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Baker v. Heye-America12/9/2003
FOR PUBLICATION
Henry K. and Phyllis J. Baker appeal the trial court's grant of Heye-America's motion for summary judgment in their product liability suit, contending that genuine issues of material fact remain with regard to whether Heye-America's glass bottle manufacturing machine contained manufacturing or design defects that caused Henry Baker's injuries.
We reverse.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
For more than thirty years, Henry Baker worked at a glass bottle manufacturing facility operated by Ball Foster (now known as Saint- Gobain Containers, Inc.). On November 24, 1998, Baker was working on Machine 51, a glass bottle manufacturing machine that was built by Heye- America according to Ball Foster's specifications. Machine 51 was an eight-section machine that could be operated to make either two or three bottles at a time. It formed bottles when molten glass gobs were fed into it. The machine then formed these gobs into bottles by closing around them, then opening again. To cool the glass, wind was funneled into the machine from a fan beneath the factory floor through one of several types of wind appliances, including configurations known as stacked wind and tube wind.
On the day of the accident, Machine 51 was utilizing stacked wind to cool the bottles. Baker realized that some of the bottles that Machine 51 was producing were of uneven thickness. He knew that this defect may be caused by problems with the amount of wind blowing into the machine to cool the bottles. As Baker was using his hand to test the wind velocity on the blank (output) side of the machine, the mold suddenly opened, pinning his hand between the mold and the stacked wind appliance. He was trapped for eight minutes and received serious burns to his hand before he was freed by his co-workers.
On August 7, 2000, the Bakers filed a complaint against Heye- America, the machine manufacturer, and Emhart Glass Manufacturing, Inc ("Emhart"), the manufacturer of the machine's control components. They subsequently amended that complaint three times, but the complaint essentially stated a cause of action against both defendants on behalf of Henry Baker for product liability and on behalf of Phyllis Baker for loss of consortium.
Both defendants moved for summary judgment. After all parties submitted briefs and the trial court conducted a hearing on the issue, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants. The Bakers now appeal the decision as to Heye-America only.
DISCUSSION AND DECISION
The Bakers allege that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of Heye-America on their claim. In reviewing the grant of a motion for summary judgment, this court stands in the shoes of the trial court, applying the same standards in deciding whether to affirm or reverse summary judgment. Wilson v. Lincoln Fed. Sav. Bank, 790 N.E.2d 1042, 1046 (Ind. Ct. App. 2003); Ross v. Indiana State Bd. of Nursing, 790 N.E.2d 110, 115-16 (Ind. Ct. App. 2003). We do not weigh evidence, but will liberally construe the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Wilson, 790 N.E.2d at 1046; Ross, 790 N.E.2d at 115-16. Summary judgment should be granted only when the designated evidence shows that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Poznanski ex rel. Poznanski v. Horvath, 788 N.E.2d 1255, 1258 (Ind. 2003); Reeder v. Harper, 788 N.E.2d 1236, 1240 (Ind. 2003); Ind. Trial Rule 56(C). Accordingly, on appeal, we must determine whether there is a genuine issue of material fact and whether the trial court has correctly applied the law.
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