Wilkes Wirth v. Clark Equipment Company, a Corporation

The plaintiff in this diversity action was a longshoreman on the waterfront at Portland, Oregon, whose duties required him to work as a part of a crew attending a thirty-ton motor driven wheeled vehicle, known as a van carrier, which ran over him, thereby inflicting severe injuries that included the loss of a leg. Defendant Clark Equipment Company had manufactured the van carrier and had sold it to Matson Navigation Company, in whose service it was being operated at the time of the accident.

The plaintiff sought recovery on the basis of two separate theories, namely negligence in the design and manufacture of the carrier, and strict liability by reason of the manufacture and sale of a carrier that was in an unreasonably dangerous and defective condition.

At the conclusion of the trial, the judge submitted to the jury the issue of negligence (and a verdict for the defendant resulted), but he withdrew from the jury the matter of strict liability, ruling that, as a matter of law, the plaintiff could not recover on that basis. We agree with the plaintiff’s contention, asserted at the trial and on appeal, that the issue of strict liability should have been submitted to the jury, and…