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Sears8/24/1995
om scratch on the use and care manual, Sunbeam used the old Kenmore use and care manuals as the basis for the manual for the new Kenmore grill. According to Johnson, Sunbeam reviewed the existing Kenmore use and care manual, submitted it back to Sears with suggestions, and Sears gave the manual final approval.
Billy Joe Duncan ("Duncan") worked for Sunbeam Leisure Products, the division of Sunbeam that manufactured the model 10783 grill for fourteen years. Duncan also testified that final approval of the use and care manual rested with Sears. Duncan explained that "Sears had their own format, their own standard, and they took care of their own manual as far as the verbiage in the manual."
After Sunbeam's engineering staff completed testing, the grill would go to the American Gas Association ("AGA") for testing and certification. The use and care manual was sent along with the grill to the AGA for testing and certification. The 10783 model was certified in March 1988.
Knowledge of the Danger
Long, the 1987 accident witness, testified that his daughter reported the accident to the retailer, Wal-Mart, and Long reported it to Sunbeam after he recovered. Long did not testify to the exact date that he reported the accident to Sunbeam, but we know it had to be after July 19, 1987, which is the date of Long's accident. Long testified that a representative he believes to have been from Sunbeam came out to his house to look at the grill and his injuries, but he did not know the name of the person he spoke with when he made the report or the name of the representative who came to his house.
Duncan testified that he was working as head of research and development for Sunbeam Leisure Products in 1987 when the 10783 model grill was developed. His department ran the pretesting on all products that were to be submitted to the AGA for final approval. No testing was done on the 10783 model grill with a spare cylinder stored under the grill prior to certification.
Duncan testified that he believed it was unsafe to store a spare propane tank under the grill because of the temperature the spare tank would be subjected to and the risk of the tanks being overfilled. He stated that Sunbeam knew in 1987 that the risk existed for the spare cylinder to vent, cylinders were being overfilled, and overfilled cylinders created a hazardous condition.
Duncan explained that the problems were known because Sunbeam received reports from consumers who were storing spare cylinders under grills and were experiencing venting. The danger of storing spare cylinders under the grill was discussed at AGA and American National Standards Institute ("ANSI") meetings, which Duncan attended as a representative of Sunbeam. Duncan testified that he "would bring the information back to Sunbeam and distribute it to those people in those departments that the information would apply to." Specifically, Duncan brought back information about the " o not store any spare cylinder under the grill body or in grill enclosure" warning.
Wendell Alan Bullerdiek ("Bullerdiek"), a chemical engineer, testified regarding safety studies of LPG gas grills he conducted in 1986 in conjunction with the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC"). The CPSC's seventh recommendation was to discourage maintaining spare cylinders on equipment carts. The reason for the recommendation was that engineering analysis showed storing a spare cylinder underneath a grill was likely to result in a discharge of gas which could ignite and cause injury.
Bullerdiek indicated that the CPSC was aware of similar accidents occurring and that there were high heat readings on the gr
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