## Facts

- Skyhook Corporation manufactured and sold a 100-foot telescoping crane rig to Electrical Products Signs, Inc. in 1968; the rig was used for about five years without a similar incident.
- A conspicuous written warning on the crane boom instructed that equipment must be positioned so no part could come within ten feet of high-voltage lines.
- Malvin Mack Brown, an apprentice sign installer, had previously worked with and operated the crane; his supervisor (a journeyman installer) also knew of the warning.
- On January 11, 1973, Brown and his supervisor used the crane to install a metal signpost at a Phillips 66 station near Springer, New Mexico, in an area with overhead high-voltage lines.
- The station operator warned them to keep the equipment at least ten feet from the lines.
- A tape measure was kept in the crane cab to verify clearance, but no measurements were taken; the supervisor relied on an estimate of distance.
- While the supervisor operated the crane to swing the signpost upright, the metal post contacted a high-voltage line; Brown, guiding the post into a hole, was electrocuted and died.
- The estate representative sued Skyhook for wrongful death under strict products liability, alleging the crane was unreasonably dangerous because it lacked an insulated link and a proximity warning device.

## Issues

1. Whether a manufacturer may be held strictly liable for failing to warn of electrocution risk from overhead power lines when the users had actual knowledge of the danger and were warned by the product label and a third party.
2. Whether a crane sold without an insulated link or proximity warning device was in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous, supporting strict liability for a resulting electrocution death.
3. Whether the plaintiff produced sufficient evidence of defect and proximate causation to avoid a directed verdict.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of New Mexico reversed the Court of Appeals and affirmed the district court’s directed verdict for Skyhook.
- The court held Skyhook had no duty to warn of a danger actually known to the user, particularly where a clear warning was provided.
- The court recognized that omission of a safety device can constitute a defect only if, without it, the product is unreasonably dangerous; the plaintiff did not prove that standard as to this crane.
- The court concluded the plaintiff failed to prove a defective condition unreasonably dangerous proximately caused Brown’s death.

## Legal Principles

- A manufacturer has no duty to warn of dangers actually known and appreciated by the user of the product.
- Failure to incorporate a safety feature or device may constitute a defective condition only if the product, without the feature, is unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer.
- In strict products liability, the plaintiff must prove both (1) a defect that makes the product unreasonably dangerous and (2) that the defect was a proximate cause of the injury.
- Evidence of then-existing industry practice and the availability (but nonstandard use) of safety devices may bear on whether a design is unreasonably dangerous.

## Conclusion

The court upheld judgment for the manufacturer because the electrocution hazard was specifically warned against and actually known to the users, and the plaintiff failed to prove that omission of additional safety devices rendered the crane unreasonably dangerous or that any such defect proximately caused the death.


Skyhook Corp. v. Jasper, 560 P.2d 934 (N.M. 1977)