Wilson v. Piper Aircraft Corp.

• Citation: 282 Or. 61,577 P.2d 1322
• Parties: , 97 A.L.R.3d 606 Donna WILSON, Personal Representative of the Estate of Douglas L. Wilson, Deceased, for the benefit of Donna Wilson, surviving wife of the Deceased, William Lawton Wilson and Pamela Elizabeth Wilson, dependent children of the Deceased, Respondent, v. PIPER AIRCRAFT CORPORATION, a Pennsylvania Corporation, Appellant. Beverly MacDONALD, Personal Representative of the Estate of Arbie D. MacDonald, Deceased, for the benefit of Beverly MacDonald, surviving wife of the Deceased, Joan MacDonald and Sheryl MacDonald, dependent children of the Deceased, Respondent, v. PIPER AIRCRAFT CORPORATION, a Pennsylvania Corporation, Appellant.
• Decision Date: 23 May 1978
• Court: Supreme Court of Oregon

Page 1322

577 P.2d 1322

282 Or. 61, 97 A.L.R.3d 606

Donna WILSON, Personal Representative of the Estate of

Douglas L. Wilson, Deceased, for the benefit of Donna

Wilson, surviving wife of the Deceased, William Lawton

Wilson and Pamela Elizabeth Wilson, dependent children of

the Deceased, Respondent,

v.

PIPER AIRCRAFT CORPORATION, a Pennsylvania Corporation, Appellant.

Beverly MacDONALD, Personal Representative of the Estate of

Arbie D. MacDonald, Deceased, for the benefit of Beverly

MacDonald, surviving wife of the Deceased, Joan MacDonald and Sheryl MacDonald, dependent children of the Deceased, Respondent, v. PIPER AIRCRAFT CORPORATION, a Pennsylvania Corporation, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Oregon,In Banc.

Argued and Submitted Dec. 7, 1977.

Decided April 18, 1978.

Rehearing Denied May 23, 1978.

See 579 P.2d 1289

[282 Or. 62-A] William B. Crow, Portland, argued the cause for appellant. With him on the briefs were Grant T. Anderson, Jeremiah A. Denton III, and Miller, Anderson, Nash, Yerke & Weiner, Portland.

Robert B. Hopkins and Martin Schedler, Portland, argued the cause for respondents. With them on the brief were David W. Harper, and Keane, Harper, Pearlman & Copeland, Portland.

HOLMAN, Justice.

These two products liability cases, consolidated for trial and appeal, are wrongful-death actions brought by the personal representatives of two passengers who died after the crash of a small airplane. The only defendant is Piper Aircraft Corporation, the manufacturer of the aircraft.

The airplane, a Piper Cherokee manufactured in 1966, took off from the Eugene airport on January 22, 1971, with a licensed student pilot at the controls and a qualified instructor in the copilot's seat. Plaintiffs' decedents, Douglas Wilson and Arbie MacDonald, were passengers in the two rear seats. The airplane crashed in the Cascade Mountains southeast of Oakridge, after entering a cloud. All four occupants of the plane survived the crash itself, but plaintiffs' decedents and the student pilot died at the crash site before rescuers arrived. The only survivor was the instructor, Terry Liittschwager, who, at the time of trial, had no memory of the events immediately prior to the crash.

Plaintiffs' theory was that the crash was caused by engine failure resulting from carburetor icing, and that the deaths of Douglas Wilson and Arbie MacDonald were caused in part by injuries resulting from certain design features in the rear passenger compartment. There was evidence to support both of these contentions. The jury returned substantial verdicts for both plaintiffs, and defendant appeals.

Plaintiffs alleged the defendant furnished an airplane which was dangerously defective in various particulars having to do with both the engine's susceptibility to icing and the crashworthiness of the rear passenger compartment. The assignments of error require us to consider both aspects of the case.

In support of their theory that the airplane was dangerously defective because of its susceptibility to icing, plaintiffs alleged the following design defects: (1) the aircraft was not equipped with an injection type fuel system; (2) the carburetor was not so designed and equipped that it would provide a proper fuel-air mixture under icing conditions; (3) the aircraft was not supplied with an adequate carburetor heating system; and (4) the aircraft was not equipped with a carburetor heat gauge. Defendant contends first that these allegations, regardless of the state of the evidence, do not present a jury question; and second that the evidence was insufficient to justify submitting them to the jury.

In support of its first contention, defendant points out that it is undisputed that the design of this model of airplane was specifically approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under its statutory authority to set safety standards for aircraft, and that this particular airplane had been issued an FAA certificate of airworthiness. It is defendant's position that the airplane's design could not be dangerously defective since it met the applicable FAA safety standards, and that FAA approval of the design has foreclosed any further inquiry into its adequacy from a safety standpoint.

