Stonehocker v. General Motors Corp.

• Decision Date: 17 November 1978
• Docket Number: No. 76-1920,76-1920
• Citation: 587 F.2d 151
• Parties: 3 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1334 Terry Lee STONEHOCKER, Appellee, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 151

587 F.2d 151

3 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1334

Terry Lee STONEHOCKER, Appellee, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Appellant.

No. 76-1920.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued Feb. 8, 1978.

Decided Nov. 17, 1978.

E. Milton Farley, III, Richmond, Va. (Joseph C. Kearfott, Christopher J. Habenight, Hunton & Williams, Richmond, Va., Frazer F. Hilder, Gen. Motors Corp., Detroit, Mich., Edward W. Laney, III, Turner, Padget, Graham & Laney, Columbia, S.C., on brief), for appellant.

David W. Goldman, Sumter, S.C. (Arthur S. Bahnmuller, Howard P. King, Bryan, Bahnmuller, King, Goldman & McElveen, Sumter, S.C., on brief), for appellee.

Before BRYAN, Senior Circuit Judge, and RUSSELL and WIDENER, Circuit Judges.

WIDENER, Circuit Judge:

The plaintiff, Terry Lee Stonehocker, brought this action, charging negligence, against General Motors Corporation for injuries received when his car, a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro (manufactured by General Motors), rolled over in an accident. Jurisdiction was based on diversity of citizenship and the requisite amount in controversy. 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1). The parties agree that General Motors' negligence, if any, did not cause the accident itself, but the plaintiff alleges that General Motors' negligent design of the car's roof and negligent manufacture of the windshield ¹ combined to cause injuries which would not otherwise have occurred in an accident of this type or would have been substantially less. At trial, the jury found for the plaintiff and awarded compensatory and punitive damages.

On appeal, the defendant argues that the plaintiff presented no evidence of (1) negligent roof design, (2) negligent windshield manufacture, (3) causation between the alleged defects and plaintiff's injury, and (4) willful, wanton, or conscious conduct; and that therefore the district court should have entered a directed verdict in General Motors' favor on all issues. Further, the defendant argues that the district court charged the jury improperly, and that it erred by refusing to admit evidence that General Motors' roof design complied with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 216. Based on these last two points, the defendant requests a new trial.

For reasons discussed below, we only reach the issues of the admissibility of the federal safety standard and the sufficiency of the jury instructions. We hold that the district court erred in refusing to admit General Motors' compliance with the subsequently enacted safety standard as evidence of due care. Therefore, the case must be reversed and remanded for a new trial. We also discuss the objections to the jury instructions.

I

The accident occurred in Sumter County, South Carolina on July 25, 1972 at approximately 6:00 p. m. The plaintiff, Stonehocker, was driving west on Route 76-378, a four-lane, limited access highway. The plaintiff testified that he was traveling approximately sixty-five miles per hour in the left or passing lane, with his seat belt fastened and the driver's window rolled down. Another car entered the highway from his right via an access road. That car moved from the access road (acceleration lane) across the right lane and into the left lane directly in front of the plaintiff's car. To avoid a collision, Stonehocker swerved to the right across the right hand lane and off the pavement. Plaintiff did not clearly remember what happened next, but an eyewitness testified that the plaintiff's car went into a spin, slid off the road, went partially into a ditch, continued to slide, and finally rolled over on its top at a speed of approximately five to ten miles per hour. The roof of the car was crushed in (although there is a dispute as to how far), causing the windshield to break into a number of large jagged pieces. As a result of the accident, the plaintiff suffered severe injury to his left arm, although conflicting testimony was presented as to its exact cause.

