Balido

In 1965 Juana Balido’s right hand was crushed when a plastic injection molding press closed as she was adjusting an insert. Balido brought an action for negligence, breach of warranty, strict liability, and intentional misconduct against the manufacturer of the press, Improved Machinery, Inc. (Improved); against the former owner of the press, Paper Mate Manufacturing Company (Paper Mate); and against her employer and the owner of the press at the time of the accident, Olympic Plastics Company, Inc. (Olympic). After the presentation of plaintiff’s case, the trial court entered judgment of nonsuit in favor of all defendants. Balido appeals.

In ruling on a nonsuit a court must disregard conflicting evidence, give to plaintiff’s evidence all value to which it is legally entitled, and indulge plaintiff in every legitimate inference that may be drawn from the evidence. (Elmore v. American Motors Corp., 70 Cal.2d 578, 583 [ 75 Cal.Rptr. 652 , 451 P.2d 84 ].) The evidence showed:

Improved designed and manufactured the plastic injection molding press in New Hampshire in 1950-1951 and sold it to Paper Mate in California in 1953. Paper Mate "sold the press to Olympic in 1958. As…

I concur in affirming the judgment of nonsuit as to Paper Mate and Olympic. I would also affirm the judgment as to Improved.

*650 In my opinion the majority correctly concludes that the mere passage of time, by itself, is not sufficient to terminate Improved’s liability. On the other hand, the majority errs in its analysis of the effect of Olympic’s conduct on Improved’s continued liability.

At the outset it is clear that the injury was essentially the result of an industrial accident. As a consequence, plaintiff will be compensated for the injury according to the provisions of the workmen’s compensation law which presumably is structured to adequately redress the injury.

Workmen’s compensation awards may not be as lucrative as judgments obtained in regular tort actions because the former do not deal with that elusive and amorphous concept of “pain and suffering.” This difference, however, is more than adequately offset by the fact that industrial employees as a class benefit from liberal construction of the term “scope of employment” and from the elimination of contributory negligence as a defense to recovery.

If, in the instant case, the offending machine had been…

In 1965 Juana Balido's right hand was crushed when a plastic injection molding press closed as she was adjusting an insert. Balido brought an action for negligence, breach of warranty, strict liability, and intentional misconduct against the manufacturer of the press, Improved Machinery, Inc. (Improved); against the former owner of the press, Paper Mate Manufacturing Company (Paper Mate); and against her employer and the owner of the press at the time of the accident, Olympic Plastics Company, Inc. (Olympic). After the presentation of plaintiff's case, the trial court entered judgment of nonsuit in favor of all defendants. Balido appeals.

(1) In ruling on a nonsuit a court must disregard conflicting evidence, give to plaintiff's evidence all value to which it is legally entitled, and indulge plaintiff in every legitimate inference that may be drawn from the evidence. ( Elmore v. American Motors Corp., 70 Cal.2d 578, 583 [ 75 Cal. Rptr. 652 , 451 P.2d 84 ].) The evidence showed:

Improved designed and manufactured the plastic injection molding press in New Hampshire in 1950-1951 and sold it to Paper Mate in California in 1953. Paper Mate sold the press to…