Torres-Rios v. LPS Laboratories, Inc.

• Decision Date: 05 May 1998
• Docket Number: TORRES-RIOS,No. 97-2424,97-2424
• Citation: 152 F.3d 11
• Parties: Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 15,303 Ana Maria, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. LPS LABORATORIES, INC., et al., Defendants, Appellees. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 11

152 F.3d 11

Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 15,303

Ana Maria TORRES-RIOS, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. LPS LABORATORIES, INC., et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 97-2424.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard May 5, 1998.

Decided Aug. 4, 1998.

John E. Mudd, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

G. William Austin and Jorge F. Freyre, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, COFFIN and BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judges.

COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge.

This product liability action arises from a workplace accident in which a cleaning product manufactured by LPS Laboratories, Inc. was ignited by sparks from a welding torch, triggering a flash fire that severely burned Felix Martinez Diaz. Martinez' wife and two daughters brought suit, claiming primarily that the warnings contained in the safety instructions accompanying the product were inadequate. The district court granted summary judgment for LPS, concluding as a matter of law that the product warnings met all applicable standards and that the alleged deficiency in the warnings was not, in any event, the cause of the accident. The court also rejected appellants' defective design claim as untimely. We affirm.

The following facts are undisputed. Martinez was injured on May 4, 1995, while using LPS's product, CFC-Free Electro Contact Cleaner, to clean a piece of electrical equipment known as the "thermatool." The cleaner had been delivered to Martinez's employer, Bayamon Steel, in a 55-gallon drum that was kept in a storage area, and Martinez used a pail to carry a quantity of the liquid from the drum to the thermatool. At the time of the accident, he was spraying the chemical onto the internal electrical parts of the thermatool. A few feet away, other employees were working to repair a mill. Their use of a welding torch ignited the cleaner and triggered a flash fire in which Martinez suffered serious burns over more than fifty percent of his body.

Safety warnings appeared on labels on the top and side of the drum. Among other information, the labels contained the word "DANGER," advised that the cleaner was "EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE," and specified certain actions to be taken or avoided (e.g., "Keep away from heat, sparks and open flame"; "Prevent buildup of vapors--use adequate cross-ventilation"; "[T]urn off all sources of ignition during use and until vapors are gone"). A "material safety data sheet" ("MSDS"), required by federal law, see 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1200, also was available. Under the heading "Unusual fire and explosive hazards," it warned that "[f]lammable vapors which are heavier than air may accumulate in low areas and/or spread along the ground away from handling site" and it instructed that the cleaner should be used and stored "with adequate ventilation" and "away from ignition sources."

These safety materials all were in English. The drum also bore a diamond-shaped warning label that contained a flame symbol and "FLAMMABLE LIQUID" written in white on a red background.

The central issue in this case is the adequacy of the information provided by LPS concerning the cleaner's flammability. We first consider whether the district court properly granted summary judgment on that issue and then briefly address plaintiffs' effort to litigate a defective design claim.

A. Adequacy of Warnings

Even when considered in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, as we do upon review of a district court's grant of summary judgment, see Flynn v. City of Boston, 140 F.3d 42, 44 (1st Cir.1998), the warning defect claim is lacking. See Aponte-Rivera v. Sears Roebuck de P.R., 98 JTS 12, Certified Translation at 10 (1998) (App. V. at 1282) (noting three types of defective product claims, including those based on inadequate warnings). Although the record contains evidence from plaintiffs' experts on ways to improve the information provided with the cleaner, this is not enough to establish that the product is defective.

A detailed scheme of federal statutes and regulations governs the handling and labeling of hazardous substances. See, e.g., 15 U.S.C. §§ 1261-1277 (Federal Hazardous Substances Act); 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1200 (governing hazard communication in the workplace); 16 C.F.R. § 1500.121 (requirements for safety warnings). These provisions are designed to set a comprehensive standard for workplace safety, see 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1200(a)(1), (2), and "to preempt any legal requirements of a state, or political subdivision of a state, pertaining to this subject," id. at § 1910.1200(a)(2). To succeed, plaintiffs must demonstrate that defendant's warnings failed to satisfy the federal standards. See Moss v. Parks Corp., 985 F.2d 736, 742 (4th Cir.1993) (granting summary judgment to manufacturer of paint thinner based on finding that product was properly labeled in accordance with federal standards).

