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Weyerhaeuser Company v. Thermogas Company12/20/2000
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Thomas N. Bower, Judge.
Plaintiff appeals following an adverse jury verdict and a denial of its motion for new trial, contending that the district court erred in directing a verdict on several claims and in refusing to give two instructions. REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Considered en banc.
A jury found against Weyerhaeuser Company in its action against Thermogas Company for damages to Weyerhaeuser's facility stemming from a liquid propane tank explosion. Weyerhaeuser appeals following the district court's denial of its motion for a new trial, raising three principal issues: (1) whether the district court erred in directing a verdict for Thermogas on Weyerhaeuser's claims for strict liability and breach of implied warranty of merchantability, (2) whether the district court erred in refusing to give an instruction that Weyerhaeuser's fault in starting the fire that precipitated the explosion of the liquid propane tank should not be considered, and (3) whether the district court erred in refusing to give the jury a res ipsa loquitur instruction on Weyerhaeuser'snegligence claim. We reverse and remand for a new trial.
I. Background Facts and Proceedings.
Weyerhaeuser owns and operates a corrugated container manufacturing plant in Waterloo, Iowa. Corrugated containers are simply cardboard boxes.
During the evening of February 27, 1995, and into the early morning hours of February 28, Larry Henriksen was training Tom Chorny to operate a clamp truck. A clamp truck is a forklift with a pincher-like attachment used to move rolls of paper stock throughout the facility. The truck's fuel source is a liquid propane (LP) fuel tank mounted on the back of the truck. Thermogas Company supplied Weyerhaeuser with fifteen LP tanks each day, its daily LP tank needs. Each day a Thermogas driver would take the empty tanks from the Weyerhaeuser facility and replace them with filled tanks.
Henriksen told Chorny to drive around the roll paper storeroom to familiarize himself with the clamp truck operation. While Chorny was doing this, Henriksen stepped into a nearby room to check on a batch of starch. Starch is used as an adhesive in the construction of the cardboard boxes. A short time later, Chorny interrupted Henriksen to tell him the clamp truck was out of fuel.
After Henriksen and Chorny replaced the empty LP tank on the clamp truck with a full one, Henriksen returned to the starch room and Chorny resumed driving the truck. Chorny was unaware that he was driving the truck with the parking brake engaged. A short time later, Chorny noticed the clamp truck was "smelling funny . . . like it was overheating." As he was getting out of the truck, Chorny noticed a thin wisp of white smoke coming from the engine area located under the driver's seat.
Chorny left to tell Henriksen what was happening. As they were returning to the truck, the two saw flames coming out from the underside of the truck. At this time, the flames were not impinging on the LP tank on the truck. Soon the flames increased in size and height, reaching about eight inches beneath the seat and tank area.
Deciding not to fight the fire, Henriksen and Chorny started to exit the building. Within approximately forty-five seconds, the LP tank exploded, igniting rolls of paper and corrugated boxes in the building. Before they left, another employee, Garry Ihnen, pulled the wall-mounted fire alarm.
Approximately three minutes after Ihnen pulled the fire alarm, fire fighters arrived on the scene. The fire destroyed roughly half of the Weyerhaeuser plant as well as most of its paper
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