DeLeon v. Commercial Manufacturing & Supply Co

In DeLeon v. Commercial Manufacturing & Supply Co. (1983) 148 Cal.App.3d 336, the plaintiff, a cannery worker, lost her arm when it became entangled in an exposed rotating line shaft located above the fruit sorter bin she was cleaning. (DeLeon, supra, 148 Cal.App.3d at pp. 340-341.) The line shaft had nothing to do with the operation of the bin and was manufactured and installed by the plant owner. (Id. at p. 341.) Plaintiff sued Commercial, the manufacturer of the sorter bin, and the trial court granted summary judgment to the defendant, reasoning that Commercial was not responsible for choosing the location of the equipment and since the bin had no inherent defect, Commercial could not be liable for the plaintiff's injury. (Id. at p. 340.) On appeal, Commercial argued that it did nothing more than manufacture the bin to the cannery's specifications and that the plant operator had assembled it into the fruit processing line. (Id. at p. 342.) As a consequence, Commercial contended that full responsibility for safe operating conditions rested with the plant operator. (Ibid.) The Court of Appeal reversed the grant of summary judgment because it was not presented with a "clear-cut legal question of component part liability, but instead ... a factual issue of involvement in design." (DeLeon, supra, 148 Cal.App.3d at p. 343.) In holding that triable issues of fact existed as to Commercial's liability, the court emphasized that the "principal issue of fact presented below was that of responsibility for design, including location" (id. at p. 346), and it concluded summary judgment was inappropriate "assuming that Commercial participated in the design of this custom-made equipment for a particular location in a processing line" (id. at p. 347). Thus, in DeLeon, the defendant manufacturer's potential liability turned on the factual question of whether it had participated in the design and location of the sorter bin. (See Rest.3d Torts, Products Liability, 5, subd. (b).) There is nothing in DeLeon that suggests that a manufacturer may be liable for failing to warn of the dangerous qualities of another manufacturer's product.