Boatland Of Houston, Inc. v. Bailey

609 S.W.2d 743 (Tex. 1980)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Bailey was riding in a 16-foot bass boat. The boat had struck a partially submerged tree stump, and Bailey was thrown into the water. With its motor still running, the boat turned sharply and circled back toward the stump. Bailey was killed by the propeller, but it is unclear whether he was struck when first thrown out or after the boat circled back toward him. P, the wife, and children, sought damages under a strict liability theory from the boat's seller, D. P claimed that the boat was defectively designed, including inadequate seating and control area arrangement, unsafe stick steering and throttle design, and the failure of the motor to automatically turn off when Bailey was thrown from the boat. P produced evidence of the feasibility of a kill switch. One such device was a simple lanyard that connects to the operator's body to a device that fits over the ignition key. If the operator moves, the lanyard is pulled, the device rotates, and the ignition switch turns off. A human factors engineer also testified that the boat was deficient for several reasons. When the boat struck a submerged object, and its operator became incapacitated, the seating and control arrangement caused the boat to go into a hard turn. If the operator were thrown out, the boat was capable of coming back and hitting him. D introduced evidence to show that kill switches had not been available at the time of the accident. The jury found that the boat was not defective. The trial court rendered judgment for D. P appealed over the admissibility of state of the art evidence.