Morgen v. Ford Motor Co.

• Decision Date: 29 October 2003
• Docket Number: No. 71S03-0211-CV-00593.,71S03-0211-CV-00593.
• Citation: 797 N.E.2d 1146
• Parties: Monterey P. MORGEN, Appellant (Plaintiff below), v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Appellee (Defendant below).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

797 N.E.2d 1146

Monterey P. MORGEN, Appellant (Plaintiff below), v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Appellee (Defendant below).

No. 71S03-0211-CV-00593.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

October 29, 2003.

Thomas A. Clements, David M. Hamacher, Hammond, IN, James L. Gilbert, Paul J. Komyatte, Arvada, CO, Attorneys for Appellant.

David V. Scott, New Albany, IN, Thomas C. Doehrman, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Amicus Curiae Indiana Trial Lawyers Association.

Julia Blackwell Gelinas, Nelson D. Alexander, Allison S. Avery, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

SULLIVAN, Justice.

A jury rejected Monterey P. Morgen's claim that Ford Motor Company was responsible for the serious injuries he suffered as a back seat passenger in an automobile accident. The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial on the ground that the jury had been improperly instructed on Morgen's failure to use his seat belt. We find that the instruction was not erroneous, and even if it were, it did not affect the jury's verdict.

Background

On November 14, 1993, Monterey P. Morgen sat in the passenger-side rear seat of a 1984 Ford Escort Station Wagon, Morgen's girlfriend Kristy Snyder sat in the front passenger-side seat, and her mother Janet Snyder was driving. Morgen was not wearing the seat belt provided in the back seat.

The Escort was stopped at an intersection in Mishawaka when a 1991 Honda Accord hit the vehicle in the rear. Ford's expert estimated that the Honda Accord was traveling at 33 to 35 miles per hour but Morgen's expert estimated that it was traveling at 24 to 28 miles per hour. Regardless, the impact of the rear-end collision caused the Escort to crash into an Oldsmobile Cierra in front of it. The back of the Escort suffered substantial damage. Morgen sustained a spinal cord injury in the accident and is now quadriplegic. Morgen filed a products liability suit against Ford Motor Company claiming that the Escort was defective and unreasonably dangerous. The two parties offered conflicting expert testimony to explain how Morgen was injured. Morgen's experts testified that the injury was caused when the rear seat deformed upward during the crash, reducing the occupant survival space and causing Morgen's head to strike the roof of the car. Morgen's experts further testified that the structural design of the Escort was defective and that a flaw in the manufacturing process created structural weakness in the vehicle.

Ford denied that the Escort was improperly designed and disputed Morgen's theory. Ford's experts testified that Morgen's neck was broken because the horizontal forces moving the vehicle launched him into the roof of the Escort. Ford pointed to evidence of rear-end crash tests showing that an unbelted back seat passenger's head does not move appreciably in a vertical direction in accidents of the type that happened here. Rather, Ford's experts testified, when the Escort was rear-ended, the car moved forward but Morgen did not. Instead, Morgen's torso remained in place as the seatback compressed and moved to a reclined position. The seatback then pushed him forward and as his torso was driven forward, his head and neck, which were above the seat, flexed backward. Ford claimed that Morgen's spinal injury occurred when he ramped up and over the seatback as the Escort moved forward. Ford also asserted that Morgen's decision not to wear a seat belt constituted a misuse of the Escort.

The trial court rejected jury instructions tendered by Morgen regarding the duty to warn of latent defects but it gave an instruction on misuse. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Ford. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded on the ground that the trial court abused its discretion in giving an instruction on misuse. Morgen v. Ford Motor Co., 762 N.E.2d 137, 140-44, 147 (Ind.Ct.App.2002). We granted transfer. 783 N.E.2d 701 (table).

Additional facts will be discussed as necessary.

Discussion

I

"Indiana's Product Liability Act imposes strict liability in tort upon sellers of a product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to any user or consumer." Hinkle v. Niehaus Lumber Co., 525 N.E.2d 1243, 1244 (Ind.1988) (citing Ind. Code § 33-1-1.5-3¹). The Act also provides that a misuse of the product can be a defense. Ind.Code § 33-1-1.5-4(b)(2) (1993).²,³ Ford argued at trial that Morgen's failure to use the seat belt provided in the back seat constituted a "misuse" within the meaning of the Act; no other misuse was alleged. Over Morgen's objection, the court read the following instruction on misuse to the jury:

With respect to any product liability action based on strict liability in tort. . . . It is a defense that a cause of the physical harm is a misuse of the product by the claimant or any other person not reasonably expected by the seller at the time the seller sold or otherwise conveyed the product to another party.

(R. at 1101.)

