene to investigate. Officer Murphy stated that he could smell alcohol on Miles, but Officer Murphy did not conduct Breathalyzer or blood tests or note his observation in his accident report. Miles admitted at trial that he had consumed a portion of two beers shortly before the accident occurred. A toxicology screen was performed on Miles two and a half hours after the accident occurred and while he was admitted to a local hospital for treatment. Miles received 6000 cc of intravenous fluids and a partial blood transfusion before his blood was tested. The toxicology screen revealed no evidence of alcohol in Miles's bloodstream.

In Miles's suit against GM, he alleged that he was injured because the rear bumper on the pickup truck was negligently designed and was an unreasonably dangerous product. Miles contended that when the bumper was attached to the pickup truck, it curved around and extended beyond the side of the vehicle, resulting in a dangerous gap between the bumper and the sheet metal fender of the truck. Consequently, his theory was that the curved sharp end of the protruding bumper acted like a large hook upon impact with his leg. GM responded that its bumper was not defective and that Miles contributed to the accident by failing to take proper evasive action or by misperceiving the accident scene or both. Before trial, Miles filed a motion in limine to exclude any evidence of his alcohol consumption and the odor of alcohol at the accident scene, as well as to exclude the testimony of two GM expert witnesses who planned to testify that the GM bumper was not dangerous or defective and that Miles sustained the injury to his left leg when he struck the flat end of the bumper--not the curved, gapped end as he claimed. The district court denied the motion, holding the odor of alcohol evidence admissible because GM had raised comparative fault as an affirmative defense and further holding that the two expert witnesses were qualified to offer testimony about the bumper design, accident reconstruction, and injury causation. The case proceeded to trial, and a jury rendered its verdict in favor of GM. After the jury verdict, Miles filed a motion for new trial, but filed his notice of appeal prior to the district court's disposition of that motion. Subsequently, the district court denied the motion for a new trial.

II.

At the outset, Miles attempts to argue issues that were denied by the district court in Miles's motion for a new trial and which were not included in his notice of appeal filed prior to the postjudgment motion; specifically, uncovering newly discovered evidence of other bumper-related accidents and alleged discovery abuse by GM. At the time the notice of appeal in this case was filed on June 27, 2000, Miles's motion seeking a new trial had been filed but not decided. The district court did not deny the motion until July 18, 2000, after the notice of appeal had been filed. At that time, the appeal from the judgment ripened, and we gained jurisdiction. Under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(4), Miles's notice of appeal is treated as merely dormant until the date the postjudgment motion is decided. Miles failed to file an amended notice of appeal from the district court's denial of his motion for new trial. We therefore lack jurisdiction over his challenges associated with the denied motion. See Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(4)(B).³

Turning to the issues that Miles appeals which originate in the denial of his motion in limine, Miles first argues that the district court erred when it admitted evidence that he smelled of alcohol at the accident scene. We review a district court's admission of evidence for an abuse of discretion. Bunting v. Sea Ray, Inc., 99 F.3d 887, 891 (8th Cir. 1996). We find no abuse of discretion in this instance because Miles's alcohol consumption was relevant to the question of whether Miles contributed to the accident. See Balentine v. Sparkman, 937 S.W.2d 647, 650 (Ark. 1997) (allowing the jury to consider evidence of alcohol consumption when determining impairment); Inderrieden v. Phillips, 741 S.W.2d 255, 256 (Ark. 1987) (holding whether alcohol consumption contributed to an automobile accident was a fact question for the jury to determine); cf. City of Little Rock v. Cameron, 897 S.W.2d 562, 564 (Ark. 1995) ("[V]oluntary intoxication may be a factor to be considered by the trier of fact in determining negligence.").

Miles concedes that if the evidence supports an inference of intoxication then the odor of alcohol evidence is admissible under Arkansas law. (Appellant's Br. at 12.) At trial, the witnesses who were first at the accident scene and the investigating law enforcement officer testified that they could smell alcohol on Miles's breath. Miles testified that he had consumed at least a portion of two...