Dosier v. Wilcox & Crittendon Co.

Edward Dosier (plaintiff) was working on installing a grinding machine at a United Air Lines maintenance plant. Dosier attached a hook manufactured by North and Judd Manufacturing Company (North and Judd) (defendant) to a 1,700-pound counterweight and lifted the weight into the air. Dosier reached under the suspended counterweight. The hook suddenly gave way, and the weight fell onto Dosier’s arm, injuring him. Dosier was given the hook by a plant foreman as part of a sling. The hook had no marking as to its lifting capacity. The hook, known as a No. 333 snap, was purchased from Keystone Brothers, a harness-and-saddle store, for use in securing a safety rope around a workstand at the maintenance plant. The buyer, who had experience on a farm, selected the hook from a display of horse-harness equipment and did not discuss the intended use of the hook. The malleable iron hook was meant to be used to tie cattle and horses and was marketed and distributed through wholesale hardware outlets and harness-and-saddlery outlets. Dosier brought a strict-liability personal-injury action against North and Judd and its wholly owned subsidiary, Wilcox-Crittendon Company (Wilcox-Crittendon) (defendant), based on defect and failure to warn. North and Judd manufactures harness and saddlery hardware, belt buckles, shoe buckles, dog leads, handbag hardware, hooks and eyes for men’s trousers, and plastics used for electrical fittings. The issues to be determined by the jury were: (1) whether failure to provide warnings about the hook’s proper use and capacity made the hook defective; and (2) whether using the hook for lifting was reasonably foreseeable to the manufacturer. The jury found against Dosier, and a judgment was entered for the manufacturers. Dosier appealed.