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Couch v. Astec Industries6/19/2002
to the danger area-the tail pulley. Defendant's vice president of engineering demonstrated where the pull cord would have been located on the recycle plant in question had it been equipped with one. Plaintiff and eyewitnesses testified about Plaintiff's location when he initially came in contact with the conveyor belt. Gallagher considered the foregoing testimony and opined that Plaintiff's foot would have tripped a pull cord before it landed on the conveyor. This in turn would have stopped the motor and caused the tail pulley to stop turning within about one second.
Regarding the second element, Plaintiff testified that, after coming in contact with the conveyor belt, his foot first became entangled and eventually the conveyor belt moved his leg further into the tail pulley. Plaintiff's orthopedic surgeon testified that if the machine had been cut off approximately five seconds after Plaintiff's foot was caught, Plaintiff's injuries would have been restricted to the area below the knee.
The foregoing evidence supports an inference that the longer Defendant's leg was exposed to the tail pulley, the more injuries the leg sustained. Although no testimony specifically pinpointed a place on Plaintiff's leg where the entanglement would have stopped upon activation of an emergency pull cord, such precision is not required by our case law. See Duran v. Gen. Motors Corp., 101 N.M. 742, 750, 688 P.2d 779, 787 (Ct. App. 1983) ("` he plaintiff must offer some method of establishing the extent of enhanced injuries attributable to the defective design'") (quoting Huddell v. Levin, 537 F.2d 726, 738 (3rd Cir. 1976)) overruled on other grounds by Brooks, 120 N.M. at 383, 902 P.2d at 65. Accordingly, it was the jury's prerogative as fact finder to assess the degree of enhancement and the appropriate damages.
Based on the foregoing discussion, we hold that the jury reasonably could have found that Plaintiff proved his claim for enhanced injury due to the absence of a pull cord. We recognize that Defendant introduced evidence supporting a different outcome; however, " he question is not whether substantial evidence exists to support the opposite result, but rather whether such evidence supports the result reached." Las Cruces Prof'l Fire Fighters v. City of Las Cruces, 1997-NMCA-044, 12, 123 N.M. 329, 940 P.2d 177.
Defendant also argues that Plaintiff failed to prove the enhanced injury claim because he did not establish that a pull cord was a safer, feasible, alternative design. See Huddell, 537 F.2d at 737, cited with approval in Duran, 101 N.M. at 749-50, 688 P.2d at 786-87. However, there is nothing in the record to indicate that Defendant asked the trial court to instruct the jury on this element of proof. As previously noted, Defendant first mentioned the need for an enhanced injury instruction at the conference where jury instructions were settled. Defendant suggested language for such a jury instruction, but it made no mention of an element requiring Plaintiff to prove that the alternative design-a pull cord-was safer and practicable. The court charged Plaintiff's counsel with the responsibility of drafting the enhanced injury instruction, and Defendant did not object to Plaintiff's tendered instruction before the court instructed the jury. The court gave the tendered instruction, which did not state that Plaintiff was required to prove that a pull cord was a safer and practicable design. Jury instructions not objected to become the law of the case. Gutierrez v. Albertsons, Inc., 113 N.M. 256, 259 n.1, 824 P.2d 1058, 1061 n.1 (Ct. App. 1991). Consequently, we hold that Defendant failed to preserve the argument it now makes on appeal.
Strict Liability and Ne
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