Wyatt v. Winnebago Industries, Inc.

• Decision Date: 02 December 1977
• Citation: 566 S.W.2d 276
• Parties: Danny WYATT and Margie Wyatt, Appellees, v. WINNEBAGO INDUSTRIES, INC. and Chrysler Corporation, Appellants.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

Page 276

566 S.W.2d 276

Danny WYATT and Margie Wyatt, Appellees, v. WINNEBAGO INDUSTRIES, INC. and Chrysler Corporation, Appellants.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee,Middle Section.

Dec. 2, 1977.

Certiorari Denied by Supreme Court April 24, 1978.

J. G. Lackey, Jr., Malcolm L. McCune, Michael Miller, Nashville, for appellants.

Harry S. Lester, Michael Mondelli, Nashville, for appellees.

DROWOTA, Judge.

OPINION

This discretionary interlocutory appeal under T.C.A. § 27-305 is brought by defendants from the denial of their summary judgment motion in this products liability action.

Plaintiffs Danny Wyatt and Margie Wyatt brought this action on March 5, 1976, against several defendants in the Third Circuit Court of Davidson County. It was alleged in the complaint that plaintiff Danny Wyatt had been seriously injured on April 18, 1975, while attempting to start the Winnebago Motor Home of his friend, Virgil Martin. Since the vehicle would not start and since plaintiff could detect no loose connections on an initial inspection, he had Martin sit at the controls with the ignition off and move the gear selector to "park." Plaintiff then got under the vehicle and, with jumper cables, connected the battery directly to the starter. This had the effect of bypassing safety switches, which are built into the ignition system to prevent the vehicle from being started by that system while the transmission is in any gear other than neutral or park. The complaint alleged that, although the gear selector indicated that the vehicle was in park, it was in fact in a forward gear. When plaintiff attached the cable to the starter, the vehicle started, moved forward, and ran over him, causing serious injury.

Plaintiff alleged that the gear selector was defective, that it was in that condition when it left defendant Winnebago Motor Homes, and that the defect rendered the vehicle unreasonably dangerous to users such as plaintiff. Thus, plaintiffs asserted a claim in strict liability in tort against Winnebago, which was alleged to be the manufacturer of the vehicle. In an amended complaint, a similar claim was asserted against defendant Chrysler Corp., Inc., which allegedly made the chassis for the motor home. Plaintiff Danny Wyatt asked $300,000 from defendants for his injuries, and his wife Margie prayed for $50,000 for loss of her husband's services and other injury allegedly suffered by her.

The answers of defendants Winnebago and Chrysler denied liability and charged, inter alia, that the vehicle had been misused, that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence and that he had assumed the risk, and that any defect in the gear selector was not the proximate cause of the injuries. On December 20, 1976, and January 20, 1977, defendants Winnebago and Chrysler, respectively, filed similar motions for summary judgment. In these motions, defendants elaborated on the grounds asserted in their answers as freeing them from liability. The motions were supported by excerpts from plaintiff Danny Wyatt's deposition, affidavits containing technical material to illustrate the function of the ignition system and safety switches, and copies of two cases asserted to be closely in point.

The excerpts from plaintiff's deposition are important, and are heavily relied on by defendants. They reveal that plaintiff understood that he was bypassing the safety switches, and that as a result the vehicle would start whether it was in gear or not, as long as the starter was working. Plaintiff did not know why the vehicle would not start, and his object in connecting the starter directly to the battery was to determine whether or not the starter was defective.

On April 5, 1977, the trial judge filed his memorandum denying defendant Chrysler's motion for summary judgment. While the court found defendant's authorities "persuasive" and its argument "convincing," it found the case inappropriate for a grant of summary judgment "as a substitute for a trial to determine proximate cause." On April 25, 1977, the court entered an order disallowing the summary judgment motions of defendants Winnebago and Chrysler. In the same order, the court allowed a discretionary appeal to this Court, on the grounds that there is a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion and that appeal would materially advance determination of the case. Defendants Winnebago and Chrysler have perfected such an appeal.

