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Esparza v. Skyreach Equipment12/26/2000
his one, '{S}tate tort law duties to warn have the objective of helping those who use or come into contact with the product to protect . . . their own safety.' 125 Wn.2d at 327.
The evidence with respect to failure to warn in Timberline Air Service is similar to the evidence in this case. Timberline sued the manufacturer of a military helicopter that had been designed in accordance with precise mandatory government specifications, and there was no dispute that the design, including the design of the 42-degree gear box and -9 gear was in compliance with those government specifications. Moreover, the helicopter was reasonably safe for the military purposes for which it was designed, and there was no contention that the product had a design defect at all. Rather, this was a pure failure to warn case.
The government sold the helicopter to Timberline, who placed it in commercial use for repetitive lifting of heavy logs. The manufacturer knew by then that the -9 gear was vulnerable to failure after repetitive heavy lift operations, and knew or easily could have determined who the civilian owners and operators of the former military helicopters were. After four crashes of these helicopters due to failure of the -9 gear while the helicopters were in civilian use for repetitive heavy lifting operations, the manufacturer notified the FAA about the danger but failed to warn the civilian owners and operators of the danger and to suggest mitigating procedures, such as suggesting reduced time between overhauls, suggesting alternative means of determining flight hours based on repetitive lift usage, and prescribing a finite life for the -9 gear. The accuracy of these factual assertions was conceded for purposes of the appeal of the summary judgment order dismissing Timberline's claim the outcome of the appeal involved legal issues relating to Washington's statutory government contractor's defense to a product liability claim. 125 Wn.2d 308-311.
Here, there had been only one previous tip-over of a manlift due to the failure of both circuit cards, in contrast with four helicopter crashes as in Timberline, but the new design adding the self-resetting fuse to the circuit cards had been done in response to customer complaints about reliability of the cards, and with only 420 manlifts in the field, notifying the customers of the availability of the new cards and the resulting improvement in both safety and reliability would seem to have been relatively easy. See Ayers v. Johnson & Johnson Baby Prods. Co., 117 Wn.2d 747, 751, 763, 818 P.2d 1337 (1991) (affirming a jury verdict in a failure to warn case in favor of parents and guardian ad litem of a 15- month old child who suffered irreparable brain damage after aspirating baby oil; holding that a trier of fact must weigh the likelihood and seriousness of potential harm against the ability of the manufacturer to provide an adequate warning; concluding that although likelihood of a baby aspirating baby oil was low, the potential harm was serious, and placing a warning label on the bottle of baby oil was relatively easy and inexpensive).
The general rule is that a post-sale duty to warn arises after a manufacturer has sufficient notice about a specific danger associated with the product. Michael A. Matula, Manufacturers' Post-Dale Duties in the 1990s, 32 Tort and Ins. Law Journal 87, 105 (citing Patton v. Hutchinson Wil-Rich Mfg. Co., 861 P.2d 1299, 1314 (Kan. 1993)). Whether the manufacturer, which is held to the standard of an expert in the field, had sufficient notice is a factual question, generally to be decided by the jury. Id. (citing Patton, 861 P.2d at 1315). The most convincing proof that a manufacturer knew of a dangerous c
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