Valk Mfg. Co. v. Rangaswamy

• Decision Date: 01 September 1987
• Docket Number: No. 156,156
• Citation: 537 A.2d 622,74 Md.App. 304
• Parties: , Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 11,697 VALK MANUFACTURING COMPANY v. Radha RANGASWAMY, et al. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 304

74 Md.App. 304

537 A.2d 622, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 11,697

VALK MANUFACTURING COMPANY v. Radha RANGASWAMY, et al.

No. 156, Sept. Term, 1987.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

March 2, 1988.

Hugh E. Donovan (Daniel W. O'Connell and Donovan & Nash, on the brief), Silver Spring, for appellant.

John G. Gill, Jr. (Cynthia A. Raposo and Gill & Sippel, on the brief), Rockville, for appellees, Rangaswamy et al.

Clyde Henning, Associate Co. Atty. (Paul A. McGuckian, Co. Atty. and Joann Robertson, Sr. Asst. Co. Atty., on the brief), Rockville, for appellee, Montgomery County.

Argued before MOYLAN, BISHOP and GARRITY, JJ.

MOYLAN, Judge.

The fatal collision giving rise to this litigation occurred on December 19, 1982. Dr. Srinivasa Rangaswamy, driving a Toyota automobile, attempted to exit from his housing development at West Kersey Lane in Montgomery County onto Falls Road. The intersection was controlled by a stop sign. A C & P Telephone Company truck was parked near the intersection at its northeast quadrant. The location of the truck was such that it inhibited the view of westbound traffic on Falls Road to motorists attempting to enter onto Falls Road from West Kersey Lane.

The Rangaswamy Toyota pulled up to the intersection of Falls Road and came to a stop. Prior to entering Falls Road, Dr. Rangaswamy purportedly looked both left and right. He then accelerated into the intersection directly into the path of a dump truck owned by Montgomery County. The vehicles collided.

At the time of the collision, the Montgomery County dump truck had a snowplow hitch mounted on its front. No snowplow was attached to the hitch, however. The hitch contained a steel lift arm measuring 20 inches in length. The lift arm projected 29 inches beyond the radiator and bumper of the truck. Movement of the lift arm was controlled by a hydraulic cylinder held in place by two 3-inch cotter pins. By removing the lower cotter pin, the lift arm would drop to a flush position.

When the vehicles collided, the lift arm protruded inside the Rangaswamy vehicle as the full force of the moving dump truck struck the left side of the Toyota at the driver's door. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Rangaswamy died of multiple injuries to the head and chest.

The appellees, Radha Rangaswamy (widow of Dr. Rangaswamy) and her minor child Arum Rangaswamy, brought this action for the wrongful death of Srinivasa Rangaswamy. The appellees filed suit against several different parties. Two defendants, C & P Telephone Company and Montgomery County, were sued under theories of negligence. A third defendant, Valk Manufacturing Company, the appellant here, was sued under theories of negligence and strict liability in tort. Valk was the manufacturer of the snowplow hitch which was attached to the Montgomery County dump truck. Valk, in turn, filed a cross-claim against Montgomery County.

Prior to trial, the appellees settled their case against C & P Telephone Company. The appellees received $250,000 in exchange for giving the telephone company a joint tort-feasors release. The appellees' case against the County and Valk Manufacturing went forward. At the conclusion of the appellees' case-in-chief, a motion for judgment was granted in favor of Montgomery County. A motion for judgment was also granted in favor of the County on the cross-claim of Valk Manufacturing. The trial judge ruled that the deceased was contributorily negligent as a matter of law. The case proceeded to the jury on the strict liability count against Valk Manufacturing, at that point the sole remaining defendant. A jury verdict in the amount of $2,500,000 was returned against Valk. Valk's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, a motion for new trial was denied.

Upon this appeal, Valk raises the following five contentions:

1) That the trial court erred in failing to grant appellant's motion for judgment and/or motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict where appellees failed to make a prima facie showing of liability under the doctrine of strict liability as applied in Maryland;

2) That the trial court erred in failing to grant appellant's motion for judgment and/or motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict where the evidence established the deceased's assumption of the risk as a matter of law;

3) That the trial court erred in failing to grant appellant's motion for judgment and/or motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict where the appellees failed to establish, as a matter of law, that the alleged defect was the cause of death;

4) That the trial court committed prejudicial error by allowing the improper and irrelevant testimony of Dr. William Belmont on the economic loss to the deceased's corporation; and

5) That the trial court erred in granting Montgomery County's motion for judgment on the cross-claim of Valk.

