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THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
___________________________
U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
No. 99-441
ELIZABETH TRULL & a.
v.
VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC. & a.
September 28, 2000
Swartz & Swartz, of Boston, Massachusetts (Edward M. Swartz & a. on the brief, and David P. Angueira orally), for the plaintiffs.
Brown, Olson & Wilson, P.C., of Lebanon (Howard B. Myers on the brief and orally), for the defendants.
NADEAU, J. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Coffin, Senior Circuit Judge) has certified the following question of law, see Sup. Ct. R. 34:
Under New Hampshire law, in a crashworthiness or enhanced injury case, does the plaintiff bear the burden of demonstrating the specific nature and extent of the injuries attributable to the manufacturer, or does the burden of apportionment fall on the defendant once the plaintiff has proved causation?
Trull v. Volkswagen of America, Inc., 187 F.3d 88, 103 (1st Cir. 1999). We conclude that the defendants bear the burden of apportionment once the plaintiffs prove causation.
We adopt the court of appeals' recitation of the facts. In February 1991, the plaintiffs, David and Elizabeth Trull, and their two sons, Nathaniel and Benjamin, were traveling in New Hampshire when their Volkswagen Vanagon slid on black ice and collided with an oncoming car. Id. at 91. Both parties agree that Nathaniel and Benjamin were seated in the rear middle bench seat of the Vanagon, which was equipped with lap-only seatbelts, and were wearing the available lap belts. Benjamin died in the accident, and both Elizabeth and Nathaniel suffered severe brain injuries. Id.
In this diversity products liability action, the plaintiffs sought damages from the defendants "on the ground that defects in the design of the Vanagon made their injuries more severe than they otherwise would have been." Id. "Plaintiffs had two primary theories of recovery: (1) the Vanagon was defective because it was a forward control vehicle constructed in such a way that it lacked sufficient protection against a frontal impact, and (2) the Vanagon was defective because the rear bench seats, on which Nathaniel and Benjamin were seated, did not have shoulder safety belts as well as lap belts." Id. at 92. The plaintiffs contend that the defendants are liable in, inter alia, negligence and strict liability because the automobile was not crashworthy. See id.
The United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire granted summary judgment for the defendants on a breach of warranty claim, and both Elizabeth and David Trull's claims were dismissed with prejudice. Id. The trial proceeded with Nathaniel's and Benjamin's claims, and the jury found for the defendants. Id. at 92-93.
The plaintiffs appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, arguing, among other things, that the district court "improperly imposed on plaintiffs the burden of proving the nature and extent of the enhanced injuries attributable to the Vanagon's design." Id. at 92. Recognizing that the question "of who, under New Hampshire law, should bear the burden in a so-called `crashworthiness' case, poses sophisticated questions of burden allocation involving not only a choice of appropriate precedent but also an important policy choice," the court of appeals granted the plaintiffs' motion to certify the question to this court. Id. at 92, 103.
The plaintiffs' theory of liability for defective design is commonly referred to as the "crashworthiness," "second collision," or "enhanced injury" doctrine. See Caiazzo v. Volkswagenwerk A. G., 647 F.2d 241, 243 n.2 (2d Cir. 1981) (defining "crashworthiness" as "the protection that a passenger motor vehicle affords its passengers against personal injury or death as a result of a motor vehicle accident"); Larsen v. General Motors Corporation, 391 F.2d 495, 502 (8th Cir. 1968) (defining "second collision" as that occurring between the passenger and the interior of the vehicle); Smith v. Ariens Co., 377 N.E.2d 954, 956-57 (Mass. 1978) (permitting recovery where design defect "enhanced injuries" plaintiff received in collision).
The crashworthiness doctrine "extends the scope of liability of a manufacturer to the situations in which the construction or design of its product has caused separate or enhanced injuries in the course of an initial accident brought about by an independent cause." Bass v. General Motors Corp., 150 F.3d 842, 847 (8th Cir. 1998) (quotation omitted). The doctrine is implicated, not because the design caused the accident, 63A Am. Jur. 2d Products Liability