No Liability For Death Of The Bird

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the grant of summary judgment to defendants in claims arising from the death of Mark Fidrych

Mark Fidrych owned a dump truck that he used to haul soil. On the morning of April 13, 2009, Fidrych was seen at his farm working on the truck. Later that day, he was found dead underneath it, with his clothing caught up in a spinning universal joint (U-joint) that was part of the mechanical system used to tilt the “dump body” of the truck. The medical examiner identified the cause of death as accidental asphyxiation. In her capacity as executrix of Fidrych’s estate, his widow, Ann Pantazis, filed a wrongful death action in the Superior Court. She sued, among others, Mack Trucks, Inc. (Mack Trucks), which manufactured the original, stripped-down version of the truck, and Parker-Hannifin Corporation (Parker-Hannifin), which had acquired the assets of Dana Corporation (Dana).  Dana manufactured a piece of equipment known as a “power take-off” (PTO), which was another part of the system used to tilt the dump body of Fidrych’s truck. In two separate summary judgment rulings, different Superior Court judges ruled in favor of each of these defendants. We affirm.

Held

we conclude that where, as here, the components manufactured by the defendants included no design defects, and the risks posed by the assembled product arose out of the addition of other components and the decisions made, and actions taken, by downstream actors, the defendants had no duty to warn of those dangers. Resolving the case as we do, we have no occasion to consider the defendants’ other arguments, such as their claim that they had no duty to warn of the dangers posed by the exposed auxiliary drive shaft and U-joint in light of the obviousness of such risks, at least to someone with Fidrych’s presumed familiarity with the truck that he had owned for over twenty years…

None of this is to say that appellate courts should never recognize exceptions to the component parts doctrine. In fact, this court recognized the possibility of such an exception in Morin v. AutoZone Northeast, Inc., 79 Mass. App. Ct. 39, 51-52 (2011).  Based on the summary judgment record and the arguments raised, the plaintiff has not demonstrated good cause to create an exception here.

(Mike Frisch)