Plaintiffs assert three primary deficiencies in the labels and other safety information: the warnings were given only in English even though the dominant language in Puerto Rico is Spanish; the safety information was too small to be seen easily; and the warning failed to convey the seriousness of the fire danger, particularly when the cleaner is sprayed (as it was in this case). We consider each of these in turn.

(1) Absence of warnings in Spanish. The regulation that sets out the necessary elements of a safety label does not explicitly contain a language requirement. See 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1200(f)(1). Two provisions of the same regulation make it clear, however, that the obligation under federal law is to provide the information in English. Subsection (f)(9) states that an employer shall ensure that labels or other forms of warning are in English and that they may add information in other languages, as appropriate. Subsection (g) explicitly states that the material safety data sheet, which manufacturers must provide, "shall be in English (although the employer may maintain copies in other languages as well)."

These provisions thus establish that federal law requires manufacturers to provide safety warnings only in English and that it is the responsibility of individual employers, at their discretion, to provide additional warnings in other languages. In this case, the 55-gallon drum containing the cleaner also prominently displayed the pictorial of a flame, which is considered a universal symbol of flammability. That label filled any language gap, ¹ putting users on notice that precautions needed to be taken to avoid fire. ² Although the pictorial did not fully explain the danger, it provided clear warning that, before working with the product, the user should either read the accompanying safety instructions or find someone to translate them. Absence of Spanish warnings, therefore, did not violate federal law and could not render the cleaner a defective product. Cf. Ramirez v. Plough, 6 Cal.4th 539, 25 Cal.Rptr.2d 97, 863 P.2d 167, 174 (1994) ("Defining the circumstances under which warnings or other information should be provided in a language other than English is a task for which legislative and administrative bodies are particularly well suited.").

(2) Size of type. One of plaintiffs' experts, Dr. Stuart Parsons, testified in deposition and stated in a report that the lettering on the instructions label was too small for easy reading. In reaching that conclusion, he relied on standards developed by professional and technical societies through the American National Standards Institute, whose guidelines do not have the force of law. There is no evidence that the label fails to satisfy even the strict size requirements for safety labels intended or packaged in a form suitable for household use, see 15 U.S.C. § 1261(p)(2); 16 C.F.R. § 1500.121(a)(1), (c) (specifying type size and other "prominence, placement, and conspicuousness" requirements). In the workplace, containers of hazardous materials are required to bear labels or other indicators with "the identity of the material and appropriate hazard warnings." 29 C.F.R. § 1910.1200 App. E(4)(A). Such labels

must be legible, and prominently displayed. There are no specific requirements for size or color, or any specified text.

Id. ³ Indeed, another of plaintiffs' experts, Dr. Barry Sanders, noted that "[t]his label probably meets the letter of the law." Although he added, "but not the spirit of the law ...," he evidently was suggesting that the federal regulations should be stricter. ⁴

We note, moreover, that the reasonable size of a warning must be linked to whether it is sufficiently eye catching to put the product user on notice of the relevant hazards. Here, the prominent red-and-white pictorial serves the function of drawing attention to the fire danger from the cleaner. The fact that the more detailed information is not presented in the optimal size for distance viewing is thus less significant than if it alone was relied upon to alert the user to the danger. The same rationale takes care of plaintiffs' related argument that there was insufficient contrast between the colors used for the safety information label, which featured black text on a blue background. The size and color of the warning label therefore did not render this product defective.

(3) Content of the label. Plaintiffs contend that the label did not convey the seriousness of the fire danger from the vapors discharged by the cleaner, and failed in particular to warn of the magnified risk of a flash fire when the product is sprayed. We agree that users would be better informed if the label contained more information. That, however, would be true at most levels of detail, and the question we face here is not whether the label is perfect but whether a jury could find that the product is unreasonably dangerous with its current warnings. We conclude that such a finding is insupportable on this record. Cf. Canty v. Ever-Last Supply Co., 296 N.J.Super. 68, 685 A.2d 1365 1377 (1996) ("Disagreement over the adequacy or...