Tetterton v. Long Mfg. Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 03 July 1985
• Docket Number: No. 260PA84,260PA84
• Citation: 314 N.C. 44,332 S.E.2d 67
• Parties: , Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 10,793 Jean Lee TETTERTON, Administratrix of the Estate of Orlander B. Tetterton, Deceased v. LONG MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC. and Revels Tractor Company, Inc.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 67

332 S.E.2d 67

314 N.C. 44, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 10,793

Jean Lee TETTERTON, Administratrix of the Estate of Orlander B. Tetterton, Deceased v. LONG MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC. and Revels Tractor Company, Inc.

No. 260PA84.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

July 3, 1985.

Gaylord, Singleton, McNally, Strickland & Snyder by L.W. Gaylord, Jr., and Vernon G. Snyder, III, Greenville, for plaintiff-appellant.

Young, Moore, Henderson & Alvis by John E. Aldridge, Jr., and Robert C. Paschal, Raleigh, for defendant-appellant Revels Tractor Co., Inc.

Patterson, Dilthey, Clay, Cranfill, Sumner & Hartzog by Ronald C. Dilthey and Patricia L. Holland, Raleigh, for defendant-appellee Long Mfg. Co., Inc.

FRYE, Justice.

FACTS

Factually, this matter is not complicated. Defendant-appellee Long Manufacturing Company, Inc., (hereinafter Long) manufactured a tobacco harvester on 10 April 1974. Thereafter, on 1 July 1974, Long sold the harvester to a dealer and distributor, who subsequently sold the tobacco harvester to a farmer on 7 March 1975. The farmer used the equipment on his farm until he sold it to defendant-appellant Revels Tractor Company, Inc., (hereinafter Revels) on 3 February 1981. On 7 July 1981, Revels sold the tobacco harvester to plaintiff-appellant's husband.

Plaintiff's husband was killed on 8 July 1981 while operating the tobacco harvester on his farm. Plaintiff alleged in her complaint "[t]hat the direct and proximate cause of the ... death of plaintiff's intestate was the negligent design, manufacture and sale of said tobacco bulk harvester by defendant Long Manufacturing Company, Inc., in that the directions for the operation of the aforesaid 'lift control lever,' which operated the cable and forklift system supporting the trailer which collapsed, were inaccurately, misleadingly and defectively labeled." Plaintiff was appointed administratrix of the estate of her deceased husband, and she commenced an action against Long, the manufacturer, and Revels, the retailer, on 6 October 1981.

In its answer, Long plead as an affirmative defense the provisions of G.S. 1-50(6), the six-year statute of repose for product liability actions. Revels filed an answer denying liability and also cross-claiming against Long for indemnity and contribution. After the filing of the initial pleadings and the initiation of discovery, Long moved for summary judgment, relying upon G.S. 1-50(6) and alleging that the statute operated to bar any actions filed against it. On 18 February 1983, the trial court granted Long's motion for summary judgment, and the claims of plaintiff and Revels were dismissed. From this order, plaintiff and Revels appealed to the Court of Appeals. That court affirmed the judgment of the trial court. Plaintiff and Revels thereafter petitioned for discretionary review to this Court, which was allowed.

I.

The dispositive issue on this appeal is whether G.S. 1-50(6) is constitutional. We conclude that the statute is constitutional. The Court of Appeals declined to reach this precise issue because the record that was before that court did "not affirmatively disclose that the constitutionality of N.C.Gen.Stat. § 1-50(6) was raised, discussed, considered, or passed upon in the trial court." Tetterton v. Long Manufacturing Company, Inc., 67 N.C.App. 628, 630, 313 S.E.2d 250, 251 (1984). The Court of Appeals cited and relied upon Midrex Corp. v. Lynch, 50 N.C.App. 611, 274 S.E.2d 853, disc. rev. denied and appeal dismissed, 303 N.C. 181, 280 S.E.2d 453 (1981) to support its conclusion. In that case the Court stated:

The record does not contain anything in the pleadings, evidence, judgment or otherwise, to indicate that any constitutional argument was presented to the trial court. The appellate court will not decide a constitutional question which was not raised or considered in the trial court.... The record must affirmatively show that the question was raised and passed upon in the trial court.

Id. at 216, 274 S.E.2d at 857-58. (emphasis added).

