Young v. Reliance Elec. Co.

• Citation: 584 S.W.2d 663
• Court: Court of Appeals of Tennessee
• Decision Date: 23 February 1979
• Parties: Benjamin Edward YOUNG, Jr., Carolyn L. Young, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. RELIANCE ELECTRIC COMPANY, the Carborundum Company, Defendants-Appellees.

Page 663

584 S.W.2d 663

Benjamin Edward YOUNG, Jr., Carolyn L. Young, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. RELIANCE ELECTRIC COMPANY, the Carborundum Company,

Defendants-Appellees.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee, Middle Section.

Feb. 23, 1979.

Certiorari Denied by Supreme Court July 30, 1979.

Thomas Wardlaw Steele and Joel M. Leeman, Gullett, Gilbert, Steele, Sanford & Robinson, Nashville, for plaintiffs-appellants.

John K. Maddin Jr. and Malcolm L. McCune, Gracey, Maddin, Cowen & Bird, Ward DeWitt, Jr. and Lawrence C. Maxwell, Trabue, Sturdivant & DeWitt, Nashville, for defendants-appellees.

OPINION

DROWOTA, Judge.

Plaintiffs, Benjamin Edward Young, Jr., and his wife, Carolyn L. Young, brought this products liability action in the Circuit Court of Davidson County to recover for injuries incurred by plaintiffs as a result of a "fire" in the electrical control cabinet of a "shot-peening" machine in which plaintiff, Benjamin Young, Jr., was working during the course of his employment. Plaintiff sues on strict liability and negligence theories. Defendants are the manufacturer of the electrical control panel (Reliance Electrical Co.), the manufacturer of the entire shot-peen machine which includes the electrical control panel (Carborundum Co.) and the installer of the panel (AAA Electric, Inc.). At the conclusion of the trial before a jury the court granted a motion for a directed verdict in favor of AAA Electric, Inc. and took under advisement the motions for directed verdicts on behalf of the remaining defendants. The jury found for plaintiff, Benjamin Young, Jr., in the amount of $60,000.00 and in favor of Carolyn L. Young in the amount of $10,000.00. The trial court then granted defendants motions for a directed verdict and, upon additional defendants' motions, granted a new trial conditioned on a reversal of the directed verdicts. The conditional motions for a new trial were granted on the ground that the evidence preponderated against the jury verdict. Plaintiffs have appealed the trial court's action with regard to defendants Reliance and Carborundum but not with regard to AAA Electric, Inc.

Plaintiff makes two assignments of error, one attacking the propriety of the directed verdicts and the other attacking the propriety of the conditional order for a new trial.

I.

The first assignment of error draws us into a familiar inquiry which is well described in the recent case of Holmes v. Wilson, 551 S.W.2d 682 (Tenn.1977).

A post-trial motion for the entry of judgment in accordance with a motion for a directed verdict made during the trial must be gauged by the usual rules relating to directed verdicts. Those rules require that the trial judge, and the appellate courts, take the strongest legitimate view of the evidence in favor of the opponent of the motion, allow all reasonable inferences in his or her favor, discard all countervailing evidence, and deny the motion where there is any doubt as to the conclusions to be drawn from the whole evidence. A verdict should not be directed during, or after, trial except where a reasonable mind could draw but one conclusion. (citations omitted)

551 S.W.2d at 685.

Evidence, sufficient under this standard to go to the jury, may be direct or circumstantial or a combination of the two. Chisholm v. Bohannon, 558 S.W.2d 446 (Tenn.App.1977); Browder v. Pettigrew, 541 S.W.2d 402 (Tenn.1976). In the case of circumstantial evidence the relevant inquiry is could reasonable minds differ on the question whether the evidence equally supports the inconsistent theories of the plaintiff and the defendant. If they could then a directed verdict is improper. Browder v. Pettigrew, supra at 405; Phillips v. Newport, 28 Tenn.App. 187, 187 S.W.2d 965 (1945). With regard to the use of inferences in evaluating the evidence, it is established that a fact may be inferred from circumstantial evidence and such fact may then be the basis of a further inference to the ultimate or sought-for fact. Stinson v. Daniel, 220 Tenn. 70, 414 S.W.2d 7 (1967) and cases there cited.

The bill of exceptions in this two weeks trial is voluminous, consisting of 1398 pages, so for the purposes of this review we will only summarize the salient details.

