Not So Fast..... (Continued from page 19)
subjecting a user (driver or passenger) to an unreasonable risk of injury in a collision.25
The Maryland Pattern Jury
Instruction for the Crashworthiness Doctrine provides as follows: “A manufacturer is responsible for a defect in the design or construc- tion which the manufacturer could have reasonably foreseen would increase injuries sustained in the accident, and which, in fact, caused or increased the inju- ries sustained in the accident.”
MPJI 26:19 Duty of Manufacturer- Enhanced Injuries (2006).
Gourdine v. Crews: A Recent Example of a Plaintiff’s Attorney’s Effort to Obtain Coverage
The recent case of Gourdine v. Crews
provides an example of a Plaintiff ’s attorney doing everything reason- ably possible to use product liability law to locate adequate coverage in an automobile death case.26
day, and that Eli Lilly knowingly failed to warn about this risk. A lawsuit was brought against Eli Lilly. The Trial Court granted defendant Eli Lilly’s Motion for Summary Judgment. The Plaintiff ’s at- torney appealed. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed the grant of summary judgment because the injuries sustained by the decedent were not rea- sonably forseeable. The Court of Special Appeals explained: Appellants correctly state that “liability for injuries which are fore- seeable resulting from a defective product extends to bystanders who are put in peril by the defect.” Even assuming, arguendo, that the warn- ings rendered about the drugs were defective, the injuries sustained by Gourdine were not reasonably foreseeable. It cannot be said that Lilly should have reasonably fore- seen that Crews, with her history of hypoglycemia, would ignore her doctor’s orders to discontinue her morning insulin, drive a car, suf-
fer a hypoglycemic episode, lose control of her car, strike Gourdine’s car, push it into the back of an il- legally parked tractor-trailer, and fatally injure Gourdine. Indeed, to impose a duty on Lilly in these circumstances “would create an inde- terminate class of potential plaintiffs.”
Gourdine v. Crews 177 Md.App. 471, 479, 935 A.2d 1146, 1151 (Md.App.,2007) (citations omitted).
The Maryland Court of Appeals
granted Certiorari, however at the time that this Article went to press, no deci- sion had been rendered.
Negligent Maintenance of Roadway and Negligent Roadway Design
A cause of action can be maintained
against those responsible for negli- gent roadway design and negligent maintenance of the roadway. Such
On Feb. 22,
2002, Ms. Crews was the operator of a motor vehicle that struck a vehicle driven by Isaac Gourdine. The force of the impact caused a fatal head injury to Mr. Gourdine. At the time of the crash, Ms. Crews had taken a combination of insulin prescription medications. The insulin medications were manufactured and distributed by Eli Lilly. The plain- tiff ’s attorney claimed that the crash occurred because Ms. Crews experienced low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) due to her ingestion of the prescription medi- cations manufactured by Eli Lilly. The decedent’s attorney contended that the prescription medications taken by Ms. Crews caused increased rates of hypo- glycemia during certain times of the
25 26
Volkswagen of America, Inc. v. Young, 272 Md. 201, 206-07, 321 A.2d 737 (1974).
Gourdine v. Crews, 177 Md. App. 471, 935 A.2d 1146 (Md. App. 2007); cert. granted 403 Md. 612, 943 A.2d 1244 (Md. 2008).
Summer 2008 Trial Reporter 21
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