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D'Amario v. Ford Motor Co.11/21/2001
in the community and that but for the doctor's negligence, Whitehead would have survived. The jury was instructed that it could consider Whitehead's own conduct as a defense to the medical malpractice claim against the doctor and hospital and the jury returned a verdict for the defense.
On appeal, however, the First District reversed, holding that Whitehead's conduct was too remote and could not be considered the proximate legal cause of his injuries from the alleged professional malpractice. The court reasoned:
A remote condition or conduct which furnishes only the occasion for someone else's supervening negligence is not a proximate cause of the result of the subsequent negligence. . . . Since Whitehead's death would not have occurred "but for" the negligent acts or omissions of the hospital and the doctor, those acts and omissions must be deemed the cause of the injury. See Fellows v. Citizens Savings & Loan Association of St. Lucie County, 383 So. 2d 1140 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980); Bryant v. Jax Liquors, 352 So. 2d 542 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977). Stated differently, any conduct on Whitehead's part before he entered the hospital which contributed to his cardiac and pulmonary arrest and subsequent death was not a proximate, legal cause of the damages sought in this case. Accordingly, we find that the trial court erred in submitting the instruction on comparative negligence to the jury over the prior and timely objection of counsel. Id. at 379 (emphasis added).
The reasoning in Whitehead is similar to the rationale upon which the "minority" view of the application of comparative fault principles to the crashworthiness doctrine is based. Both focus on the particular cause "of the damages sought in this case." Id.
As noted above, unlike automobile accidents involving damages solely arising from the collision itself, a defendant's liability in a crashworthiness case is predicated upon the existence of a distinct and second injury caused by a defective product, and assumes the plaintiff to be in the condition to which he is rendered after the first accident. No claim is asserted, however, to hold the defendant liable for that condition. Thus, crashworthiness cases involve separate and distinct injuries-those caused by the initial collision, and those subsequently caused by a second collision arising from a defective product. We agree that when viewed in this light, crashworthiness cases may be analogized to medical malpractice cases involving a successive negligent medical provider who is alleged to have either aggravated an existing injury or caused a separate and additional injury. Thus, just as the injury- causing fault of the patient in Whitehead was held not relevant in assessing the doctor's subsequent and separate negligence, the accident- causing fault of the driver would not be relevant in crashworthiness cases in assessing a manufacturer's neglect in designing an automobile or its parts. The initial accident merely furnished the occasion for the manufacturer's fault to be tested.
Hence, a primary collision, by whatever cause, is presumed to have occurred in crashworthiness cases, and it is further presumed that a manufacturer, like a physician, may not be held responsible for the injuries caused by the primary collision. Further, only the cause of the enhanced injury is at issue in crashworthiness cases such as those at issue here because the only damages sought are those caused by the defective products. Thus the focus in such cases against a manufacturer is not on the conduct that gave rise to the initial accident, but rather, on the conduct that allegedly caused the enhanced or secondary injuries. It will always be conceded in such cases that the fault o
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