Defendants Winnebago and Chrysler each have made separate assignments of error. Both, however, make the same basic arguments, and we will classify and consider each of these arguments separately. Because defendants' arguments and defenses, if valid, would relieve them of liability even if the asserted defect in the gear selector were proven, and because defendants have chosen not to controvert the existence of the defect at this summary judgment stage, we must assume the defect's existence for purposes of this appeal.

The first general argument made by defendants is that the trial court misconstrued the nature of summary judgment. Summary judgment is to be granted when "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." T.R.C.P. 56.03. See Phillips v. Pittsburgh Consolidated Coal Co., 541 S.W.2d 411 (Tenn.1976). The court's role in ruling on the motion is similar to its role in ruling on a motion for a directed verdict, and it must view the pleadings and evidence before it in the light most favorable to the opponent of the motion. Stone v. Hinds, 541 S.W.2d 598 (Tenn.App.1976). The standard quoted above from Rule 56.03 applies each time a motion for summary judgment is made, and it requires a determination to be made on a case-by-case, issue-by-issue basis. If the trial court implied in its memorandum, as defendants argue, that the summary judgment procedure is never a proper substitute for trial in determining the issue of proximate cause, we certainly do not agree. That issue, like any other, may be determined on summary judgment if the test of Rule 56 is met with regard to it. We turn now to consider whether or not Rule 56 authorizes a grant of summary judgment on any of the issues raised by defendants in this case.

Defendants have raised several grounds, each of which, they contend, entitles them to summary judgment in this case. Each ground is alleged to negate an element of, or constitute a defense to, plaintiffs' cause of action in strict tort liability. This theory of recovery in products liability cases really imposes "strict" liability only in the sense that the nature of the defendant's conduct in dealing with the defective product, that is, whether he acted intentionally, negligently, or innocently, is not important on the issue of his liability. Such a strict liability, a recent but widely accepted development in the law, has been adopted in Tennessee. Olney v. Beaman Bottling Co., 220 Tenn. 459, 418 S.W.2d 430 (1967); Ford Motor Co. v. Lonon, 217 Tenn. 400, 398 S.W.2d 240 (1966). The cause of action has been defined by our Supreme Court, quoting from the Restatement (Second) of Torts, as follows:

" § 402A. 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 to his property is subject to liability for physical harm thereby 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."

Ford Motor Co. v. Eads, 224 Tenn. 473, 457 S.W.2d 28, 30 (1970).

Following the elements of this cause of action in the order established by the quoted passage, we come first to defendants' contention that they should have been granted summary judgment because the alleged defect in the motor home did not render it "unreasonably dangerous." In order to recover, a plaintiff must show that the product was "in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user . . ." Ellithorpe v. Ford Motor Co., 503 S.W.2d 516, 519 (Tenn.1973); Eads, supra; Parker v. Warren, 503 S.W.2d 938, 945 (Tenn.App.1974). Dean Prosser says the following with regard to this requirement:

The prevailing interpretation of "defective" is that the product does not meet the reasonable expectations of the ordinary consumer as to its safety. It has been said that this amounts to saying that if the seller knew of the condition he would be negligent in marketing the product.

W. Prosser, Law of Torts § 99 at 659-60 (4th ed. 1971) (citations omitted). In the instant case, we cannot say as a matter of law that a Winnebago Motor Home whose gear selector shows the vehicle to be in a gear other than that in which it actually is does not come within this definition of an unreasonably dangerous defective product.

Defendant Winnebago cites Orfield v. International Harvester Co., 415 F.Supp. 404 (E.D.Tenn.1975), which adopts under Tennessee law comments from Restatement (Second) § 402A saying that the product's dangerous condition must be one "not contemplated" by the ultimate user. That case is affirmed, and its principle well explained, in Orfield v. International Harvester Co., 535 F.2d 959 (6th Cir. 1976), and we will not expound on it further. It is enough to say that, on the record before us in the instant summary judgment proceeding, it is not undisputed that plaintiff contemplated the alleged...