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Williams v. BIC Corp.5/5/2000
Frankie Williams, as guardian of Antrinique Cunningham, a minor, is the plaintiff in an action against BIC Corporation. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant, and the trial court entered a judgment on that verdict. Williams appeals from the trial court's order denying her motion for a judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial based on what she alleges was an erroneous jury charge.
I. Facts and Procedural History
On November 15, 1991, Constance Cunningham and her three children, her sons Mark and Dontavious and her daughter Antrinique, occupied Cunningham's bedroom at her apartment. According to Mrs. Cunningham's best friend and next-door neighbor, Cassandra Form-by, on the previous evening Cunningham and Form-by had gone to the Oak Tree Lounge around 11:45 p.m. and had continuously drunk alcoholic beverages until they returned to their apartments at 3:45 a.m.; then they had talked for a while, she said, before each returned to her separate apartment. Cunningham testified that she went into her living room, because her back was hurting, leaving the sleeping children in the bedroom. Cunningham then fell asleep in the living room. Cunningham testified that some time later five-year-old Mark awakened her because three-year- old Dontavious had started a fire in the bedroom; she said he had started the fire by using a disposable lighter he had found on Cunningham's dresser; and she said the lighter had been manufactured by the defendant BIC Corporation. Dontavious testified in his deposition that Cunningham went into the bedroom when she heard Antrinique crying. When Cunningham entered the bedroom, she said, she found two-year-old Antrinique on the bed, engulfed in flames. Cunningham said she pulled her off the bed and ran out of the apartment. Antrinique was severely burned in the fire and, since the fire, has had numerous surgeries and skin grafts.
On November 15, 1993, Cunningham, as mother and next friend of Antrinique Cunningham, a minor, filed a lawsuit in the Talladega County Circuit Court against BIC Corporation. She alleged that BIC had negligently and/or wantonly designed, manufactured, distributed, and sold the disposable lighter; that BIC had failed to warn of the dangers associated with use of the disposable lighter; that BIC had breached express and implied warranties; and that BIC was liable under the Alabama Extended Manufacturer's Liability Doctrine ("AEMLD").
In May 1995, Frankie Williams, Antrinique's maternal grandmother was substituted as plaintiff because she had been appointed legal guardian of Antrinique. The case proceeded to trial, and on December 8, 1998, the jury returned a verdict for BIC. The trial court entered a judgment on the verdict.
Attorneys for Williams prepared for her a motion for a new trial and, on January 7, 1999, sent a copy of that postjudgment motion to Betty Love, an attorney in Talladega. According to her affidavit, Love was not involved as counsel in this case but merely agreed to file the plaintiff's postjudgment motion after a copy of it was faxed to her office. In an affidavit, Love explained that Williams's attorneys sent the fax copy of the postjudgment motion to her office on January 7, 1999. She says that she then walked to the Talladega County circuit clerk's office and filed a copy of the motion the same day. The record does not contain a copy of the motion stamped January 7, 1999, however. The case action summary sheet indicates that the clerk's office received a copy of the motion by fax on January 7. Williams has submitted affidavit testimony from the circuit clerk stating that the clerk's office could not have received a copy of the motion by fax because that office does not have and
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