Yielding v. Chrysler Motor Co., Inc.

• Citation: 783 S.W.2d 353,301 Ark. 271
• Decision Date: 05 February 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-253,89-253
• Parties: , Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 12,405 Timothy YIELDING and Samuel C. Yielding, Appellants, v. CHRYSLER MOTOR CO., INC., Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Arkansas

Page 353

783 S.W.2d 353

301 Ark. 271, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 12,405

Timothy YIELDING and Samuel C. Yielding, Appellants, v. CHRYSLER MOTOR CO., INC., Appellee.

No. 89-253.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Feb. 5, 1990.

Bart F. Virden, Morrilton, for appellants.

Rose Law Firm, Little Rock, for appellee.

HAYS, Justice.

Sam and Tim Yielding brought this action against Chrysler Motor Co. (Chrysler) and its dealer, Hagan's Chrysler-Dodge, Inc., (Hagan's) alleging a defective condition in a Dodge truck which rendered it unreasonably dangerous. After a jury verdict for the plaintiffs the trial court granted a motion by Chrysler for judgment N.O.V. The Yieldings have appealed. ¹ We think the trial judge ruled correctly.

In July 1985, Sam Yielding bought a new Dodge D-50 truck from Hagan's. In November the vehicle was involved in what seems to have been a minor collision with another vehicle. The truck performed satisfactorily until February 1986, when a problem with the reverse gear developed. The truck had by then been driven some 18,000 miles. Hagan's worked on the vehicle for several days and afterwards the truck would occasionally stall. In May it would not start and was again returned to Hagan's for repairs.

The truck continued to operate erratically. Yielding's mother drove the truck on May 23, 1986, and testified that on three occasions it stalled and then "shot forward," although she had not accelerated. On May 25 Sam and his brother Tim Yielding used the truck to go fishing. While driving on a dirt road, slick from heavy dew, the truck stalled and then "took off like a rocket," swerving off the road and striking a tree. Tim Yielding described the incident:

I told Sam to give it gas, and he put it to the floor and he held it there for a second, and it finally just took off like a rocket. And when it did, he lost control of it, and it went right off the ditch on the left, no, the right, he went off to the right, and then it jerked it back up on the road. When he did, he just went right straight across the road and hit the tree.

At that point the odometer reading was 26,953. Sam and Tim sued for injuries sustained in the collision and the jury returned a verdict of $109,682., allocating fault seventy percent to Hagan's, thirty percent to Chrysler.

In reviewing the granting of a judgment N.O.V., as with a directed verdict, we will affirm only if there is no substantial evidence to support the jury verdict. Northside Construction Co. v. Huffman, 287 Ark. 145, 697 S.W.2d 89 (1985). We review the evidence and any reasonable inferences deducible therefrom in the light most favorable to the party against whom the judgment N.O.V. was entered. Lancaster v. Schilling Motors, Inc., 299 Ark. 365, 772 S.W.2d 349 (1989). Substantial evidence must be of sufficient force and character to compel a conclusion one way or another; it must force or induce the mind to pass beyond suspicion or conjecture. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. of Arkansas, Inc. v. Henley, 275 Ark. 122, 628 S.W.2d 301 (1982).

Under our product liability statute, Ark.Code Ann. § 4-86-102 (1987), a plaintiff must prove that the product as supplied was defective so as to render it unreasonably dangerous and that such defect was the proximate cause of the accident. See Williams v. Smart Chevrolet, 292 Ark. 376, 730 S.W.2d 479 (1987); Higgins v. General Motors Corp., 287 Ark. 390, 699 S.W.2d 741 (1985). It must be shown that the product was in a defective condition at the time it left the hands of the particular seller. Nationwide Rentals Co. v. Carter, 298 Ark. 97, 765 S.W.2d 931 (1989); Cockman v. Welder's Supply Co., 265 Ark. 612, 580 S.W.2d 455 (1979).

It is not necessary to establish these elements by direct proof; circumstantial evidence will suffice. Nor is it necessary to offer proof beyond a reasonable doubt. However, if direct proof is lacking, a plaintiff must negate other possible causes of the accident by a preponderance of the probabilities. Harrell Motors, Inc. v. Flanery, 272 Ark. 105, 612 S.W.2d 727 (1981).

The evidence in this case focused on a small clamp in the valve body of the transmission, referred to as an E-clip, which was found lying in the oil pan after the collision. There was proof that when an E-clip is not in place it could result in erratic shifting and, depending on which expert was testifying, cause the vehicle to stall, jerk, or lurch.

There was general agreement that the E-clip was not defective in design and that under normal driving conditions an E-clip would not become dislodged. The primary dispute related to whether the E-clip was an incorrect size or had not been properly hardened, or was incorrectly installed in the manufacturing process; or whether the problem was attributable to the repair work performed by Hagan in February and May, or even a combination of causes.

Generally speaking, when a vehicle suddenly goes out of control while being operated, driver error is a likely cause, absent a reliable explanation in the alternative. That factor can be ruled out, however, when the circumstances are such that common experience teaches that the accident would not have occurred in the absence of a defect. That was the situation in Harrell Motors, Inc. v. Flanery, supra, when the van, which was idling in parking gear, suddenly went into reverse and pinned Flanery against a loading dock.

While we cannot say that the circumstances in this case are such that driver error can be excluded, we will agree, for purposes of this discussion, that the testimony negated the likelihood of driver error as a cause of the collision. Ap...