Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Farmers Brothers Co.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of respondents Brass Door, Inc. (Brass Door), and its insurer Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. (Aetna) in their product liability action against Farmers Brothers Co. and Brewmatic, Inc. (collectively, Farmers). Farmers’ only contention on appeal is that respondents failed to establish an objective feature of the coffee maker in question—namely, the heating capacity of the high-heat element alleged to have started the fire at Brass Door. We conclude respondents met their burden and therefore affirm the judgment.

I. Facts

Early Sunday morning, April 14, 1994, a fire broke out at the Brass Door restaurant in San Ramon, damaging the building. Nancy Schlesinger and Danny Basso, co-owners of the restaurant, spent $850,000 on debris removal and reconstruction. Aetna provided $560,000 under various insurance policies.

Brass Door was equipped with a coffee maker unit manufactured, installed and maintained by Farmers; the restaurant had no responsibility for its installation or maintenance. Farmers supplied Brass Door with glass coffee pots with plastic handles. A Farmers’ employee had worked on the machine the Thursday before the…