Rawls v. Ziegler

• Decision Date: 10 October 1958
• Citation: 107 So.2d 601
• Parties: Laura RAWLS and Edward K. Rawis, Jr., her husband, Appellants, v. Paul E. ZIEGLER, J. H. Ziegler, Luby Chevrolet Co., a Florida corporation; A.Cecil Deugnot, Charles H. Bruce, Elva T. Furry and Joseph A. Waite, d/b/a Cecil& Bruce Truck Equipment Co., Appellees.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 601

107 So.2d 601

Laura RAWLS and Edward K. Rawis, Jr., her husband, Appellants, v. Paul E. ZIEGLER, J. H. Ziegler, Luby Chevrolet Co., a Florida corporation; A.Cecil Deugnot, Charles H. Bruce, Elva T. Furry and Joseph A. Waite, d/b/a Cecil& Bruce Truck Equipment Co., Appellees.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Oct. 10, 1958.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 17, 1958.

Kelner & Lewis and Fred Patrox, Miami, for appellants.

Morehead, Forrest, Gotthardt & Orr, Miami, for Paul E. Ziegler and J. H. Ziegler.

Charles A. Kimbrell and Dixon, DeJarnette, Bradford & Williams, Miami, for Luby Chevrolet Co.

Michael Shores, Miami, for A. Cecil Deugnot, Charles H. Bruce, Elva T. Furry and Joseph A. Waite, d/b/a Cecil & Bruce Truck Equipment Co.

ROBERTS, Justice.

Plaintiffs, husband and wife, sued to recover their respective damages for injuries sustained by the plaintiff wife when the car she was operating was side-swiped by a truck owned by the defendant, J. H. Ziegler, and being operated by his son Paul. The truck, a two-ton Chevrolet chassis with a five-yard dump body, had been purchased by Mr. Ziegler from the defendant, Luby Chevrolet Co. ('Luby' hereafter). Luby had employed the defendant, Cecil & Bruce Truck Equipment Co., a partnership ('Cecil & Bruce' hereafter), to mount the body of the truck on the chassis.

The complaint charged that Paul Ziegler negligently operated the truck so that it collided with the plaintiff's car while it was stopped for a red light at an intersection. The substance of the charge against Luby was that it knew or should have known that the truck would be used on the public highways for hauling payloads and that, if improperly designed and constructed, it would be a hazard and danger to other persons using the public streets; that it was negligent in (1) placing upon the chassis of the truck a body reasonably calculated to carry a payload in excess of that for which the truck was designed, and (2) in manufacturing, selling, and designing a truck that was not in a reasonably safe mechanical condition for use upon a public highway. The same charge as in (1) above was made against Cecil & Bruce and, additionally, it was charged that they were negligent in placing upon the chassis a body in such manner that the truck became a danger and hazard to persons using the public streets. It was alleged that the negligence of the defendants, Ziegler, Luby, and Cecil & Bruce, caused or contributed to cause the rear wheels, rear end, rear springs, and drive shaft of the said truck to drop off or break off from the frame of the chassis of the truck, thereby causing or contributing to cause the collision. The defendants were charged jointly and severally with liability for the plaintiff's injuries.

All defendants denied the charges of negligence, and the defendants, Luby and Cecil & Bruce, averred that the proximate cause of the accident was the careless, reckless and negligent operation of the truck by the defendant, Paul Ziegler.

In due course, the plaintiffs and the defendants moved for summary judgment upon the basis of the pleadings, depositions and affidavits filed in the cause. The trial judge entered summary judgments in favor of the defendants, Luby and Cecil & Bruce, and the plaintiffs have appealed therefrom. The cause is still pending as to the liability of the defendants, Ziegler and son, to the plaintiffs.

The principal contention of the plaintiffs on this appeal is that, under the facts disclosed by the depositions and affidavits and applicable principles of law, the jury could properly have found legal liability on the part of Luby and Cecil & Bruce to plaintiffs, so that it was error to enter summary judgment in their favor.

There are no great discrepancies in the various witnesses' accounts of what occurred, as related in their depositions. Mr. Ziegler stated that he bought the truck from a salesman of Lubb, specifying that he wanted a two-ton chassis with a five-yard dump body mounted thereon. He said that the salesman understood that the truck would be used to haul fill and told him that it 'would do the job.' He directed the salesman to have the springs built up 'to carry the load,' and five extra leaves were added. Other extras agreed upon between Ziegler and the salesman were larger tires, a two-speed axle, and a vacuum brake booster. Mr. Ziegler dealt only with Luby and was billed for the completed truck by Luby. Luby's salesman did not advise him as to how much of a load he would carry in the truck nor warn him against overloading. Mr. Ziegler himself added a six-or eight-inch board to the dump body so that the five-yard body would hold six yards.