It is true that neither Long's motion for summary judgment nor the judgment itself, both of which are in the record on appeal, makes reference to the constitutionality of the statute relied upon by Long. This is entirely proper, since it is not a part of the function of the court on a motion for summary judgment to make findings of fact and conclusions of law. Mosley v. National Finance Co. Inc., 36 N.C.App. 109, 243 S.E.2d 145, cert. denied, 295 N.C. 467, 246 S.E.2d 9 (1978). We find, however, that the record does "otherwise" contain indications that the constitutional issue was before the trial court. Both plaintiff and Revels assigned as error the fact that the trial judge improperly granted Long's summary judgment motion because the statute relied upon was unconstitutional. Although not before the Court of Appeals when the case was initially heard and decided by that court, plaintiff and Revels included in their petition for rehearing to that court an affidavit signed by Judge Reid, who presided at the hearing on the summary judgment motion. That affidavit stated:

3. That at the aforesaid hearing upon Motion for Summary Judgment, the issue of the constitutionality of GS 1-50(6) was timely raised, presented, and argued to the Court following submission to the Court by the parties of trial briefs specifically directed to their respective positions concerning the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the said GS 1-50(6);

Thus, we conclude that the record indicates that the constitutional question was properly presented to and considered by the trial court and the Court of Appeals below and is properly before this Court on appeal.

II.

Plaintiff contends that G.S. 1-50(6) is unconstitutional because it violates (1) the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, § 19, of the North Carolina Constitution; (2) the prohibition against "exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges" in Article I, § 32, of the North Carolina Constitution; and (3) the "open courts" provision of Article I, § 18, of the North Carolina Constitution. Plaintiff also contends that G.S. 1-50(6) is unconstitutionally vague. Defendant, Revels Tractor Company, Inc., joins in plaintiff's equal protection argument. We will address each of these arguments separately.

In the case sub judice, all of the parties stipulated and agreed to the following:

(4) For the sole purpose of this appeal, summary judgment on behalf of Long Manufacturing Company, Inc. would only be appropriate if plaintiff's action is barred by the applicable North Carolina statute of limitations;

This stipulation further refines the scope of inquiry on this appeal to a determination of whether plaintiff's action is barred by G.S. 1-50(6).

A.

G.S. 1-50(6), the statute in controversy, provides:

No action for the recovery of damages for personal injury, death or damage to property based upon or arising out of any alleged defect or any failure in relation to a product shall be brought more than six years after the date of initial purchase for use or consumption.

As applied to the instant facts and to plaintiff's action against Long, farmer Jimmy Ray Casey initially purchased the tobacco harvester to be used on his farm on 7 March 1975. On 6 October 1981, more than six years after this initial purchase by farmer Casey, plaintiff commenced her action to recover for the death of her husband, who had subsequently purchased the equipment from defendant Revels on 7 July 1981. Long raised as an affirmative defense in its answer G.S. 1-50(6), a statute of repose which bars a products liability action if commenced more than six years after the date of initial purchase for use or consumption. Ultimately, plaintiff's action and defendant's cross-action were dismissed against Long based upon this statute.

In addressing the constitutional challenges to the statute, certain rules of statutory construction must be adhered to. In construing a statute to determine whether it is constitutional, our courts have consistently recognized that there is a strong presumption that an enactment of the legislature is constitutional. Lamb v. Wedgewood South, Corp., 308 N.C. 419, 302 S.E.2d 868 (1983). Furthermore, reasonable doubts must be resolved in favor of sustaining the act. Id. Our Court has stated, "in considering the constitutionality of a statute, it is well established that the courts will indulge every presumption in favor of its constitutionality." Painter v. Wake County Board of Education, 288 N.C. 165, 177, 217 S.E.2d 650, 658 (1975). A statute will not be declared unconstitutional unless it is clearly so, and all reasonable doubt will be resolved in favor of its validity. Glenn v. Board of Education of Mitchell County, 210 N.C. 525, 187 S.E. 781 (1936).

Plaintiff contends "that G.S. 1-50(6) violates the equal protection clauses of both our State and Federal Constitutions on the basis that it impermissibly distinguishes between manufacturers and suppliers as sellers of products who are protected from liability beyond the specified six-year period and retail businesses and private individuals as sellers of the identical products who are not granted the same protections." Revels also joins plaintiff in this argument. G.S. 1-50(6) was enacted in 1979 and incorporated into the products liability statute, Chapter 99B. This chapter describes the actions to which the statute applies. In pertinent part, G.S. 99B-1(3) provides:

(3) "Product liability action" includes any action brought for or on account of personal injury, death or property damage caused by or resulting from the manufacture, construction, design, formulation, development of standards, preparation, processing, assembly, testing, listing, certifying, warning, instructing, marketing, selling, advertising, packaging or labeling of any product. (emphases added.)

On the face of the statute, a product liability...