Linda Brown, the Duly Appointed Personal Representative of the Estate of Billy Derrell Brown, Deceased v. Link Belt Corporation and Fmc Corporation

Billy Derrell Brown (“Brown”) died in a logging operation in Oregon after he was run over by an excavator crane manufactured by the defendants. Brown’s widow brought a wrongful death action in the United States District Court for Oregon, the federal jurisdiction being predicated on diversity of the parties. As the case was finally submitted to the jury, the plaintiff only charged that the defendants should be held strictly liable for failing to equip their product with manual and/or automatic warning signal devices to indicate the movement of the crane.

Brown worked as a “chaser” for the D&H Logging Company (“D&H”). His function was to direct the “yarder operator” on the placement of cut logs by the use of hand signals. The yarder is not herein involved. In addition to the yarder, there was also a crane in the drop area which placed the logs in a “deck” (pile) until they could be loaded upon trucks.

The crane, which was involved herein moved on crawler treads and had two gears. In the lower gear, the crane could not proceed faster than one and a half miles per hour. The crane had on top of its base an enclosed cab, wherein the operator sat, which could swing 360 degrees, and…