Tucker v. Caterpillar, Inc., 96-679

• Decision Date: 18 June 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-679,96-679
• Citation: 564 N.W.2d 410
• Parties: Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 14,994 Jeffrey Scott TUCKER, Appellant, v. CATERPILLAR, INC., Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 410

564 N.W.2d 410

Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 14,994

Jeffrey Scott TUCKER, Appellant, v. CATERPILLAR, INC., Appellee.

No. 96-679.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

June 18, 1997.

Robert A. Burnett, Jr., Des Moines, for appellant.

Mark L. Tripp and Michael L. Mock of Bradshaw, Fowler, Proctor & Fairgrave, P.C., Des Moines, for appellee.

Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and HARRIS, LARSON, LAVORATO, and NEUMAN, JJ.

McGIVERIN, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff challenges the district court's ruling that excluded evidence of warning measures, in connection with a backhoe loader, taken by the defendant manufacturer after the manufacture and sale of the backhoe but before plaintiff was injured in an accident involving the backhoe. Although we do not agree with the district court that the evidence was inadmissible, we conclude that any error did not affect the substantial rights of the plaintiff. Accordingly, we affirm.

I. Background facts and proceedings. This dispute stems from an accident involving a Caterpillar 416 Backhoe Loader (CAT 416). The CAT 416 was manufactured by defendant Caterpillar, Inc. (Caterpillar), in 1986 and sold to a construction company, C.E. Contracting, Ltd., in June 1986. The 1986 instruction manual provided by Caterpillar to C.E. Contracting did not direct operators to engage the transmission neutral lock (TNL) after stopping the machine and setting the parking brake, nor did it warn of the possible consequences of failing to do so.

In November 1986, in response to complaints from other customers about unexpected reengagement of the transmission and undesired movement of the main body of the machine, Caterpillar developed a warning decal that specifically instructed operators to engage the TNL during backhoe operation. Although Caterpillar began affixing the decal to machines manufactured after November 1986, it did not send copies of the decal to C.E. Contracting or other owners of previously-sold machines. In April 1989, a Caterpillar publication, Service Magazine, described a modification to the CAT 416 designed to prevent unexpected reengagement of the transmission. A revised instruction manual issued by Caterpillar in 1990 also advised operators to engage the TNL during backhoe operation to prevent undesired movement.

On September 4, 1990, plaintiff Jeffrey Tucker, an employee of C.E. Contracting, was severely injured when the CAT 416 ran over him while he was working in a trench during a subsurface tiling job along Highway 71 in Buena Vista County. The accident occurred when the machine, which had been stopped with the parking brake set, unexpectedly began to move at a high rate of speed. A co-employee who was operating the CAT 416 at the time of the accident had not engaged the TNL after he stopped the machine and set the parking brake. The machine operator had not read the 1986 and 1990 manuals.

Plaintiff Tucker filed a product liability action against Caterpillar in district court, claiming both negligence and strict liability. In connection with the negligence claim Tucker alleged that defendant Caterpillar breached its duty to use reasonable care in designing the transmission of the CAT 416, to provide sufficient instructions and warnings about the operation of the machine, and to warn of dangers associated with the operation of the machine which became known to Caterpillar after the machine was manufactured and sold. With regard to the strict liability claim, Tucker alleged that the transmission design for the CAT 416 was defective and unreasonably dangerous.

Defendant Caterpillar answered, the parties conducted discovery, and the case proceeded to a jury trial. Before the trial began, Caterpillar filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude exhibits containing the warning decal, the 1990 manual, and other material. Caterpillar contended the decal and 1990 manual were inadmissible because they constituted both subsequent remedial measures under Iowa Rule of Evidence 407 and prejudicial material under Iowa Rule of Evidence 403. The trial court sustained Caterpillar's motion and later rejected, on the basis of rules 407 and 403, Tucker's offers of proof with regard to the decal and 1990 manual.

