In Lear Siegler, Inc. v. Perez, 819 S.W.2d 470 (Tex. 1991), Perez, an employee of the Texas Highway Department, was driving a truck pulling a flashing arrow sign behind a highway sweeping operation. 819 S.W.2d at 471. The sign was used to warn traffic of the highway maintenance. See id. The sign malfunctioned when wires connecting it to the generator became loose, as they had the day before. See id. Perez got out of the truck to reattach the wires. See id. As Perez worked, an oncoming vehicle, whose driver was asleep, struck the sign which, in turn, struck and killed Perez. See id. Perez's survivors sued the manufacturer of the sign. See id. Based on the facts of the case, the supreme court held the connection between the defendant's conduct, manufacturing a defective sign, was too attenuated to constitute the legal cause of Perez's death. See id. at 472. The fact that "but for" the malfunction, Perez would not have been at the place where the accident occurred, was insufficient to establish cause in fact. See id. Perez was pulling a mobile traffic-control sign manufactured by Lear Siegler, which had malfunctioned at an earlier time. After Perez stopped on the traveled part of the roadway and positioned himself near the sign, he was struck by a vehicle driven by Lerma. Perez later died from the injuries. The Court concluded that the circumstances of Perez's injuries were too remotely connected with Lear Siegler's negligence or product defect to constitute legal cause. After discussing Section 431, the court stated: "We recognize there may be cases in which a product defect or a defendant's negligence exposes another to an increased risk of harm by placing him in a particular place at a given time. Nonetheless, there are certain situations in which the happenstance of place and time is too attenuated from the defendant's conduct for liability to be imposed." Id. In affirming the trial court's grant of a summary judgment for Lear Siegler, the court noted, "it is undisputed that Lerma was asleep, and proper operation of the flashing arrow sign would have had no effect on his conduct." Id. The Court determined that the manufacturer of a warning sign was not liable for the injuries a government employee sustained when he was struck by a sleeping driver while reconnecting loose wires in the sign. 819 S.W.2d at 472. The court reasoned that the sign's malfunction was too remotely connected with the employee's injuries to constitute legal cause because the proper operation of the sign would have had no effect on the sleeping driver. Id.