The first four issues raised by the appellant, Valk, concern only the appellees, the Rangaswamys. The fifth issue concerns only the appellee, Montgomery County. We shall consider first appellant's claims concerning the Rangaswamys and then address the issue concerning Montgomery County.

Standard of Appellate Review

The appellant's first three contentions charge that Judge Richard B. Latham, before whom this case was heard in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, erroneously denied its motions for judgment and/or judgment notwithstanding the verdict on three separate grounds. In approaching these claims, we are, of course, required to resolve all conflicts in the evidence in favor of the plaintiff, to assume the truth of all credible evidence presented in support of the plaintiff, and to accept as true all inferences naturally and legitimately arising from the evidence which tend to support the plaintiff's right to recover. James Gibbons Co. v Hess, 44 Md.App. 216, 407 A.2d 782 (1979); Battista v. Savings Bank of Baltimore, 67 Md.App. 257, 507 A.2d 203 (1986). If there is competent evidence, however slight, to support the plaintiff's right to recover, the motion for judgment and/or motion for judgment n.o.v. should be denied. Keene v. Arlan's Dept. Store of Baltimore, Inc., 35 Md.App. 250, 370 A.2d 124 (1977).

Strict Liability in Tort

In the rapidly developing and still fluid field of products liability law, there are now three alternative theories under which a claimant may seek damages against the manufacturer or seller of a defective product:

"This now means that a claimant seeking damages against a merchant seller has three alternative theories available, all of which are often utilized in the same case. These are: (a) negligence in tort, (b) strict liability for breach of warranty, express or implied, and (c) strict liability in tort."

W. Keeton, Prosser and Keeton on Torts 694 (5th ed. 1984). The newest of these theories is strict liability in tort. It was first applied in California in 1963 in the seminal case of Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc., 59 Cal.2d 57, 27 Cal.Rptr. 697, 377 P.2d 897 (1963). A year later, the final acceptance of § 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts placed the imprimatur of the American Law Institute on the notion of strict liability in tort. By 1984, nearly every state had adopted some version of § 402A. W Keeton, supra, at 694. Maryland adopted the theory of strict liability in tort in 1976, in the case of Phipps v. General Motors Corporation, 278 Md. 337, 363 A.2d 955 (1976). Judge Eldridge, in a thorough and scholarly opinion for the Court of Appeals, traced the historic development of the strict liability in tort theory for products liability cases. He discussed as well the evolving philosophy undergirding recent changes in tort theory.

Section 402A, as now adopted by Maryland, provides "Special liability of Seller of Product for Physical Harm to User or consumer

'(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 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 bought the product from or entered into any contractual relation with the seller.' "

Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A (1965).

An appreciation of the significant change that has taken place in recent decades in the undergirding philosophy of tort law with respect to products liability will help to liberate us from earlier limiting notions such as 1) some duty of care on the part of the manufacturer/seller (a heavy factor under contractual theories of liability based on express or implied warranties as well as in negligence law) and 2) the necessity for some sort of moral fault or blame in the manufacturer/seller (a dominant factor in 19th Century tort law). Strict liability in tort is today largely a societal decision that the cost of injury should be borne by those best able to bear such costs. As Judge Eldridge explained, in Phipps v. General Motors, at 278 Md. 343, 363 A.2d 955:

"Various justifications for imposing strict liability in tort on manufacturers have been advanced by the courts. It has been said that the cost of injuries caused by defective products should in equity be 'borne by the manufacturers that put such products on the market rather than by the injured persons who are powerless to protect themselves' and that 'warranties serve this purpose fitfully at best.' Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc., supra [59 Cal.2d 57, 27 Cal.Rptr. 697] 377 P.2d at 901 [1963]. It has also been suggested that imposing strict liability on manufacturers for defective products is equitable because it shifts the...