Troja v. Black & Decker Mfg. Co.

• Decision Date: 01 September 1984
• Docket Number: No. 574,574
• Parties: Michael A. TROJA v. The BLACK & DECKER MANUFACTURING COMPANY. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 101

62 Md.App. 101

488 A.2d 516

Michael A. TROJA v. The BLACK & DECKER MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

No. 574, Sept. Term, 1984.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

March 7, 1985.

Toni S. Lifshotz, Baltimore (Marcus Z. Shar and Bierer & Shar, P.A., Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.

James P. Nolan, Annapolis (Kevin M. Schaeffer and Hartman & Crain, P.A., Annapolis, on the brief), for appellee.

Submitted before GILBERT, C.J., and GARRITY and ROBERT M. BELL, JJ.

GILBERT, Chief Judge.

This appeal involves a personal injury action grounded in strict liability.

On January 10, 1979, Michael Troja accidentally amputated his thumb while he was operating a radial arm saw manufactured by Black and Decker Manufacturing Company, Inc. He instituted suit in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County against Black and Decker in both negligence and strict liability. The negligence count was voluntarily withdrawn prior to trial. The strict liability counts were based on two theories:

1) The absence of a safeguarding system, which would prevent the saw from operating unless the guide fence was in place, was a design defect which caused the saw to be unreasonably dangerous.

2) The manufacturer's failure to warn consumers of the risks of using the saw without the guide fence caused the saw to be unreasonably dangerous.

At the close of Troja's case before Judge Raymond G. Thieme and a jury, the judge granted Black and Decker's motion for a directed verdict on the defective design portion of Troja's strict liability count. Judge Thieme ruled that Troja had failed to produce any legally sufficient evidence of the economic feasibility of a proposed alternative radial arm saw design, or of the existence of the technology necessary to produce such a product in 1976, the year the particular saw was manufactured.

The failure to warn issue was submitted to the jury on seven questions. The jury found that the absence of special warnings at the time the saw was marketed caused the saw to be defective and that the saw was unreasonably dangerous. Nevertheless, the jury concluded that the manufacturer did not know of the defect at the time it placed the saw on the market. Based on those findings, the judge entered a judgment in favor of Black and Decker.

Troja argues that the trial court: 1) abused its discretion in precluding an expert witness from stating an opinion in regard to the economic and technological feasibility of a proposed safeguard for the radial arm saw; 2) erred in directing a verdict on the issue of design defect based on the court's findings that Troja failed to produce legally sufficient evidence to warrant submission of that issue to the jury; 3) abused its discretion in refusing to admit evidence of warnings the manufacturer placed on its saw subsequent to the marketing of the saw that caused Troja's injury; 4) abused its discretion in not allowing cross-examination of the appellee's expert as to warnings Black and Decker provided on models post-dating the saw in the matter at bar; and 5) erred in admitting testimony of Black and Decker's compliance with federal and industry standards as they existed in 1976.

The alleged villain in this litigation is a twelve inch radial arm saw, DeWalt Model No. 780, manufactured by Black and Decker in 1976. Troja had borrowed the saw from Robert Krohn, who had hired Troja to build a bar. Troja and Krohn removed the saw from its metal base and stand in order that it could be carried from Krohn's basement to the work site in the bar. The guide fence and metal base were left behind. Bereft of its base, the saw was placed directly on the floor. Troja rigged a makeshift guide fence by securing an aluminum level to the saw with two "C" clamps. At the time of his injury, Troja was using the saw to make a cross-cut. He had dispensed with his makeshift fence and guided the wood into the saw blade with his bare hand.

A "DeWalt Instruction & Maintenance Manual" accompanied the 1976 DeWalt Model No. 780. The manual contained instructions, illustrated with photographs, on the subjects of assembly, operation, and maintenance of the saw. The manual included instructions for performing various types of cuts. The proper procedure for executing a cross-cut was explained and illustrated.

The Design Defect

Troja contends that because the saw was designed so that the guide fence was easily removable, the absence of a safety feature that would prevent the saw from running when the fence was not in place rendered it unreasonably dangerous.

