Harned v. Dura Corp.

Charles Harned (plaintiff) worked as a mechanic at A & M Motors. Harned was filling a portable air tank from a compressor when the tank exploded. A piece of the tank severed Harned’s left arm at the elbow. Harned sued Dura Corporation (Dura) (defendant), successor to Electronics, Inc., the manufacturer of the tank. Harned alleged design defect, specifically that the tank should have had a valve at the bottom to allow for drainage of accumulated moisture. Instead, water remained inside the tank, corroding it and causing it to explode under pressure. Dura conceded that the tank did not comply with American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code standards. An Alaska statute, AS 18.60.180, authorized the Department of Labor to adopt the ASME boiler construction code. Alaska regulation 8 AAC 80.010(a) adopted the ASME code as governing the construction, installation, and repair of unfired pressure vessels. Harned requested a jury instruction that violating the ASME standard constituted negligence per se. The superior court had erroneously found that South Dakota law governed the standard of care, so the court instructed the jury that a code violation was mere evidence of negligence. The jury found for Dura. Harned appealed. Dura conceded Alaska law applied but argued that the regulation applied only to the use of pressure vessels, not their manufacture, and that Harned was not within the class of persons protected by those provisions because the code does not apply to tanks not located in places of public assembly.