Waterson v. General Motors Corp.

• Decision Date: 27 July 1988
• Citation: 111 N.J. 238,544 A.2d 357
• Parties: , 57 USLW 2090, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 11,890 Jeanette WATERSON, (formerly Jeanette Ratham), Plaintiff-Respondent and Cross- Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, a corporation, Defendant-Appellant and Cross- Respondent, and Reedman Motors Corporation, a corporation, Defendant.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

Page 238

111 N.J. 238

544 A.2d 357, 57 USLW 2090, Prod.Liab.Rep.

(CCH) P 11,890

Jeanette WATERSON, (formerly Jeanette Ratham), Plaintiff-Respondent and Cross- Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, a corporation, Defendant-Appellant and Cross- Respondent, and Reedman Motors Corporation, a corporation, Defendant.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued Feb. 1, 1988.

Decided July 27, 1988.

Edward J. Fanning, Woodbridge, for appellant and cross-respondent (Morley, Cramer, Tansey, Haggerty & Fanning, attorneys).

Mitchell H. Portnoi, Rahway, for respondent and cross-appellant (Shevick, Ravich, Koster, Tobin, Oleckna & Reitman, attorneys).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

GARIBALDI, J.

Plaintiff's car went out of control and crashed into a utility pole. A defective right rear axle shaft on plaintiff's car caused the accident. At the time of the accident plaintiff was not wearing a seat belt. This appeal focuses on what effect, if any, plaintiff's failure to wear a seat belt has on her right to recover damages for the personal injuries she received as a result of the accident caused by the defective axle.

The general principle that we adopt in this case is that if a jury finds that a plaintiff's failure to wear a seat belt constitutes negligence that contributed to plaintiff's injuries and damages, that negligence shall be considered in determining plaintiff's award. This principle will require only a limited expansion of the jury's responsibilities in automobile accident cases. If a jury finds plaintiff negligent for failure to wear a seat belt, plaintiff's recovery for injuries that could have been avoided by seat-belt use may be reduced by an amount reflecting plaintiff's comparative fault in not wearing a seat belt. We refer to the damages that arise from these avoidable injuries as "seat-belt damages." The jury may take into account plaintiff's negligent failure to use a seat belt only to reduce plaintiff's recovery for these seat-belt damages. Plaintiff's failure to wear a seat belt will not affect recovery for injury and damages that would have occurred regardless of whether plaintiff had worn a seat belt. The amount of the reduction of seat-belt damages must fairly reflect all of the parties' contributions to the seat-belt damages: defendant's contribution in causing the accident in the first place, plaintiff's contribution in causing the accident in the first place, and plaintiff's contribution to the extent of his or her injuries in not wearing a seat belt. The court will mold these jury findings, expressed as percentages of comparative fault, into the final verdict.

Considerations of fairness and public policy, as expressed in this state's mandatory seat belt law, lead us to the principle we announce today. Our focus is on the avoidance of injury; unquestionably, persons in certain instances could avoid certain injuries from automobile accidents if they wore seat belts. Thus the principle we announce does not concern a plaintiff's fault in causing an automobile accident and, accordingly, does not rest on this state's comparative negligence law.

I

On April 9, 1980, at approximately 12:30 in the afternoon, plaintiff was driving her 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlo along Broadway in Clark, New Jersey. It was raining and the road surface was wet. Plaintiff was traveling at a speed of twenty-five to thirty miles per hour. Christopher Corbett, the driver of a vehicle traveling approximately 100 feet behind plaintiff's vehicle, testified about what happened next. According to Mr. Corbett's testimony, as plaintiff was coming out of a bend in the road, "there was a drastic move of the rear end of the car towards the curb and from that point on [the car] just went straight for the telephone pole." Plaintiff, who was traveling with only her two cats, has no recollection of the accident or the moments preceding it. Plaintiff was not wearing the available passenger restraint system ¹ (seat belt) at the time of the accident.

Following the accident, plaintiff was taken to Rahway Hospital and examined by Dr. Mark Schottenfeld, the orthopedic surgeon on call in the emergency room. Dr. Schottenfeld testified that plaintiff had sustained bilateral dislocations of the hips, a fracture of the left clavicle, a fracture of the left fourth rib, and an open fracture (an open fracture means there was a laceration in the area) of the right patella. Plaintiff also had a right eye that was totally red, a cut that stretched from the left eye down her nose, and a fractured nose.

