Spotz v. Up-Right, Inc.

• Decision Date: 02 March 1972
• Docket Number: INCORPORATED,UP-RIGH,Gen. No. 71--58
• Parties: Allen B. SPOTZ, Plaintiff-Appellee, v., a California corporation, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 23

280 N.E.2d 23

3 Ill.App.3d 1065

Allen B. SPOTZ, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UP-RIGHT, INCORPORATED, a California corporation, Defendant-Appellant.

Gen. No. 71--58.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District.

March 2, 1972.

Howard & French, Stanton, Healy & Brow, Edwin A. Strugala, Chicago, Crowe, Stanton & Healy, Dundee, for defendant-appellant.

Robert J. Shaw, Rockford, for plaintiff-appellee.

ABRAHAMSON, Justice:

The plaintiff, Allen B. Spotz, a painter employed by Karl Schoening & Sons, was working at Estwing Manufacturing Co., spray-painting walls and ceilings, and was using an Up-Right aluminum scaffolding. While working on that job, the plaintiff and a Michael McFadden, a co-employee, erected two scaffolds manufactured by Up-Right. Thereafter, on December 23, 1966, plaintiff and McFadden, after completing their painting, proceeded to dismantle one of the scaffolds. As they raised the platform over the top of the frame, each end of the scaffold fell outward and both men fell to the concrete floor, plaintiff falling into a pile of hammers and sustaining severe displaced fractures of the left distal fibula and tibia. McFadden was not injured. The plaintiff was hospitalized until January 10, 1967, and did not return to work as a painter until January, 1968.

Plaintiff sued Estwing and Up-Right in a two-count complaint. Before trial, plaintiff voluntarily dismissed Estwing who had been sued under Count I, and Estwing dismissed its third-party indemnity action against the plaintiff's employer, Schoening & Sons. Later, plaintiff obtained leave to file an amended complaint as to Count II, which was against Up-Right, and it was predicated solely on strict liability in tort for a product defect of original manufacture. Upon motion of Schoening, the trial judge severed Up-Right's indemnity action against Schoening. Upon trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $30,000 and against Up-Right. Defendant's post-trial motion for judgment n.o.v., or alternatively for a new trial, was denied, and the defendant has appealed.

Defendant contends that there was insufficient evidence of an unreasonably dangerous condition or defect in its product at the time it left its control, or that such condition or defect, if any, proximately caused plaintiff's injury. Defendant further states that, as a matter of law, it was plaintiff's own misuse and abuse of the product which proximately caused his injury; that under the facts, as presented to the jury, defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict should have been granted. Defendant's alternative contention is that a new trial should have been granted because the verdict of the jury was against the manifest weight of the evidence; that plaintiff's counsel committed prejudicial and reversible error in questioning the plaintiff, and one of plaintiff's instructions was erroneously given by the trial judge to the jury.

Because of the nature of the contentions presented herein, it is necessary to review the testimony elicited during the trial in some detail. When the plaintiff went to work on the Estwing job, his superintendent, Al Grenda, delivered two Up-Right scaffolds to the jobsite, and the plaintiff and McFadden testified that they assembled the scaffolds. Each scaffold was erected by taking 6-foot end frames that looked like ladders but the rungs were actually rods; locking the wheels at the bottom of each end frame; attaching a bottom horizontal brace to each end section; and then taking one of two 10-foot, 4-inch braces, and starting on the second rod of the end frame, one end was attached to the second rod and the other end attached to the fourth rod of the other end frame. The second 10-foot, 4-inch brace is reversed so that between the two end frames we have cross braces, or scissor braces; next, two extension pieces or 3-foot additions were added to the 6-foot end frames, and the platform was put on the next-to-the-top rods. After the cross braces are in place, but before the platform is put on top of the scaffolding, the scaffolding can be rolled around and it was stated by both men to be solid and rigid so that two men could climb on it at that time.

The testimony was that the plaintiff and McFadden had used one or the other scaffolds every day on the Estwing job. Plaintiff further testified that he made a habit of inspecting scaffolds for visible defects, particularly when assembling the scaffolds and that both men are well acquainted with this type of scaffolding, which is normally strong and rigid.

