Williams v. General Motors Corp., 16128

• Decision Date: 04 October 1973
• Docket Number: No. 16128,16128
• Citation: 501 S.W.2d 930
• Parties: Elnora Spriggs WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION et al., Appellees. (1st Dist.)
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 930

501 S.W.2d 930

Elnora Spriggs WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION et al., Appellees.

No. 16128.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas,

Houston (1st Dist.).

Oct. 4, 1973.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 29, 1973.

Jamail & Gano, Joseph D. Jamail, John Gano, Gus Kolius, Houston, for appellant.

Vinson, Elkins, Searls, Connally & Smith, B. Jeff Crane, Jr., Daniel A. Hyde, Houston (Ross L. Malone, James P. Melican, Jr., Detroit, Mich., of counsel), for appellee General Motors Corp.

The Kempers, Tom Kemper, Houston, for appellee Bob Robertson, Inc.

EVANS, Justice.

In this products liability case, plaintiff, Mrs. Elnora Spriggs Williams, recovered judgment for $1,000,000.00 against defendants, General Motors Corporation and Bob Robertson, Inc., upon jury finding of defective design in the steering coupling of Mrs. Williams' 1963 Chevrolet automobile. The trial court's judgment awarded Robertson full indemnification against General Motors.

Appellant, General Motors, first attacks on no evidence, insufficient evidence and great weight points the submission of the special issues on defective design and caustion. The basic issues submitted and answers given were as follows:

Special Issue No. 1.

'Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the design of the upper steering coupling of the vehicle in question utilizing a combination of the size, shape or location of the lock ring; the size, shape or location of the clamp; and the size, shape or location of the sleeve constituted a defective design?

'By the term 'defective design' as used in the above special issue is meant an upper steering coupling designed so that it would create an unreasonable risk of harm to the ordinary user when the product is used for the intended purpose.

'By the term 'unreasonable risk of harm' as used in the above and foregoing definition is meant that the article sold must be dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by the ordinary user who purchased it with the ordinary knowledge common to the community as to its characteristics.

'To which the jury answered 'We do'.

Special Issue No. 2.

'Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such defective design, if any, was a producing cause of the accident of April 12, 1969?

'To which the jury answered 'We do'.'

General Motors argues that evidence which merely shows a steering system could have been designed which would have prevented the accident is not sufficient to establish liability on the part of the manufacturer; that a manufacturer is under no duty to design a product which eliminates all possibility of a product being rendered unsafe by intervening causes.

Mrs. Williams purchased her 1963 Chevrolet Impala new from Bob Robertson, Inc., approximately six years before the accident and it had been driven some 60,000 miles. She had been at a meeting in Memorial Park on that Saturday morning, was driving home via Interstate 10, the Katy Freeway, and was approaching the Pierce Elevated section of Intersate 45, the Gulf Freeway. It had been raining and the streets were wet. At a slight angle curve, Mrs. Williams lost control of her car and struck the guard rail, first with the left front fender of her automobile; the car then rotated in a counter clockwise direction so that the right front of the vehicle next struck the guard rail and then the car continued to spin so that the right rear of the automobile struck the guard rail. Mrs. Williams was apparently catapulted into the back seat and was rendered a quadriplegic by her injuries. Mrs. Williams' version of the accident was as follows:

'Q Mrs. Williams, as you were driving along the freeway and as it came into the Gulf Freeway, did something happen to your automobile?

'A No, I was driving down there and there is a section, a crossover that says 'To Dallas,' and on the Katy Freeway there was a teeny-weeny curve, you could hardly call it a curve because it was so little, but it is a curve, I suppose, and I wanted to make myself a little more comfortable so I sort of shifted my body a little bit. And then my wheel, I lost control, the wheel spinned around like a top, and then I was headed straight for the guard rail and I couldn't do anything about it. It happened so quick.

'Q Did you have any steering at all in that car before this happened, right at the time this happened?

'Let me rephrase it. Did you have any warning?

'A Before, no. I was just driving along perfect.

'Q Did you have any warning at all, any noises, anything that occurred?

'A Nothing. And just turned, and I couldn't turn it back straight because I had lost control, my wheel was spinning around.

'Q Did you try to turn it back?

'A I tried to hard, but it wouldn't do it.'

