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Wielgus v. Dover Industries5/30/2000
Appellants in this action are Stephen F. Wielgus, Jr. and wife, Jeanie K. Wielgus. After Mr. Wielgus suffered an on-the-job injury, Appellants sued Dover Industries, Inc., manufacturer of a certain automobile and light truck lift known as the rotary lift, model AP-50H. They also sued James Shumaker, d/b/a Shumaker's Equipment Service, installer and servicer of the particular rotary lift involved in this case. On appeal, Appellants take issue with the jury verdict form because it did not permit the jury to assign a percentage of fault to the unreasonably dangerous condition of the rotary lift which caused Mr. Wielgus' injury. In addition, Appellants claim that the trial court should have granted them a new trial because the jury's verdict is inconsistent. For the reasons that follow, we disagree with Appellants and affirm the trial court in all respects.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Chancery Court Affirmed and Remanded
Cain, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which CANTRELL, P.J., M.S., and KOCH, J., joined.
OPINION
I. FACTS
Stephen Wielgus was 46 years of age at the time of the accident and had been married to Jeanie Wielgus since 1971, with one daughter born to the marriage. He had been trained as a machinist while serving in the United States Navy and after discharge from the Navy had been employed at a number of jobs, including nine years employment in a Midas muffler shop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1985, the Wielgus family moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. From September 1991 until the date of the accident in issue on May 8, 1995, Mr. Wielgus continuously worked at a Midas muffler shop in Murfreesboro owned by Dale Colwell. He was the manager of the muffler shop where three technicians were employed, and his duties included working on automobiles. On May 8, 1995, he noticed a technician at the bay near the end of the shop attempting to raise a truck on the Dover rotary lift, model AP-50H, involved in this case. The lift was "jumping" because it was low on hydraulic oil. This automatic lift was an "in-ground" lift with the air/oil tank located in the ground. He first removed the plate covering the air/oil tank. He next undertook to remove the fill plug on the air/oil tank in order to correct the hydraulic oil deficiency. Unfortunately, unknown to Mr. Wielgus, the air/oil tank was pressurized and when he removed the fill plug an explosion occurred driving a pipe from the air/oil tank into his chest and resulting in severe and permanent injuries.
The record shows that Dale Colwell became a Midas franchisee in December 1986. The automotive lift involved in the accident had been manufactured by Dover Industries and sold to Midas International Corporation who in turn sold it to Mr. Colwell. The lift had been delivered to the Midas muffler shop in Murfreesboro on September 11, 1986. In the 1980's, Dover and other manufacturers of automotive lifts had become aware of injuries suffered by persons attempting to remove a fill plug on a pressurized air/oil tank.
The Automotive Lift Institute declined to adopt an industry standard relative to avoiding removal of a fill plug on a pressurized tank. However, Dover designed a vent screw fill plug to help eliminate the possibility of someone inadvertently removing a fill plug from the air/oil tank while the system was still pressurized. When the vent screw on this fill plug is turned three times, the person removing it is able to hear air escaping from the tank if it is still pressurized. This is a signaling device to alert the person to depressurize the tank. The vent screw fill plug, designed by Dover, has a warning cast on it, and is inexpensive
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