Cody J. Geurin v. Winston Industries, Inc., a Kentucky Corporation, and Winston Products Company, (Inc.)

Cody J. Geurin sued Winston Industries, Inc. for damages in a products liability action. The district court granted partial summary judgment for Geurin on defendant’s affirmative defense of third-party liability. After a jury trial, Geurin was awarded damages. Winston Industries, Inc. appeals the partial summary judgment, and the denial of its motions for a mistrial and a new trial.

I.

In 1985, Winston Industries, Inc. (“Winston”) designed, manufactured, and sold a pressure cooker that had a pressure lid lock system. On June 1, 1998, some thirteen years later, Cody J. Geurin, an employee of a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Spokane, Washington, was cooking chicken in the pressure cooker when the lid popped open, allowing hot oil to spray him. Geurin was severely burned. At the time of the accident, the fryer had been altered and a cam lid lock had been installed in place of the originally installed pressure lid lock.

In May of 2000, Geurin filed this action under Washington’s Product Liability Actions statute, Wash. Rev. Code § 7.72 , against Winston, alleging that it manufactured and sold a defectively designed fryer and that this defect proximately caused his…