Maryland, in Phipps v. General Motors Corp., 278 Md. 337, 363 A.2d 955 (1976), embraced the theory of strict liability in tort actions. There the Court expressly adopted the elements contained in the Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 402A (1965). That section provides:

"(1) One who sells any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer or to his property is subject to liability for physical harm thereby caused to the ultimate user or consumer, or to his property, if

(a) the seller is engaged in the business of selling such a product, and

(b) it is expected to and does reach the user or consumer without substantial change in the condition in which it is sold.

(2) The rule stated in Subsection (1) applies although

(a) the seller has exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale of his product, and

(b) the user or consumer has not brought the product from or entered into any contractual relation with the seller."

Section 402A requires a court, in a design defect case, to weigh "the utility of risk inherent in the design against the magnitude of the risk." Phipps v. General Motors Corp., 278 Md. at 345, 363 A.2d at 959. The court, Phipps tells us, ought to implement a balancing process to decide whether the product in question was unreasonably dangerous.

One helpful guide to the balancing process was recommended in Wade, On the Nature of Strict Tort Liability for Products, 44 Miss.L.J. 825, 837-38 (1973). Wade suggests seven factors that should be weighed in determining whether a given product is "reasonably safe." Those factors are:

"(1) The usefulness and desirability of the product--its utility to the user and to the public as a whole.

(2) The safety aspects of the product--the likelihood that it will cause injury, and the probable seriousness of the injury.

(3) The availability of a substitute product which would meet the same need and not be as unsafe.

(4) The manufacturer's ability to eliminate the unsafe character of the product without impairing its usefulness or making it too expensive to maintain its utility.

(5) The user's ability to avoid danger by the exercise of care in the use of the product.

(6) The user's anticipated awareness of the dangers inherent in the product and their avoidability, because of general public knowledge of the obvious condition of the product, or of the existence of suitable warnings or instructions.

(7) The feasibility, on the part of the manufacturer, of spreading the loss by setting the price of the product or carrying liability insurance."

See also Phipps v. General Motors Corp. 278 Md. at 345, n. 4, 363 A.2d at 959, n. 4.

In some instances the risk is "inherently unreasonable," and no balancing test is necessary. An example of an inherently unreasonable risk is where, as in Phipps, the gas pedal of a new automobile suddenly and without warning sticks, causing the vehicle to accelerate.

The failure of the manufacturer, in the case sub judice, to incorporate a safety system such as the one proposed by Troja is not an inherently unreasonable risk. Therefore, in order to create a jury issue on the liability of Black and Decker because of a defective design, Troja was required to produce evidence from which the jury could determine the former's unreasonableness in manufacturing a saw, in 1976, without a safety system. In Singleton v. International Harvestor Co., 685 F.2d 112 (4th Cir.1981), the Fourth Circuit held that in order to carry a case to the jury, the evidence should show: the technological feasibility of manufacturing a product with the suggested safety device at the time the suspect product was manufactured; the availability of the materials required; the cost of production of the suggested device; price to the consumer, including that of the suggested device; and the chances of consumer acceptance of a model incorporating such features. Id. at 115-16. The design alternative proposed in Singleton was a roll-over protective structure for a tractor which had upended or toppled, trapping the operator beneath it. Because Singleton's experts failed to provide the foundation information required, the court affirmed the trial court's directed verdict on the issue of defective design. Id. at 116.

Troja contends that Judge Thieme erred when he refused to allow an expert in the field of "machine guarding safety systems" to testify that a radial saw design, incorporating a safety device described as an "interlock system," could have been developed in 1976. Gerald Rennell, who was offered by Troja as an expert, testified that he had taken courses in machine guarding and industrial safety. He said that he had been employed as a "safety engineer" and a "loss-control inspector." Although Rennell suggested that Black and Decker could have incorporated a "safety interlock feature," which would have prevented the saw from running when the guide fence was not in place, he acknowledged that he had no experience in radial arm saw design. Rennell was unable to furnish a design demonstrating the actual placement of such a system, or to explain how it could be integrated in the saw without interfering with the functions for which the fence would normally not be employed. The expert's bald statement that a safety interlock device could be implemented without great cost to the manufacturer was not supported by any data regarding the cost of the materials...