The wrecker driver who towed Mrs. Williams' automobile from the scene of the accident testified that when he checked the steering wheel before he hooked the automobile up to the wrecker, the steering wheel would 'spin free' as though it had been disconnected and the wheels would not turn when the steering wheel was turned.

An automobile mechanic, Lavert LaRue, who testified for the plaintiff, inspected the automobile approximately one month following the accident while it was situated at the wrecking lot. Mr. LaRue testified that the coupling which connects the upper steering shaft to the intermediate steering shaft had separated and that the steering wheel was no longer attached through the shaft to the steering gear. Mr. LaRue attributed the separation to a defectively designed coupling unit. A drawing of the steering coupling assembly is set forth on pages 933--934 of this opinion. Exhibit A shows the coupling assembled and Exhibit B is a drawing of the disassembled parts with the thrust clamp, sleeve and lock ring circled.

Apparently an upward pull on the steering wheel by the driver will disengage the upper steering column from the metal coupling if the thrust clamp is loose on the shaft and if the lock ring is not in place in the coupling. On this point LaRue testified:

EXHIBIT A, B

'Q Well, now, let me ask you this: What is it there that you found that would in your opinion permit this coupling to separate or come apart or fail before the impact occurred? What did you find there that permits this?

'A Well, there was two things that I found. The lock ring that goes in the upper part of the upper metal coupling was missing. It wasn't even there and didn't look like it had been there for a long period of time, and also, the little thrust clamp that is located at the lower end of the upper steering shaft just above the metal coupling was loose to where I could turn it on the shaft and it was pushed all of the way down against the boot and the pin at the lower end of the upper steering shaft.

'Q Now, these two conditions that you found, that is, the lock ring not being in there, and I take it from what you say your visual inspection of the coupling and the slot where the lock ring is supposed to go--I would like for you to describe that to me again, this place that the lock ring goes. How did it look to you when you saw it?

'A Well, it looked normal, other than the lock ring was missing, and there was dirt that had collected in the eyelets and all over the metal coupling like the little lock ring had never been in place, or had been out of place for a long time, long enough for dirt and grease to collect in these little slots or cut in the sides at the top of the metal coupling.

'Q Did these little slots, were they completely full of grease and oil and dirt?

'A Yes, sir. They were.

'Q Would it take, based on your experience and based on your experience as an automobile mechanic, a long period of regular automobile use to accumulate that much residue in those slots?

'A Yes, sir, I believe it would.

'Q Were there any marks about that that would indicate that it had been disturbed, the grease and dirt had been disturbed in this are?

'A No, sir, there wasn't.

'Q Let's turn for a minute from the fact that the lock ring was not there, and let me ask you what is the purpose of this lock ring? Why is it supposed to be there?

'A The purpose of it is to hold the boot down and the top of the metal coupling in place. It also acts as a safety factor to keep the coupling together and to keep from pulling it apart.

'Q As long as this lock ring is in place, is it possible for the driver of the car to dislodge this coupling?

'A I don't believe you could pull it hard enough to dislodge it.

'Q All right. Now, let's turn for a minute to the clamp. You have described this as a small clamp. What do you mean by that?

'A Well, it is a small clamp that goes around a three-quarter-inch shaft that has a little quarter-inch standard thread bolt through it, and to me that is a small clamp.

'Q Now, what is its purpose' Why is it there?

'A Its purpose is to hold the steering wheel down and to push the little spring up at the bottom to keep the steering wheel from being pulled up and down. It preloads the bearings at the upper and lower end of the mast jacket and keeps the steering wheel from being pulled up. That is its only purpose.

'Q Now, what is the combination result as far as the integrity of the steering system is concerned when the clamp is loose and the lock ring is missing?

'A You could still steer the car if you did not pull up on the steering wheel, but if you pulled up on the wheel, you would separate the upper shaft from the lower shaft and you would lose all steering ability of the car.

'Q Well, would this require a great deal of physical effort?

'A No, sir. It would not.

'Q Would it occur readily easily?

'A Yes, sir, it would occur easily. If you pulled up on the wheel, it will separate easily.

'Q And the integrity of the coupling designed and built is maintained by the clamp and the lock ring?

'A Yes, sir.

'Q And when you examined the Williams car, tell us once more what conditions you found as relates to the clamp and the lock ring?

'A...