Sheehan v. Cincinnati Shaper Co.

• Decision Date: 09 March 1989
• Citation: 382 Pa.Super. 579,555 A.2d 1352
• Parties: , Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 12,077 John W. SHEEHAN and Beverly Sheehan, his wife v. CINCINNATI SHAPER COMPANY, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 1352

555 A.2d 1352

382 Pa.Super. 579, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 12,077

John W. SHEEHAN and Beverly Sheehan, his wife v. CINCINNATI SHAPER COMPANY, Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Dec. 15, 1988.

Decided March 9, 1989.

Charles Kirshner, Pittsburgh, for appellant.

John J. Morgan, Pittsburgh, for appellees.

Before BROSKY, DEL SOLE and JOHNSON, JJ.

JOHNSON, Judge:

Cincinnati Shaper Company (Shaper) appeals from a judgment in a strict liability action in favor of John and Beverly Sheehan. We are asked to consider whether the rule precluding the introduction of industry standards in a strict liability action as pronounced in Majdic v. Cincinnati Machine Co., 370 Pa.Super. 611, 537 A.2d 334 (1988) should be extended to preclude the introduction of OSHA regulations as well. We conclude that it should and thus affirm.

Employed as a machine operator for Pittsburgh Bridge and Iron Works (PBI), John Sheehan was responsible for cutting steel strips on a shear designed, manufactured and sold by Shaper. On September 29, 1982 while Sheehan was adjusting the position of the last piece of steel to be cut by putting his right hand around an awareness barrier, the shear malfunctioned, resulting in the amputation of several of Sheehan's fingers. The Sheehans brought a strict liability action against Shaper alleging that the shear was defective because it lacked adequate warnings and safety devices and because the shear malfunctioned by making repeat rotations while it was programmed to rotate only once. After trial by jury, a verdict award in the amount of $150,000 was returned against Shaper. Delay damages were added to the verdict. Post-trial motions were filed and denied. This appeal followed.

Shaper contends that the trial court committed error at trial as follows:

I. IN REFUSING TO PERMIT DEFENDANT TO PUT OSHA STANDARDS INTO EVIDENCE?

II. IN REFUSING TO PERMIT DEFENDANT TO INTRODUCE EVIDENCE THAT IT OFFERED TO PLAINTIFF'S EMPLOYER AN IMPROVED GUARD FOR THE SHEAR?

III. WHEN AFTER AFFIRMING DEFENDANT'S POINTS FOR CHARGE NUMBERED 4, 6 AND 13, IN FAILING TO INSTRUCT THE JURY ON THOSE POINTS, AND CONTINUING TO REFUSE EVEN AFTER SPECIFICALLY BEING REQUESTED TO DO SO?

IV. IN FAILING TO ADVISE THE JURY THAT IN CLOSING ARGUMENT, PLAINTIFF'S COUNSEL MISREPRESENTED THE EVIDENCE AND MADE A KNOWINGLY FALSE STATEMENT?

Principally, Shaper alleges that the trial court erred by refusing to permit Shaper to admit OSHA standards into evidence. The OSHA standards proffered allegedly would show that the buyer of the equipment, PBI, has a duty to provide safety mechanisms for the shear that injured Sheehan. Shaper contends that because providing a safety guard was PBI's responsibility, PBI's failure to buy the improved guard offered to them is relevant to the issue of causation and therefore should have been admitted. Although Shaper attempts to couch its argument in terms of causation, it fails to explain how OSHA standards are relevant to that issue. The essence of Shaper's argument is that Shaper acted reasonably by designing the shear without a safety guard since OSHA standards place the responsibility of providing a safety guard on the buyer/employer.

Liability in a strict liability action will attach where the manufacturer distributes a defective product and the existing defect is a substantial factor in causing injury to another. Foley v. Clark Equipment Co., 361 Pa.Super. 599, 605-606, 523 A.2d 379, 382 (1987). The reasonableness of the manufacturer's conduct in choosing a particular design is not an issue. Majdic v. Cincinnati Machine Co., 370 Pa.Super. at 617, 537 A.2d at 337. We conclude that the OSHA regulations proffered would introduce into a strict liability action the reasonableness of Shaper's failure to provide the new safety device for this machine, an issue irrelevant to whether liability attaches. Accordingly, the trial court did not err by sustaining Sheehan's objections to the introduction of this evidence.

This court addressed the question of whether industry customs and standards may be introduced to show that an employer, rather than the manufacturer, had the responsibility to provide necessary safety equipment in Majdic, supra. In that strict liability action, the plaintiff's hands were seriously injured when they came into contact with the point of operation of a power press machine. At trial, the court permitted the defendant to introduce evidence of industry standards and customs which directed the burden of supplying protective equipment for the machine upon the employer. Specifically, the proffered industry standards were federal safety standards which had been published by American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Majdic v. Cincinnati Machine Co., 370 Pa.Super. at 629, 537 A.2d at 343 (Judge Wieand dissenting).

Relying on our supreme court's decision in Lewis v. Coffing Hoist Division, Duff-Norton Co., Inc., 515 Pa. 334, 528 A.2d 590 (1987), we held that the introduction of industry standards in a strict products liability case was impermissible because such evidence had the effect of introducing the reasonableness of the manufacturer's conduct into an action which focuses, for public policy reasons, upon the existence of a defect. We find the case before us is indistinguishable from Majdic. Shaper also sought to introduce government regulations which would have had the effect of shifting the jury's attention from the existence of a defect to the reasonableness of the...