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Campbell v. Studer Inc.12/18/1998
Appeal from the District Court of Natrona County: The Honorable Dan Spangler, Judge
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in Pacific Reporter Second. Readers are requested to notify the Clerk of the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Building, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002, of any typographical or other formal errors in order that corrections may be made before final publication in the permanent volume.
Thomas Campbell was ejected from the seat of a road compactor, fell into its path, and later died from his injuries. Appellant Gretchen Campbell filed suit against appellees, the manufacturer and the distributor of the compactor, alleging defective design. She now appeals the summary judgment entered in favor of appellees, maintaining the district court erred in refusing to credit the testimony of her proposed expert that the compactor was unreasonably dangerous as designed. Finding no abuse of discretion in refusing to consider the expert's Conclusions, we affirm.
ISSUES
Campbell presents the following issues for review:
I. The trial court erroneously discounted the testimony of Plaintiff's expert testimony in its decision to dismiss Plaintiff's claims.
II. The trial court relied on improper evidence in each of its findings that Plaintiff failed to show that product was unreasonably dangerous or that the manufacturer was negligent.
Appellees phrase the issues as:
1. Is qualified expert testimony necessary to withstand summary judgment in a strict products liability/negligent design case involving the design of a complex motorized piece of heavy construction equipment?
2. Did the trial court abuse its discretion when it found that Appellant's expert was not qualified to testify concerning the design and safety of a C530A, 12-ton, pneumatic-tired, diesel-powered, construction compactor when the "expert" has never designed any compactor, any similar vehicle, any motorized heavy equipment, any motor vehicle, or any component for a compactor and when he has not designed or tested for feasibility any of the components he recommends?
3. Did Appellant fail to present admissible evidence concerning her claims of a defective and unreasonably dangerous design, negligence, and causation?
FACTS
On August 26, 1993, while operating a 12-ton Hyster C530A asphalt compactor, Thomas Campbell was apparently ejected from his seat when the compactor hit the rear end of his employer's truck. No one witnessed Mr. Campbell's fall, however a co-worker arrived to see the compactor, moving at full throttle in a counter-clockwise direction, run over Mr. Campbell. He died later that day from his injuries.
Mrs. Gretchen Campbell (Campbell) filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of herself and the Campbells' two children and as representative of her late husband's estate, asserting claims for negligence and strict product liability. Campbell named as defendants Studer, Inc., the distributor that sold the compactor to Natrona County in 1971, and NACCO Materials Handling Group, the successor to Hyster Co., the manufacturer and designer of the compactor. Campbell claimed the design of the C530A was defective because it did not have safety equipment to keep the operator in the seat and it lacked an automatic shutoff device to stop the machine in case of operator ejection.
After extensive discovery, Studer and NACCO (collectively "appellees") moved for summary judgment. In support of this motion, appellees submitted the affidavit and deposition testimony of Mr. George Herbst, a mechanical engineer directly involved as the project eng
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