Wall v. Ford Motor Co.

• Decision Date: 22 December 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-6385,91-6385
• Citation: 983 F.2d 1071
• Parties: NOTICE: Sixth Circuit Rule 24(c) states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Sixth Circuit. Wesley WALL, Plaintiff-Appellant v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1071

983 F.2d 1071

NOTICE: Sixth Circuit Rule 24(c) states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Sixth Circuit.

Wesley WALL, Plaintiff-Appellant v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee

No. 91-6385.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Dec. 22, 1992.

Before RYAN and SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judges, and HIGGINBOTHAM, Senior Circuit Judge. ^*

HIGGINBOTHAM, Senior Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a grant of a directed verdict in favor of defendant, Ford Motor Company, and against plaintiff, Wesley Wall. Wall was injured when he fell off the fender of a tractor. Wall, a Kentucky citizen, brought a diversity action against the manufacturer of the tractor, Ford Motor Company, a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Michigan. Wall alleged that a defect in the tractor fender caused him to fall and asserted that Ford was liable under theories of negligence and strict product liability. The action went to trial before a jury in the United States district court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. At the close of Wall's proof, the court directed a verdict in favor of Ford. The court, applying Kentucky law, concluded that Wall could not recover against Ford for two reasons. First, the court held that the Ford tractor was presumed to be not defective, and that Wall had failed to rebut that presumption with a preponderance of the evidence to the contrary. Second, in the alternative, the court held that Wall's contributory negligence was a complete bar to his recovering against Ford. We agree with, and will affirm, the district court's ruling that Wall has failed to rebut the presumption that the Ford tractor was not defective. Accordingly, we do not reach the court's alternative ruling that Wall was also contributorily negligent. The district court had subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (1992). We have appellate jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1992).

I

On May 18, 1989, Wesley Wall was working on a farm in rural Kentucky owned by Annie Baird. Ronald Baird, the manager of the farm, ordered Wall and a co-worker, Paul "Pos" Peavley, to take a feeder-grinder to a dairy barn on the farm. The feeder-grinder was attached to a tractor, a 1972 Model 7000 Ford.

The 1972 Model 7000 Ford tractor is designed with only one seat; that of the driver. The tractor has two big rear wheels and two smaller front wheels. Each of the rear wheels is covered with a metal fender. The fender consists of a sheet of metal curved over the top of each rear wheel. Each fender is supported by three pieces of metal called stiffeners. The stiffeners are attached by a bracket to the bottom of the fender and connect the fender to the body of the tractor. The purpose of the fenders is to protect the driver from the debris and mud kicked up by the big rear tires. The tractor has a warning decal posted near the driver seat and headed in bold letters with the words: "Be Careful." The remainder of the decal contains seven rules of safety for operating the tractor. One of these safety rules states: "Do Not Permit Passengers." The tractor on the Baird farm had been sold in 1972. It had been resold on two occasions. The Bairds were the third owners.

Following Baird's directions, Peavley climbed into the driver's seat and began to drive toward the dairy barn. Wall boarded the tractor by sitting on the right fender with his feet resting on two bars beneath the driver's seat. As Peavley drove toward the barn, the fender on which Wall was sitting collapsed. Wall fell under the tractor, became entangled in the draw bar that attached the feeder-grinder to the tractor, and was partially pinned beneath one of the rear wheels. As a result, he suffered brain and spinal injuries and numerous cuts and bruises.

Wall sued the manufacturer of the tractor, Ford Motor Company, under strict liability and negligence. Wall asserted that the tractor was defectively designed and manufactured because the fenders had a dangerous propensity to collapse. Wall also alleged that the tractor had a warning defect because Ford failed to warn users of the dangerous propensity of the fenders to collapse and of the specific risks involved when the fenders collapsed. On November 18, 1991, the case went to trial before a jury. Wall called Theodore Hopwood as an expert witness to testify on the reason for the fender collapsing. According to Hopwood, the fender collapsed because the three stiffeners which were supposed to reinforce the fender and attach it to the tractor corroded and broke. The stiffeners corroded because water, moisture and manure kicked up by the rear wheels beneath the fenders accumulated on the stiffeners and because drain holes which were drilled on the side of the stiffeners were not effective in preventing accumulation of moisture on the stiffeners.

Moreover, Hopwood testified that the stiffeners in the Ford tractor were made up of very thin sheets of metal measuring 50 thousandths of an inch thick which had been constructed into a box-like shape and painted over. The box-like shape of the stiffeners, rather than the thickness of the metal, gave them strength to support the fender. Once moisture began to settle on the stiffeners, they corroded very quickly because the metal was so thin. Hopwood also testified that, since the stiffeners are located underneath the fender, it would not be possible for someone to detect the corrosion.

Hopwood proposed three alternative safer designs. The first alternative was to move the placement of the drain holes on the stiffeners so that water and moisture could drain out of the stiffeners more effectively. The second alternative was to move the position of the stiffeners so that the driver of the tractor or any other user would be able to see the onset of corrosion. The third alternative was to have stiffeners constructed of thicker sheets of metal.

At the close of Wall's proof the district court granted a directed verdict in favor of Ford. Based on Hopwood's testimony, the Court concluded that Wall had failed to rebut the presumption under Kentucky law that the tractor was not defective. The court also found that Ford was not liable for Wall's injuries because Wall had failed to use ordinary care in sitting on the fender of the tractor.

II

Under Kentucky law, in any product liability action, whether based on negligence or strict liability, a product will be presumed not defective if it satisfies either of two conditions. One condition is "if the injury, death or property damage occurred either more than five (5) years after the date of sale to the first consumer or more than eight (8) years after the date of the manufacture." Kentucky Product Liability Act, Ky.Rev.Stat.Ann. § 411.310(1) (Michie 1992). The other condition is if "the design, methods of manufacture, and testing conformed to the generally recognized and prevailing standards or the state of the art in existence at the time the design was prepared, and the product manufactured." K.R.S. § 411.310(2).

If the product meets either of these two conditions, it is presumed not defective unless plaintiff can rebut that presumption with a "preponderance of the evidence to the contrary." K.R.S. § 411.310(1) & (2). Moreover, the Product Liability Act is phrased in terms that there is a presumption that the product is not defective. The Act makes no distinction between design defects, manufacturing defects or even warning defects. Here, it is undisputed that the tractor satisfies the condition under K.R.S. 411.310(1) to be presumed not defective. The tractor was manufactured in 1972. The accident occurred in 1989; more than eight years after the tractor was manufactured. Thus, the tractor must be presumed not defective unless Wall can rebut that presumption with a preponderance of the evidence that the tractor was indeed defective.

The district court concluded that Wall failed to present sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption that the Ford tractor was not defective...