Valdez

A production worker (“plaintiff”) employed by a pipe manufacturing concern sustained severe personal injuries when he was caught and crushed between a huge piece of pipe and an oven door. The pipe was traveling on a conveyor as it approached the door. It was held in place at each end by a cart. The carts moved along the production line on tracks, pulled by a chain, with the chain being situated between the tracks. The employee was either traveling on the front cart or passing in front of it just before the accident. The carts failed to stop and the oven door failed to open, resulting in serious injuries to the employee’s pelvis, back and left leg.

The employee collected workmen’s compensation benefits from his employer’s compensation carrier. He also filed an independent action against three firms: the oven supplier, the conveyor system supplier, and the general contracting firm (“defendants”) which built the plant and which also made repairs and modifications on the conveyor and oven.

The lawsuit was predicated on three theories: negligence, warranty and strict liability in tort (“products liability”). The employer’s workmen’s compensation carrier (“intervener”)…