Larry Tennis v. General Motors Corporation

Plaintiff sued General Motors Corporation (General Motors) and Universal Tool & Stamping Co., Inc. (Universal) for damages resulting from personal injuries received when a Chevrolet Caprice automobile, on which he was installing shock absorbers, fell as the result of an allegedly defective bumper jack manufactured by Universal and furnished by General Motors. Plaintiff's claims were predicated on defendants' strict liability per § 402 A, 2 Restatement of Torts 2d as adopted in Keener v. Dayton Electric Manufacturing Company, 445 S.W.2d 362 (Mo. 1969). The jury's verdicts were in favor of General Motors and in favor of plaintiff against Universal. In the latter verdict plaintiff was awarded damages in the sum of $570,550.67. Both plaintiff and Universal have appealed. Then 33 years old, plaintiff was at the home of his father-in-law, Jesse Townlian, on Thanksgiving Day 1977. Townlian owned a 1972 Chevrolet Caprice which he had purchased used in the spring of 1977. According to Townlian, the car was equipped with the jack when he bought it but he had never used nor inspected the jack. Plaintiff volunteered to install the shock absorbers which Townlian had acquired. Townlian, plaintiff and Bill Volner went to where the Caprice was parked in a driveway and Townlian opened its trunk. A sticker on the trunk door warned: ""CAUTION Apply parking brake and block diagonally opposite wheel before operating jack. Do not get under the car while using jack."" After Townlian placed blocks under the vehicle's wheels and made sure the gear lever was in ""Park,"" plaintiff took the jack and base plate from the trunk and commenced jacking up the right rear wheel in preparing to install the shock absorbers. Volner and Townlian then left the vicinity of the automobile as plaintiff continued his labors. While plaintiff was in the process of installing the fourth shock absorber on the left front of the car, he was sitting on the tire and wheel, which he had removed and was partially beneath the fender at that location when the car fell straight down. Plaintiff was ""sort of folded up"" under the fender with his legs extended forward. Volner recounted that when the car fell he heard ""sort of a ripping ratchet sound and then a crash."" Although the jack was still ""hooked under the bumper"" after the car had fallen, it would not work to lift the car off plaintiff and he had to be extracted otherwise before being taken to the hospital.