Elizabeth Wheeler, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Standard Tool and Manufacturing Company, Defendant-appellant, 497 F.2d 897 (2d Cir. 1974)

This appeal brings up for review a judgment entered in a diversity negligence action now in its fifth year and arising from an accident that occurred more than seven years ago.

The judgment was entered after a bench trial in the Southern District of New York before Kevin T. Duffy, District Judge. It awarded plaintiff $12,500 general damages, plus $872.10 special damages, for personal injuries sustained while plaintiff was operating a hypodermic syringe assembly machine designed and manufactured by defendant.

The accident occurred on December 16, 1966 at the plant located in Canaan, Connecticut, of Becton-Dickinson & Company (Becton) where plaintiff was employed. At the time of the accident, plaintiff was operating one of Becton's machines which had been designed and manufactured by defendant Standard Tool & Manufacturing Company (Standard) at its plant in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, in 1963. The machine was known as a plastic syringe assembly machine. The accident occurred when plaintiff slipped on some waste materials ejected by the machine. As she slipped, she instinctively thrust her right hand forward. This hand became caught in the machine's unguarded needle assembly station. She sustained an injury to her right index finger for which damages were awarded by the district court below.

The theory of plaintiff's action is not one of ordinary negligence, but rather one of strict liability against the manufacturer of a dangerous machine. Restatement (Second) of Torts 402A (1965).¹  We hold that Judge Duffy applied the correct choice of law rule in ultimately looking to Connecticut to determine the applicable law of strict liability. And we further hold that he correctly concluded that the Connecticut courts in cases of strict liability apply the Restatement, supra, 402A, Basko v. Sterling Drug, Inc., 416 F.2d 417, 425 (2 Cir. 1969); DiMeo v. Minster Machine Company, Inc., 388 F.2d 18, 20 (2 Cir. 1968).

After a careful review of the evidence, including an evaluation of the evidence for credibility, Judge Duffy found that the absence of a guard at the needle inserting station was a 'defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user' within the meaning of 402A. We hold that this finding was supported by substantial evidence and was not clearly erroneous.

We also reject, as did Judge Duffy, Standard's massive reliance upon its claim that it simply built a special purpose machine in accordance with Becton's specifications and left it to Becton to determine what safety devices were required for the moving parts above the lower section of the machine. This ignores the thrust of 402A as well as critical evidence upon which Judge Duffy relied in making his findings. There is no reason in principle, or under 402A, why a manufacturer of a complicated machine which is to be used by another manufacturer may not avoid its strict liability by making it plain to the purchaser that it is relying on it to take over the provision of safeguards at a certain point. See Schipper v. Levitt & Sons, Inc., 44 N.J. 70, 207 A.2d 314 (1965). But whether Standard did so here was a question of fact which Judge Duffy resolved against Standard. We hold that this finding was supported by substantial evidence and was not clearly erroneous.

We have carefully considered each of appellant's claims of error and find them without merit.

Affirmed.