Load Capacity: Tow Hooks

[Gromit]

Quote:

"A tow strap can exert tremendous stress On a hook especially if being yanked from a stuck position."

I'll second that...

Here is a cut and paste of a fatal accident involving a tow ball... when it comes to things that people may reasonably expect to withstand commonly encountered loads you can see the Court doesn't give manufacturers much of a break.


http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ne-suprem...t/1224248.html


Here is just part of it:

Supreme Court of Nebraska.


Joseph A. HAAG, appellee, v. Alfred M. BONGERS and Delores D. Kuhl, Personal Representatives of the Estate of Leo J. Bongers, deceased, appellees and cross-appellants, William J. Dolan, doing business as Dolan Realty and Auction Co., and Bauer-Moravec Auctioneers and Clerks, appellees, and Putnam Hitch Products, Inc., appellant and cross-appellee.

No. S-97-1243.

Decided: February 12, 1999
WRIGHT, GERRARD, STEPHAN, McCORMACK, and MILLER-LERMAN, JJ.  Brien M. Welch, of Cassem, Tierney, Adams, Gotch & Douglas, Omaha, for appellant. Kevin R. McManaman and Thomas J. Culhane, of Erickson & Sederstrom, P.C., Omaha, for appellees Bongers and Kuhl. M.J. Bruckner and John W. Ballew, Jr., of The Bruckner/ Ballew Law Firm, P.C., Lincoln, for appellee Haag.
I. NATURE OF CASE

Putnam Hitch Products, Inc. (Putnam), appeals and Alfred M. Bongers (Bongers) and Delores D. Kuhl (Kuhl), personal representatives of the estate of Leo J. Bongers (collectively, the Estate), cross-appeal from a jury verdict in the amount of $600,000 in favor of Joseph A. Haag (Haag) and against the Estate, Dolan Realty and Auction Co. (Dolan), Bauer-Moravec Auctioneers and Clerks (Bauer-Moravec), and Putnam for injuries Haag sustained on January 30, 1993, while attending an antique vehicles auction on the Estate's premises.   Haag was injured when a hitch ball used in towing a vehicle flew off the towing rig and hit Haag on the right side of his skull and his right eye.   For the reasons stated below, we affirm the trial court's order entering judgment on the jury's verdict.

II. BACKGROUND

Leo Bongers died intestate on October 8, 1992.   Subsequently, Bongers and Kuhl, Leo Bongers' nephew and niece, were appointed as personal representatives of his estate.   Upon his death, Leo Bongers left substantial real and personal property, including more than 120 antique cars, trucks, and motorcycles.

In late October 1992, Russ Moravec of Bauer-Moravec contacted the Estate and offered his services as auctioneer.   Upon doing so, Moravec learned that Bill Dolan of Dolan had also  contacted the Estate.   On November 2 or 3, the Estate concluded that Bauer-Moravec and Dolan should conduct the auction of the vehicles jointly and split all of the expenses and commissions relating to the sale.   On November 3, the Estate, Bauer-Moravec, and Dolan signed a written agreement to this effect.   Therefore, in this opinion, Bauer-Moravec and Dolan will be referred to collectively as “the auctioneers.”

Moravec recommended that the auction be held in May, June, or July 1993, at an airstrip in Butler County.   This arrangement would have allowed the parties to line up the vehicles in a row outside in good weather so that people attending the auction could go from car to car and the vehicles would not need to be moved during the auction.   Moravec was concerned that some of the older vehicles would not be in operating condition if the sale were held earlier, and Moravec favored having the auction at this site in this fashion because it would allow the parties to conduct the auction in a safe manner.   The Estate rejected Moravec's recommendation and insisted that the sale be conducted in January 1993.

The auction was held on property owned by the Estate, a farm located 1 1/212 miles south of David City on the west side of Highway 15.   The Estate and the auctioneers decided that the auction would be held inside because of probable bad weather, in a building owned by the Estate that opens at both ends.

In order to prepare for the sale, the Estate was to put the vehicles in running order, while the auctioneers attempted to locate all of the titles for the vehicles and to arrange for volunteer assistants to help with the sale.   The Estate specifically approved the use of assistants for the auction.   One of the assistants, Doug Reznicek, had previously assisted Bauer-Moravec in preparing for other auctions.   Reznicek assisted in making arrangements to move the vehicles into and out of the sale building.   The evidence shows that initially, the Estate was unsure that it would pay the assistants, but that after the sale, the Estate paid Reznicek, as well as all of the other assistants, except one, out of Estate funds.

Prior to the sale, the auction was heavily advertised at the Estate's insistence.   As the auction approached, the parties were flooded with telephone calls regarding the sale.   A joint decision  was made by the Estate and the auctioneers to open both ends of the auction building and add tents on either side to accommodate more people.   A joint decision was made to charge each person wishing to enter the bid barn $25, and a separate tent was set up with a remote broadcast of the auction so that people could watch the auction without paying the $25 fee.   If a bidder actually purchased a vehicle, the Estate refunded the $25 fee.

As the auction grew closer, it became apparent that the Estate would not have many of the vehicles in running order in time for the sale.   A joint decision was made to tow the vehicles into the building.   The vehicles were towed with small tractors which the auctioneers borrowed from farmers in the surrounding community.   In order to attach the antique vehicles to the tractors, Scot Bauer, of Bauer-Moravec, purchased Putnam hitch balls and Bauer's wife purchased ropes.   Mylar-type ropes were used instead of chains to tow the vehicles so that the antique vehicles which were not in running order would not be harmed.

The auction took place on January 30, 1993, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Throughout the auction, 1,300 people paid the $25 bid fee.   The Estate and the auctioneers planned to sell a vehicle every 3 minutes.   It was very cold on the day of the sale, with temperatures well below freezing.   The bid barn was crowded, and the vehicles were towed on a path through the crowd into an area for viewing and bidding.   The crowd was standing shoulder to shoulder.   There were no barriers to separate the crowd from the vehicles.   Given the configuration of the barn and the bidding area, it was necessary for the assistants to physically move people back in order to pull the vehicles through the building.

Before the sale, Reznicek met with the assistants and instructed certain of them to attach the hitch balls to the drawbars of the tractors with a rope in order to tow the vehicles.   At trial, Reznicek testified that he did not directly or indirectly tell anyone how to install a hitch ball on a drawbar and that he gave the hitch balls to persons who presumably knew how to properly attach a hitch ball to a tractor drawbar.   Reznicek stated that during the preauction meeting, he gave the assistants general safety instructions.   The evidence shows that it is common knowledge within the Butler County farming community that all threads on the nut of a hitch ball must be engaged for proper installation.

 Approximately 1 hour into the sale, with approximately 700 to 800 people in the bid barn, an antique Studebaker truck was towed through the crowd into the building and sold.   After the sale, assistants attempted to tow the Studebaker truck out of the building and experienced difficulty in doing so.   As the assistants attempted to tow the vehicle, the hitch ball became detached from the drawbar, flying off the tractor and hitting Haag, who was standing at the back left of the tractor.   Because of the accident, Haag suffered serious injuries to his head, which are not contested on appeal.
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