We have found no support for this position. Neither the applicable statutes themselves, 49 U.S.C. §§ 1421(a)(1) and 1423(a) and (c), nor the legislative history (see 1958 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, p. 3741) indicates any Congressional intent to provide that FAA approval of either the general model design or the airworthiness of the particular craft is a complete defense to the claim of civil liability for faulty design. Indeed, 49 U.S.C. § 1421(a)(1) provides that the FAA design standards are minimum standards only. ¹

We have, in other contexts, refused to hold compliance with statutory or administrative safety standards to be conclusive on the question of tort liability where there is no evidence of a legislative intent that the standards are to be applied for that purpose. McMullen v. Volkswagen of America, 274 Or. 83, 88-89, 545 P.2d 117 (1976); McEwen v. Ortho Pharmaceutical, 270 Or. 375, 397-98, 528 P.2d 522 (1974). See also Koch v. So. Pac. Transp. Co., 274 Or. 499, 504, 547 P.2d 589 (1976). Cf. Lewis v. Baker, 243 Or. 317, 413 P.2d 400 (1966). Other courts have treated compliance with the FAA safety standards as appropriate for consideration by the trier of fact in products liability cases involving aircraft. See, e. g., Bruce v. Martin-Marietta Corp., 544 F.2d 442, 446 (10th Cir. 1976); Banko v. Continental Motors Corporation, 373 F.2d 314, 315-16 (4th Cir. 1966); Berkebile v. Brantly Helicopter Corporation, 219 Pa.Super. 479, 281 A.2d 707, 710 (1971). We have found no cases holding that compliance is a complete defense. We hold that it is not.

That is not, however, the end of our consideration of the matter. The defendant also contends the evidence of these allegations was insufficient to be submitted to the jury for its consideration. This case presents difficult problems concerning the showing required of a plaintiff in a design defect case. There was evidence from which the jury could find that each of the allegations listed above accurately described the design of the aircraft, that the condition described in each allegation contributed to the likelihood of carburetor ice formation, and that the probable cause of the crash was engine failure caused by carburetor icing. We must consider whether this evidence was sufficient to permit the jury to find that the airplane was dangerously defective. We hold that it was not.

We have observed in prior products liability cases that charges of defective design present special problems. Phillips v. Kimwood Machine Co., 269 Or. 485, 525 P.2d 1033 (1974); Roach v. Kononen/Ford Motor Co., 269 Or. 457, 525 P.2d 125 (1974). One of those special problems is the nature, and necessary proof, of a "defect" in a product which reaches the consumer in precisely the condition intended by the designer/manufacturer.

We have held that when a design feature of a manufactured product creates a risk of injury, the test for strict liability in tort, if that injury results, is whether "a reasonably prudent manufacturer would have so designed and sold the article in question had he known of the risk involved which injured plaintiff." Phillips v. Kimwood Machine Co., supra, 269 Or. at 494, 525 P.2d at 1037. We discussed the question of reasonableness further in that opinion as follows:

"To some it may seem that absolute liability has been imposed upon the manufacturer since it might be argued that no manufacturer could reasonably put into the stream of commerce an article which he realized might result in injury to a user. This is not the case, however. The manner of injury may be so fortuitous and the chances of injury occurring so remote that it is reasonable to sell the product despite the danger. In design cases the utility of the article may be so great, and the change of design necessary to alleviate the danger in question may so impair such utility, that it is reasonable to market the product as it is, even though the possibility of injury exists and was realized at the time of the sale. Again, the cost of the change necessary to alleviate the danger in design may be so great that the article would be priced out of the market and no one would buy it even though it was of high utility.

Such an article is not dangerously defective despite its having inflicted injury." 269 Or. at 495-96, 525 P.2d at 1038.

We are mindful of defendant's argument that a lay jury is not qualified to determine technical questions of aeronautical design, and of the forceful argument by Professor Henderson that problems of conscious product design choices are inherently unsuited to determination by courts. Henderson, Judicial Review of Manufacturers' Conscious Design Choices: The Limits of Adjudication, 73 Colum.L.Rev. 1531 (1973); Henderson, Design Defect Litigation Revisited, 61 Cornell L.Rev. 541 (1976). We do not underestimate the difficulties involved in this type of litigation. We are, however, committed to the position that members of the public are entitled to compensation for their injuries if they are damaged because of improper product design. Actions for negligence would pose the identical difficulty because the evidence is similar. This is not a problem which is peculiar to products liability cases. In the absence of an ability to recover through courts, persons injured by such designs would be without a remedy.

We have never considered in detail the requirements of a plaintiff's prima facie case in this context, nor have we found decisions of other courts which have done so. We have, however, found suggestions in the reported decisions that the plaintiff's burden in a design defect case includes a showing that there was an available "alternative, safer design, practicable under the circumstances," Huddell v. Levin, 537...