On December 23, 1966, they decided to take one of the scaffolds down. To dismantle the scaffold is a two-man job. After locking the wheels, the plaintiff and McFadden each climbed one end of the frame to a point high enough to lift the platform over the top of the frame. As they raised the platform over the top of the frame, both ends of the scaffold fell outward, although the wheels remained stable. Both men fell to the floor, and the plaintiff received the injuries previously mentioned. After the accident, McFadden picked up a broken piece which was a claw clamp that apparently had separated from one end of a cross brace, and took it with him to the shop where he gave it to Grenda. Grenda inspected the claw at that time and stated, 'I don't see any place where it's been welded together.' Several days later, Grenda went to the Estwing jobsite and picked up the broken rod that was supposed to have the claw on the end. He took the broken rod, or brace, back to the shop where he was able to insert the claw and take it out of the rod, and stated, 'About the weld or welds, as to that claw and that rod at that time, it was obvious to me that the weld didn't hold, otherwise you couldn't have pulled the claw out.' Grenda kept the claw in a box, but the claw was lost in the process of moving long before the trial took place. Grenda also testified that he noticed there was 'a little burn spot' on the side of the claw 'about the size of a dime' where a weld union should have been, but the surface was smooth and it did not appear that there was any penetration of the weld into the claw portion. At the same time, he inspected the other end of the rod, and tried to pound the claw out of the rod but it was secure.

A Mr. Herman, an expert witness for the plaintiff, and a research development engineer, following a hypothetical question as to the cause of the separation of the claw from the tube, stated that the claw had not originally been welded to the tube and that it existed as a useful member because of its original construction and from the heat applied in the original effort to make the weld. He said it was a 'friction fit' and he could not determine how long and unwelded friction fit claw would remain attached to the tubing; that questions concerning how long it would remain attached were almost impossible to answer. He further stated, as to the cause of the collapse of the scaffold, that if one of the diagonal bracing members was taken off, the scaffold would normally fall.

Defendant's witness, Marshall Klarfeld, with an assistant, erected a 9-foot scaffold in front of the jury, from directions received from the plaintiff. As constructed under the directions of the plaintiff, the plaintiff testified it appeared sturdy. Upon direct examination of Klarfeld, he stated that if the claw pulled out of one of the diagonals in the scaffolding, as erected by the plaintiff, the end pieces would fall apart.

In arguing that the plaintiff had not produced sufficient evidence to justify the verdict of the jury, the defendant states that when the plaintiff was testifying as an adverse party, and in directing the erection of the 9-foot scaffold similar to the one he and McFadden had assembled and used, there was no brace of any kind used to connect the 3-foot-high ladder-type extensions mounted on top of the 6-foot end extensions; that only the platform, which also has claws, or clamps, on its ends, was used and it rested on the next-to-the-top rung of the 3-foot extensions. The platform so-erected was conceded by the plaintiff to be 'wiggly.' Nevertheless, plaintiff testified that it was sturdy and stable and safe to work on, and that this is the only way he has ever worked on them.

Grenda, during his testimony, illustrated on a blackboard the proper and customary use of the 9-foot scaffold. His drawing shows another horizontal brace and a scissors brace connecting the 3-foot extensions just below the platform, or altogether a double set of braces. However, it is clear that the plaintiff and McFadden did not use a double set of braces on the Estwing job, there being no braces on the 3-foot extensions.

It is further argued that Herman, the plaintiff's expert, gave his opinion as to the cause of separation as being a failure to weld in the original manufacture, although the scaffolding was some 15 years old. He assumed in the hypothetical question asked that the scaffolding had 'nominal use' during the 15-year period. He conceded that full-time use, as testified to by Grenda, over a period of 15 years is a heavy use and not a nominal use, and at no time answered the question as to whether an unwelded casting would remain affixed to the tubing during 15 years of heavy use. It is further pointed out that no hypothetical question was asked of Herman in which the absence of a double set of...