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Smith v. Mack Trucks6/20/2002
NATURE OF THE CASE: CIVIL - WRONGFUL DEATH
DISPOSITION: REVERSED AND REMANDED - 6/20/2002
EN BANC.
. Jeffery Kilcrease died as a result of a single-vehicle log truck accident on November 6, 1991. His wrongful death beneficiaries filed suit against Mack Trucks, Inc. and Jackson Mack Sales, Inc. in Hinds County Circuit Court on March 2, 1993. The complaint alleged that the Mack truck Kilcrease was driving at the time of the accident had a defective brake system. On July 1, 1994, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint alleging that the fuel tank system on the Mack truck was defectively designed, thus abandoning their theory that the brake system was defective.
. On March 13, 1998, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the defendants, and judgment was entered accordingly. Plaintiffs now appeal citing the following issues:
I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY GRANTING DEFENDANTS' JURY INSTRUCTION D-2, WHICH INCORRECTLY STATED THE SUBSTANTIVE LAW OF STRICT PRODUCTS LIABILITY USING THE MISSISSIPPI PRODUCTS LIABILITY ACT.
II. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT'S JURY INSTRUCTIONS AS A WHOLE WERE PREJUDICIAL AND CONSTITUTED REVERSIBLE ERROR.
FACTS
. On November 6, 1991. Kilcrease was driving his 1978 R Model Mack truck in Lauderdale County, pulling a trailer loaded with pine logs, when the truck's tire blew out. The truck crashed into several pine trees and caught on fire.
. First on the scene, traveling U.S. Highway 80 west approximately one-quarter mile behind the decedent's truck were John Caudil and his sister, Rachel, who, after turning briefly to waive at neighbors, noticed that Kilcrease's truck had left the road. After driving approximately one-half mile to the point where his truck had left the highway, they stopped, and Rachel walked down to the truck to see if anyone was alive. She heard a responsive moan. Caudil testified that he observed no evidence of fire when he first arrived at the scene and left to get help. Rachel stayed and attempted to pull Kilcrease from the wreckage when she began to hear sounds that indicated the beginning of a small fire. She explained:
After I worked my way to him, I tried pulling him out. I then began to hear small little twigs burning, you know, like a fire beginning to start. John had already left at that time. . . It was like pine straw and little pine limbs burning. It wasn't - a fizz. It wasn't an explosion. It was small . . . The best- - it was, you know, small little pine needles beginning to burn, - - small noises, you know, not a big noise, very quite noise like, but it was little bit like pine.
. In March of 1993, plaintiffs filed a complaint alleging that a defective, unreasonably dangerous, and unmerchantable condition within the brake system of the Mack truck, caused Kilcrease to collide. In an amended complaint filed on July 1, 1994, plaintiffs retreated from the defective brake theory and charged Kilcrease's death was the proximate result of a defective and unreasonably dangerous fuel tank system, existing at the time the Mack truck was sold by the defendant. The theory was that the fire was caused by leakage or escaped diesel fuel from fuel tanks in the truck, in conjunction with ignition or heat sources, such as exhaust pipes or electrical batteries, located in close proximity to the fuel tanks. As a result, the driver's compartment of the Mack truck was engulfed with fire causing Kilcrease to suffer severe burns over most of his body, amputation of three limbs and ultimately his death in December of 1991.
. At trial, competing expert testimonies were presented conc
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