Bates v. John Deere Co.

Defendants John Deere Company and Deere & Company (Deere) appeal from the judgment awarding plaintiff, Charles Bates, damages for personal injuries which he suffered in an accident involving a cotton picking machine manufactured by defendants.

Mission Insurance Company (lienor) appeals from that part of the judgment entered in favor of defendants and against it as subrogee of plaintiff’s employer, Wolfsen Brothers Company, after the trial court found the employer 15 percent comparatively negligent in causing plaintiff’s injuries.

Plaintiff was injured on October 27, 1974, while operating a 1969 Deere model 699H cotton picker in a cotton field located on his employer’s ranch. The model 699H, driven by a lone operator, is designed to pick two rows of cotton plants at the same time by allowing the plants to pass into either of two intake heads located at the front of the machine, past spindles affixed to rotating drums which strip the cotton bolls from the plants. Each intake head contains two drums, one in the front and one in the rear. Levers controlling the operation and speed at which the drums turn are located only in the cab of the harvester.

Occasionally a drum…