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TUCKER v. CATERPILLAR6/18/1997
Plaintiff challenges the district court's ruling that excluded evidence of warning measures, in connection with a backhoe loader, taken by the defendant manufacturer after the manufacture and sale of the backhoe but before plaintiff was injured in an accident involving the backhoe. Although we do not agree with the district court that the evidence was inadmissible, we conclude that any error did not affect the substantial rights of the plaintiff. Accordingly, we affirm.
I. Background facts and proceedings. This dispute stems from an accident involving a Caterpillar 416 Backhoe Loader (CAT 416). The CAT 416 was manufactured by defendant Caterpillar, Inc. (Caterpillar), in 1986 and sold to a construction company, C.E. Contracting, Ltd., in June 1986. The 1986 instruction manual provided by Caterpillar to C.E. Contracting did not direct operators to engage the transmission neutral lock (TNL) after stopping the machine and setting the parking brake, nor did it warn of the possible consequences of failing to do so.
In November 1986, in response to complaints from other customers about unexpected reengagement of the transmission and undesired movement of the main body of the machine, Caterpillar developed a warning decal that specifically instructed operators to engage the TNL during backhoe operation. Although Caterpillar began affixing the decal to machines manufactured after November 1986, it did not send copies of the decal to C.E. Contracting or other owners of previously-sold machines. In April 1989, a Caterpillar publication, Service Magazine, described a modification to the CAT 416 designed to prevent unexpected reengagement of the transmission. A revised instruction manual issued by Caterpillar in 1990 also advised operators to engage the TNL during backhoe operation to prevent undesired movement.
On September 4, 1990, plaintiff Jeffrey Tucker, an employee of C.E. Contracting, was severely injured when the CAT 416 ran over him while he was working in a trench during a subsurface tiling job along Highway 71 in Buena Vista County. The accident occurred when the machine, which had been stopped with the parking brake set, unexpectedly began to move at a high rate of speed. A co-employee who was operating the CAT 416 at the time of the accident had not engaged the TNL after he stopped the machine and set the parking brake. The machine operator had not read the 1986 and 1990 manuals.
Plaintiff Tucker filed a product liability action against Caterpillar in district court, claiming both negligence and strict liability. In connection with the negligence claim, [564 NW2d Page 412]
Tucker alleged that defendant Caterpillar breached its duty to use reasonable care in designing the transmission of the CAT 416, to provide sufficient instructions and warnings about the operation of the machine, and to warn of dangers associated with the operation of the machine which became known to Caterpillar after the machine was manufactured and sold. With regard to the strict liability claim, Tucker alleged that the transmission design for the CAT 416 was defective and unreasonably dangerous.
Defendant Caterpillar answered, the parties conducted discovery, and the case proceeded to a jury trial. Before the trial began, Caterpillar filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude exhibits containing the warning decal, the 1990 manual, and other material. Caterpillar contended the decal and 1990 manual were inadmissible because they constituted both subsequent remedial measures under Iowa Rule of Evidence 407 and prejudicial material under Iowa Rule of Evidence 403. The trial court sustained Caterpillar's motion and later rejected, on the basis of rules 407 and 403, Tu
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