Rhodes v. Interstate Battery System of America, Inc.

Robert Rhodes’s (plaintiff) wife purchased a car battery, which was installed by a local service station. Fifteen months later, Rhodes came out of a bar one evening to find that the car battery was dead. The plastic top of the battery contained a warning embossed on two large vent caps stating that batteries produce explosive gases and to keep sparks and flames away. To see whether the battery was low on water, Rhodes struck a match and loosened the vent caps. When the flame was about a foot from the battery, the battery exploded, covering Rhodes’s face and eyes with sulfuric acid. Rhodes sued the manufacturer, Johnson Controls, Inc. (Johnson) (defendant), and the distributor, Interstate Battery System of America, Inc. (Interstate) (defendant), in negligence and strict liability for failure to adequately warn of the product’s dangers. Rhodes never read the warning label and testified he was unlikely to do so unless it was extremely prominent. Rhodes proposed alternative ways to communicate such as glow-in-the-dark paint, media advertising, and verbal or written warnings. The defendants sought summary judgment on the ground that the warning was adequate, and Rhodes was contributorily negligent and so barred from recovering as a matter of law. The trial court granted summary judgment, dismissing Rhodes’s claims. Rhodes appealed.