Plaintiff is a maintenance electrician employed by the Avco Corp. in its Nashville plant. Avco is engaged in the business of constructing the wings of the Lockheed L-1011 airplane. Part of the construction process involves passing aluminum wing parts through a "shot-peen" machine. In this machine the parts are bombarded with small steel shot in order to form the wing, and by compressing the metal, to strengthen the wing. In the same building which contained two such shot-peening machines Avco also operated a skin mill where sheets of aluminum were cut to size, and a burr and blending machine where rough edges and joints on aluminum pieces were ground smooth. These processes generated highly flammable aluminum dust. While ventilation systems were present it appears some aluminum dust escaped into the atmosphere inside the building.

There is evidence to indicate that because of the aluminum dust the electrical control panels for the shot-peening machines were to be housed in relatively "dust proof" cabinets characterized as type 9 or type 12 cabinets by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. The standards of this Association are incorporated into Ordinance No. 69-839 of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. There is evidence that the cabinets actually installed are not the type 12 or type 9 which are for use in dusty environments but are type 1 which is for general purpose industrial use.

The electrical controls housed by the cabinets generate heat while operating, requiring some cooling system. The cooling system used in the subject cabinets was the installation of fans on the top of the cabinets which decreased the air pressure in the cabinet causing air from the cabinet's general environment to be drawn into the cabinet through filter panels near the bottom of the cabinets. There is evidence that dust could fall through the fans when they were not turning and could be drawn through the filters if the filters were not cleaned.

An alternative cooling system would be one in which clear outside air could be forced by fans through air ducts into the cabinets, resulting in higher air pressure inside the cabinets than in the plant and in the movement of air through filters or crevices in the cabinet from inside to outside. It appears either system would allow some dust into the cabinets.

The shot-peen machines have two electrical motors one using 440 volts and the other using 220 volts. The cabinets contain circuits for both voltages each carrying high amperages.

The defendants furnished detailed manuals of instructions with the machine and control cabinets. The instructions included directions to cut off all power before opening, directions for cleaning the door filters and a specific direction to vacuum clean a cabinet whenever visible dust appears upon the controls.

On the day of the injury plaintiff was performing tests inside the cabinet, trying to discover the cause of a blown fuse in the 220 volt circuit. He had turned off the 220 volt line but not the 440 volt line. Plaintiff was following the 220 volt line through the cabinet when there was a sudden explosion and fire. Plaintiff suffered severe burns for which he and his wife now seek to recover.

The primary dispute between the parties is the cause of the burns. Defendants maintain an electrical arc from the live 440 volt line was responsible. Plaintiffs contend a flash aluminum dust fire was the cause.

Engineering experts testified that in their opinion the burns were caused by a dust fire. These opinions were predicated on the assumption aluminum dust was present in the cabinets. There was testimony that aluminum dust was prevalent in the plant especially around the electrical control panel where Young was injured and one expert testified that he found aluminum dust on the top of the cabinet six years after the fire. Plaintiff Young also testified there was substantial deposits of dust on the electrical controls in the cabinet. One could reasonably infer this was, at least in part, aluminum dust.

A medical expert testified that Young's burns were not electrical burns but burns caused by the ignition of some flammable material.

There was also evidence regarding the type of smoke and flash caused by electrical arcs and dust fires, and conflicting theories of why certain combustible materials in the cabinet burned and others did not.

With this evidence in mind we now must determine whether under the standard of review described above a jury issue has been presented on each material element of the prima facie case and on each defense.

Plaintiffs assert two theories which we believe require essentially the same analysis. Plaintiffs contend that the defendants are strictly liable under Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A because of the defective design of the product and, similarly, that the defendants are negligent in their design of the cabinets and machine of which the cabinets are a part. We believe these two counts present essentially the same theory. See Wade, On the Nature of Strict Tort Liability for Products, 44 Miss.L.J. 825 (1973).

Tennessee has adopted § 402A as a theory of liability for injuries inflicted by defective products. Wyatt v. Winnebago Industries, Inc., 566 S.W.2d 276 (Tenn.App.1977); Ellithorpe v. Ford Motor Co., 503 S.W.2d 516 (Tenn.1973); Olney v. Beaman Bottling Co., 220 Tenn. 459, 418 S.W.2d 430 (1967). Section...