The facts of this case fall into the category of what has come to be known as crashworthiness or second collision products liability cases. The initial issue in cases of this type is whether an automobile manufacturer owes its customers any duty to design or manufacture a crashworthy vehicle. There is a conflict of authority on the existence of such duties. Compare, e.g., Evans v. General Motors Corp., 359 F.2d 822 (7th Cir. 1966), cert. den., 385 U.S. 836, 87 S.Ct. 83, 17 L.Ed.2d 70 (1966) (no duty); McClung v. Ford Motor Co., 333 F.Supp. 17 (S.D.W.Va.1971), affirmed 472 F.2d 240 (4th Cir. 1973), cert. den., 412 U.S. 940, 93 S.Ct. 2779, 37 L.Ed.2d 400 (1973) (no duty); with Larsen v. General Motors Corp., 391 F.2d 495 (8th Cir. 1968) (duty exists); Volkswagen of America, Inc. v. Young, 272 Md. 201, 321 A.2d 737 (1974) (duty exists); Issacson v. Toyota Motor Sales,438 F.Supp. 1 (E.D.N.C.1976) (duty exists); Dreisenstok v. Volkswagenwerk, A.G., 489 F.2d 1066 (4th Cir. 1974) (duty assumed to exist). However, South Carolina law governs on this point, and the Supreme Court of that State has imposed a duty on automobile manufacturers to use due care in car design in Mickle v. Blackmon, 252 S.C. 202, 166 S.E.2d 173 (1969), and spoke favorably of a duty to so manufacture the cars with respect to crashworthiness. Mickle, 166 S.E.2d at 186. This duty is not absolute. No liability will attach unless the negligent design was unreasonably dangerous. Mickle, 166 S.E.2d at 192. Reasonableness in this context ". . . should be determined by general negligence principles, which involve a balancing of the likelihood of harm, and the gravity of harm if it happens against the burden of the precautions which would be effective to avoid the harm." Dreisenstok v. Volkswagenwerk, A.G., 489 F.2d 1066, 1071 (4th Cir. 1974), quoting Larsen v. General Motors Corp., 391 F.2d 496, 498 (7th Cir. 1966); Mickle, 166 S.E.2d at 192. In applying this test, a wide variety of factors come into play. The intended use of the vehicle, styling, cost to change design, the obviousness of the defect, and the circumstances of the accident itself are all relevant. Dreisenstok, 489 F.2d at 1071-73.

Turning to the case at hand and the admissibility of the federal safety standard, it is clear that the issue of negligent roof design is central to this case. The plaintiff argues that if the roof had not been crushed in as it was, and the windshield had not been manufactured as it was, the windshield would not have broken as it did, and plaintiff's arm would not have been cut, at least as badly as it was. In order to prevail, the plaintiff must show that the design of the roof was unreasonably dangerous. As part of his proof on this question, the plaintiff called an expert witness, Dr. Hanagud, who testified to design flaws in the roof. The plaintiff also introduced evidence showing that General Motors had not done any rollover testing on the 1968 Camaro.

General Motors countered with its own experts who testified to the strength of the roof design, attacked plaintiff's testing techniques, and explained that rollover testing for each individual body style was not necessary. General Motors also offered evidence that the Camaro roof structure met and exceeded the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 216. 49 C.F.R. § 571.216. The district court excluded the evidence of compliance with the safety standard because the standard "was not in force at the time of the automobile's construction or at the time of the accident." Of course, if the evidence was otherwise inadmissible the district court's ruling should be affirmed. SEC v. Chenery, 318 U.S. 80, 63 S.Ct. 454, 87 L.Ed. 626 (1943).

In determining the admissibility of Standard 216, we must first determine if there is any conflict between federal and State law. This is a diversity case under Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938), and federal courts are to apply the substantive law the State in which they are sitting would apply if the case had originated in a State court. Procedural rules, however, are generally not subject to Erie and federal law governs. Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U.S. 460, 85 S.Ct. 1136, 14 L.Ed.2d 8 (1965). This procedural as opposed to substantive distinction is not always easy to apply, and evidence law has caused particularly difficult problems.

While it is acknowledged that Erie and Hanna may govern the admissibility of evidence, there does not seem to be general agreement as to the effect Hanna had on the Erie decision with respect to leaving matters of substantive law to the rule in State courts. See Wright, Law of Federal Courts, (2d Ed. 1970) § 93; Wright, etc. (3d Ed. 1976) § 93; Advisory Committee's Note to the proposed Federal Rules of Evidence, 46 F.R.D. 243; Republic Gear Co. v. Borg-Warner Corp., 381 F.2d 551 (2d Cir. 1967); the editorial comment and parts of the various committee reports on Rule 501 contained in Redden & Saltzburg, Federal Rules of Evidence Manual. The gist of the discussions is that some authorities take the view that under Hanna Congress especially may validly enact any rule of evidence, not subject to Erie limitations, while others take the view that Erie limits rules of evidence to those matters not being in fact substantive law. A principal controversy over the new rules concerned privilege and burden of proof. In general terms, Congress left those matters, so far as presumption and privilege are concerned, to the rule in the State courts in diversity cases. Rules 302 and 501.

But we need not decide here any limitations of Erie on the Federal Rules of Evidence. Rule 402 provides that all relevant evidence is admissible except as provided by the Constitution, Act of Congress, the rules themselves, or other rules prescribed by the Supreme Court pursuant to statutory authority. It follows that under the new rules all relevant evidence is admissible subject to exceptions. The evidence with which we are dealing in this case is relevant. There is...