The Court of Appeals determined that the trial court committed reversible error by giving this instruction. The court said that it had "repeatedly held that it is `clearly foreseeable' that a passenger might fail to wear a safety belt," and that Indiana law does not require back seat passengers in automobiles to wear one. Morgen, 762 N.E.2d at 142. Given that failure to wear a seat belt was reasonably expected and that there was no clearly enumerated duty to do otherwise, the court concluded that failure to wear a seat belt could not constitute a misuse. Id. at 142-43.

We believe the instruction was properly given here. We see the essential question to be whether it was within the province of the fact finder to determine if the plaintiff's failure to utilize a safety device provided by the manufacturer constituted misuse of the manufacturer's product. While we agree with Morgen that his failure to use the seat belt did not constitute a misuse as a matter of law, so too do we agree with Ford that the question of misuse was a matter for the jury, not the court, to decide. We believe this result serves to encourage manufacturers to equip their products with safety devices irrespective of whether the devices' use is mandatory or even widespread.

When a manufacturer does not reasonably expect it, a plaintiff's failure to use available safety devices can constitute misuse in a crashworthiness case. See Leon v. Caterpillar Indus., Inc., 69 F.3d 1326, 1344 (7th Cir.1995) (applying Indiana law, the court stated "a person who disregards manufacturer safety devices raises an issue of misuse and, further, that evidence of such is sufficient to justify an inference of misuse") (citations omitted).⁴ "Foreseeable use and misuse are typically questions of fact for a jury to decide." Vaughn v. Daniels Co. (W.Va.), 777 N.E.2d 1110, 1129 (Ind.Ct.App.2002) (citation omitted), trans. pending; Underly v. Advance Mach. Co., 605 N.E.2d 1186, 1189 (Ind.Ct.App.1993) ("The foreseeability of an intervening misuse is usually a question for the jury.") (citation omitted), trans. denied. A number of other jurisdictions have reached this same result in similar cases. Melia v. Ford Motor Co., 534 F.2d 795, 797, 799 (8th Cir.1976) (stating that under Nebraska law it was proper for the jury to determine whether the decedent misused the product by failing to use a safety belt); General Motors Corp. v. Walden, 406 F.2d 606, 609 (10th Cir.1969) (holding that under Arizona law the court properly instructed the jury that the plaintiff's failure to wear a safety belt could be a misuse); Brown v. Ford Motor Co., 67 F.Supp.2d 581, 582, 584-87 (E.D.Va.1999) (finding that under Virginia law evidence of pickup driver's failure to wear a safety belt was admissible in an action against the manufacturer as it relates to product misuse), aff'd, 10 Fed. Appx. 39, 2001 WL 285072 (4th Cir.2001).

It is true that the statute provides that the misuse defense is only available to the seller when the misuse was not reasonably foreseeable from the seller's perspective at the time the product was sold. Underly, 605 N.E.2d at 1189. When the Court of Appeals said that it had repeatedly held that it is "clearly foreseeable" that a passenger might fail to wear a safety belt, it was referring to three criminal cases. In each, the defendants sought to avoid liability for deaths caused by their driving on the ground that the victims were not wearing seat belts. See Green v. State, 650 N.E.2d 307, 309-10 (Ind.Ct.App.1995); Warner v. State, 577 N.E.2d 267, 270 (Ind. Ct.App.1991); Bowman v. State, 564 N.E.2d 309, 310 (Ind.Ct.App.1990), rev'd and remanded on other grounds, 577 N.E.2d 569 (Ind.1991). Not surprisingly, their claims were rejected on the basis that, because the failure to wear a seat belt was reasonably foreseeable, such failure was not an intervening cause sufficient to absolve the defendants of criminal responsibility.

We think the court's reliance on these cases proves too much. If it is so "clearly foreseeable" that a passenger will not wear a seat belt, it is difficult to see any harm from the instruction given here. The jury was told that the misuse defense was only available if Ford did not reasonably expect the alleged misuse. If a passenger's failure to wear a seat belt is as "clearly foreseeable" as the Court of Appeals says it is, we think that would be just as clear to a jury and it could not render a verdict for the defense because there would be no misuse.⁵ If, on the other hand, there was some genuine question about Ford's expectation of Morgen's failure to wear his seat belt, then this was a most appropriate question to submit to the jury, as the cases make clear. See Leon, 69 F.3d at 1344; Vaughn, 777 N.E.2d at 1129; Underly, 605 N.E.2d at 1189.

II

Morgen tendered two jury instructions (nos. 6 and 13) that the trial court declined to use. Morgen contends that this constituted reversible error.

Morgen's proposed instruction no. 6 read:

You may find that Ford Motor Company, because of its technical knowledge as a designer,

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