Within a matter of hours after the accident Dr. Schottenfeld performed a closed reduction of the hip dislocations under general anesthesia. Once Dr. Schottenfeld completed this procedure, he confined plaintiff to her hospital bed; her entire lower extremities were placed at rest with traction exerted on the legs until late April 1980. Dr. Schottenfeld treated the fracture of plaintiff's left clavicle by putting the left arm in a sling for two weeks in order to immobilize it. The surgeon did not treat the open fracture of the right patella since the plaintiff was already immobilized due to the hip dislocations.

Late in April, after the traction was removed, plaintiff was able to get out of bed and into a wheelchair using only her arms to support herself. Dr. Schottenfeld counseled plaintiff not to try to walk because he believed the avoidance of stress on her hip joints would diminish the probability of permanent damage or deterioration of the joints. Approximately one month after the accident, Dr. Schottenfeld discharged plaintiff from the hospital. When she left the hospital, she was still experiencing soreness in her hips, shoulder, and kneecap. Additionally, her ribs were so sore that when she coughed or took a deep breath she experienced pain. Mrs. Waterson remained confined to a wheelchair for three months following her discharge during which time she stayed at her parents' home.

In June 1980, plaintiff was readmitted to Rahway Hospital for a rhinoplasty (restructuring of the fractured nose), a surgical procedure performed under local anesthesia. Following surgery, plaintiff's nose was sore and remained in a cast for two weeks. Once the cast was removed, plaintiff was pleased with the results of the operation. After spending three days at Rahway Hospital, she returned to her parents' home.

In July 1980, plaintiff began to walk with the aid of crutches. She remained on crutches until August 1980. Once plaintiff discarded her crutches, she experienced soreness when she walked or when she stood or sat for a prolonged period of time. On August 31, 1980, approximately five months after the accident, plaintiff returned to her job with Dental Associates as a chairside dental assistant. At the time of the accident, plaintiff earned approximately $150 a week after taxes.

At trial, plaintiff testified that she continued to suffer physical pain as a result of the injuries she sustained in the accident. Her treating physician and only medical witness, Dr. Schottenfeld, testified that he could not "in any way predict whether the injuries she sustained would cause 'future problems.' " Based on Dr. Schottenfeld's inability to predict future difficulties arising from plaintiff's injuries, the trial court precluded plaintiff from soliciting his opinion regarding the permanency of her injuries. Significantly, with regard to the nose fracture, plaintiff had suffered damage to her nose prior to this automobile accident. Due to this previous injury and plaintiff's intent to have surgery on the nose even before the accident, the trial court refused to allow admission into evidence of the Rahway Hospital records concerning this operation.

Finally, concerning plaintiff's injuries, Dr. Schottenfeld also testified that as of his last pretrial examination on June 28, 1983, plaintiff "had full ... internal and external rotation of the hip." He remarked that he had no way of comparing plaintiff's post-accident hip rotation with her hip rotation prior to the accident since he had not examined her before the accident. At the time of the trial plaintiff was a registered nurse and was employed as an operating room nurse.

Plaintiff sued General Motors Corporation, the manufacturer of her automobile, and Reedman Motors Corporation, the dealership that sold the car, for injuries arising out of the accident. The parties raised several evidentiary questions at two pretrial Rule 8 hearings. Following the second Rule 8 hearing, the trial court ruled by letter opinion that plaintiff's failure to use the seat belt was admissible; but before a jury could consider seat belt testimony, "there must be 'satisfactory evidence' to support a finding that plaintiff's failure to use the seat belt was a substantial contributing factor to her injuries." Subsequently, at trial, the court applied this ruling as a comparative negligence concept to plaintiff's injuries.

Plaintiff produced an expert witness, Dr. Ciesla, who testified regarding the alleged axle defect. The only additional witnesses, other than herself, produced by plaintiff were Christopher Corbett, the eyewitness; Officer Roy George, the policeman called to the scene; and Dr. Schottenfeld.

Defendants introduced expert testimony regarding the axle from Dr. Edward Reynolds, a Senior Staff Analysis Engineer for General Motors, who contradicted plaintiff's expert's testimony concerning the allegedly defective axle shaft. In conjunction with Dr. Reynolds' testimony, defendant produced several videotapes of General Motors crash tests. Although at trial General Motors repeatedly challenged the factual foundation of Dr. Ciesla's conclusions, on appeal General Motors dropped this claim, and conceded that the axle was the cause of the accident. Defendant also introduced expert testimony regarding the seat-belt issue from Frank Montalvo, a biomedical engineer employed by General Motors. Mr. Montalvo's testimony, which speaks...