After hearing the evidence, the jury returned a verdict for defendant Caterpillar as to both the negligence and strict liability counts of plaintiff's petition. The trial court entered judgment for Caterpillar in accordance with the verdict, and plaintiff Tucker appealed.

II. Standard of review. We review the district court's rulings for correction of errors at law. Iowa R.App.P. 4. "Error may not be predicated upon a ruling which admits or excludes evidence unless a substantial right of the party is affected...." Iowa R. Evid. 103(a).

III. Admissibility of warning decal and 1990 manual. On appeal, plaintiff Tucker contends the trial court erred in sustaining Caterpillar's motion in limine and rejecting Tucker's offers of proof regarding the warning decal and 1990 manual because: (1) measures taken by the manufacturer of a product after the sale of the product but before the accident leading to the suit are not subsequent remedial measures under Iowa Rule of Evidence 407; (2) even if they do constitute subsequent remedial measures, such measures are admissible for a purpose other than to prove negligent or culpable conduct; (3) the decal and 1990 manual were not inadmissible under Iowa Rule of Evidence 403; and (4) the trial court's exclusion of the decal and 1990 manual affected substantial rights of the plaintiff.

Plaintiff Tucker only contends the decal and 1990 manual should have been admitted as bearing on plaintiff's negligence allegation concerning defendant Caterpillar's continuing duty to warn about dangers in connection with operation of the machine. See Olson v. Prosoco, Inc., 522 N.W.2d 284, 289 (Iowa 1994).

A. Admissibility under Iowa Rule of Evidence 407. Iowa Rule of Evidence 407 provides:

When, after an event, measures are taken which, if taken previously, would have made the event less likely to occur, evidence of the subsequent measures is not admissible to prove negligence or culpable conduct in connection with the event. This rule does not require the exclusion of evidence of subsequent measures when offered in connection with a claim based on strict liability in tort or breach of warranty or for another purpose, such as proving ownership, control, or feasibility of precautionary measures, if controverted, or impeachment.

(Emphasis added.) In recommending the adoption of this rule, our Iowa Advisory Committee on Study of the Federal Rules of Evidence commented on the rationale underlying rule 407:

The Rule excluding evidence of subsequent repairs originally rested on the notion that such repairs were irrelevant, or had little probative value, to the issue of the defendant's antecedent negligence. More recently, Courts and legislatures have frequently retained the exclusionary rule in negligence cases as a matter of "public policy," reasoning that the exclusion of such evidence may be necessary to avoid deterring individuals from making improvements or repairs after an accident. However, when the context is transformed from a typical negligence setting to the modern products liability field, the "public policy" assumptions justifying this exclusionary rule are no longer valid. This is because it is unrealistic to suggest that the contemporary corporate mass producer of goods, the normal products liability defendant, who manufactures tens of thousands of units of goods, will forego making improvements in its product, and risk [innumerable] additional lawsuits and the attendant adverse effect upon its public image, simply because evidence of adoption of such improvements may be admitted in an action founded on strict liability or breach of warranty for recovery on an injury that preceded the improvement.

Iowa R. Evid. 407 advisory committee's note (1983).

In this case, the warning decal and 1990 manual were issued after the manufacture and sale of the CAT 416 but before the accident. Plaintiff Tucker argues that the triggering "event" referred to in rule 407 was the September 1990 accident; thus, the warning decal and 1990 manual, which were issued before the accident, should not be inadmissible under the rule. Defendant Caterpillar, on the other hand, urges that the "event" occurred sometime before the accident--apparently at the time Caterpillar began to receive complaints from other customers about undesired movement of the machine--so that the warning decal and 1990 manual, which were issued after the CAT 416 was sold to Tucker's employer and after Caterpillar received complaints, should be excluded under rule 407. For the reasons that follow, we believe the language and underlying purpose of rule 407 are more supportive of plaintiff's interpretation than of...