Saldana v. Michael Weinig1/31/2001
NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
Argued November 15, 2000
On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Hudson County.
Plaintiff, Milton Saldana, suffered a partial amputation of his right thumb while attempting to remove a wood chip from a wood molding machine that he was operating for his employer. He brought a products liability action against the distributor of the machine, defendant Michael Weinig, Inc., asserting claims based upon defective design and failure to warn. Plaintiff abandoned his claim of failure to warn and tried the issue of liability before a jury on the theory that the guard, provided at the point of operation, was defectively designed. The jury found that the wood molding machine was not defective. Plaintiff appeals from the adverse verdict and denial of his alternative motion for new trial or judgment NOV. We are convinced that the judge's trial ruling, based upon defense counsel's unfulfilled representations, permitting the introduction into evidence of a photograph of the machine taken by defendant's investigator, resulted in a clear capacity to produce an unjust result.() We therefore reverse and remand for new trial.
On September 27, 1996, plaintiff and his wife, Maria Santiago Saldana,() filed a personal injury complaint against unidentified "John Doe" manufacturers, distributors, and lessors of a wood molding machine. Also named as defendants, for the purposes of obtaining discovery, were European Designs, plaintiff's employer, (European); Michael Black, owner of European; European's workers' compensation insurance carrier, National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh (National); Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc. (Gallagher), an independent adjuster retained by National; and Gallagher's agent, Cindy Harkins.
Ultimately, plaintiff dismissed his action against European, Black, National, Gallagher, and Harkins, after receiving requested discovery material. On January 3, 1997, plaintiff filed an amended complaint naming distributor Michael Weinig, Inc., and the manufacturer, Michael Weinig GmbH & Co. as defendants. After a three-day trial on the issue of liability, the jury returned a verdict finding that the machine had not been defectively designed. The trial judge entered an order confirming the jury's verdict and dismissing the amended complaint in its entirety. Following argument, the trial judge issued an oral decision denying plaintiff's motions for new trial and judgment NOV and, concomitantly, entered a conforming order. On August 2, 1999, as the result of numerous problems associated with the processing of the audiotapes used at trial, the judge entered a "consent order settling record," which included a "stipulated synopsis" of key occurrences at trial.
We briefly state the facts relevant to this appeal. The wood molding machine, Model U17A, was sold by defendant to Camden Mill Works of Pennsauken in March 1984. It thereafter was purchased by European. The machine is a six-spindle, wood-molder "utilized to shape and plane multiple faces of wooden stock used primarily in the manufacture of moldings and furniture." It is about sixteen feet long with an integral tabletop surface that is about thirty-three inches above floor level. Unfinished wood of variable lengths is inserted into one end of the machine and conveyed by automatic feed rollers past six spindles consisting of multi blade cutters, which plane and cut the wood to a predetermined design. The finished piece is expelled from the opposite end. The spindles rotate at 6,000 revolutions per minute. The rotational speed of the cutter blades is so fast that they cannot be seen distinctly and ap
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