Background
Plaintiff Brian Miller, a dairy farmer, was injured when he dismounted a moving tractor to retrieve an object. The tractor continued moving forward and crushed him with its attached seed drill. Miller sued the manufacturer, CNH Industrial America, for failing to warn that the tractor would not stop automatically when he left the seat. A jury found for Miller and apportioned sixty percent fault to the defendant.
The court’s reasoning
The court applied Kansas law, which states that manufacturers need not warn of dangers that are open and obvious. The court determined that dismounting a moving tractor is such an obvious hazard that a reasonable person would understand the risk without instruction. The court found that the question of whether the danger was obvious was a legal issue that could be resolved on summary judgment, not a factual issue for the jury. The court noted that the tractor’s manual warned against getting off while in motion and that the parking brake was designed to hold a stationary tractor, not stop a moving one.
Dismounting a moving tractor is dangerous. Although a tractor manufacturer must warn its customers of many dangers associated with its products and instruct them on how to use its products commensurate with those dangers, it need not do so for this open and obvious danger.
What it means going forward
The decision clarifies that manufacturers may avoid liability for failure to warn when the risk is so obvious that no reasonable user would need instruction. It reinforces that courts can decide the obviousness of a danger as a matter of law, potentially bypassing jury trials in similar product liability cases.