It was shown that it was customary in the area to put a five-yard dump body on a two-ton chassis. One of the partners in Cecil & Bruce said that they had mounted 30 or 40 bodies on two-ton rated chassis in the past year and that the 'greater majority' of them were five-yard bodies. Another witness, the owner of the company for whom Paul Ziegler was hauling fill, said: 'It is almost a standard practice for a man buying a two ton truck to put a four yard body on it and build it up to haul six yards and some will request putting a smaller body on if they are a little short on funds and build it up later higher by sideboards to haul six. * * * but they all want to haul six yards on a two (ton) truck.'

The accident occurred about a month after the truck was purchased, the speedometer showing that the truck had travelled more than 2,000 miles during this time. It had been used by Mr. Ziegler's sons for hauling fill since its purchase. Paul said that he always carried a full six-yard load, and was carrying a full load of the same type of fill at the time of the accident. It was undisputed that the truck was overloaded according to the manufacturer's recommendation in its Chevrolet Data Book, which recommended only a two and one-half or three yard dump body for the hauling of coal, sand and gravel, and in its Truck Operator's Manual showing the recommended gross vehicular weight as 16,000 pounds, a copy of which was given to Mr. Ziegler when he bought the truck.

Paul Ziegler gave the following account of the accident: He was about two car lengths behind plaintiff, in the same traffic lane, when she slowed down and stopped for a red light at an intersection. He tried to put on his brakes but seemed to be unable to depress the brake pedal, although he could not say definitely that there was anything wrong with the brake. When he found that he could not stop the truck in time, he swerved to the left to avoid hitting her car. This was his second trip hauling fill that day. He had had no difficulty with the brakes at any time prior to the accident. He estimated his speed at about 20 to 25 m. p. h. prior to the accident but might have been going 30 m. p. h. There was heavy traffic.

Some portion of the truck (said by an eye witness to be the body) collided with the left side of plaintiff's car. As shown by the photographs taken immediately following the accident, a large hole was gouged in the top of the left fender and the left rear door was badly damaged. The front of the car, including the left front door, was not touched. The plaintiff wife was thrown against the steering wheel by the impact, to her injury.

After the accident the rear end of the truck (rear wheels, rear springs, and axle) was found to be completely detached from and lying several feet behind the truck. It was shown that on this truck model the rear end was attached to the truck frame only by the spring hangers at each end of the two rear springs. The four rivets holding each spring hanger to the frame had been sheared off even with the frame on the two spring hangers on the right-hand side. On the left, the left front spring hanger had broken, leaving a small portion still attached to the frame by the two bottom rivets; the left rear spring hanger was still attached to the frame, the rivets intact.

Several witnesses gave their opinions as to the cause of the shearing of the rivets and resultant detachment of the rear end from the frame of the truck. All agreed that the overloading of the truck was a contributing factor, but none said that overloading alone could have caused the mechanical failure. Two witnesses said that the sudden swerving, causing a shifting of the load on the truck body, combined with the overloaded condition, could have caused it. Another said that the impact with the plaintiff's car, combined with the overload, caused it; another, that it was caused by the overloading and the building up and resultant stiffening of the springs, and that it would not have happened if the springs had not been built up. In view of the fact that the truck had hauled the same quantity of the same type of fill for almost a month, and that the witnesses who examined the rivets and hangers said that the shearing off of the rivets was instantaneous and not a gradual wearing away, no credence can be given to this last opinion if construed to mean that the overloading on stiffened springs alone caused the mechanical failure.

Assuming that the accident would not have occurred and plaintiff wife would not have been injured if there had been no mechanical failure, and taking the only reasonable view of the evidence as to the cause of the mechanical failure-that is, that it was caused by a combination of the overloading, the stiffening of the springs, and some exceptional force applied to the rivets such as the sudden swerving of the truck, or the impact with the plaintiff's car-is there any principle of law that the jury could have applied to the undisputed facts of this case as a predicate for finding a legal liability on the part of Luby and Cecil & Bruce to plaintiffs?

Since first expounded by Judge Cardozo in MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co., 1916, 217 N.Y. 382, 111 N.E. 1050, L.R.A.1916F, 696, many courts have adopted the doctrine of 'product liability' of a manufacturer to...