Cottrell, Inc. v. Williams

Phipps, Judge.

After sustaining serious injuries from a fire inside the cab of his tractor-trailer truck, Holton Williams and his wife sued Cottrell, Inc., the company that had modified his truck cab by installing an exposed 12-volt direct current switch positioned on the floorboard. Williams alleged that the switch was defective in its design, defective in its manufacture, defective in lacking adequate warnings as to dangers, and not reasonably suited for the purpose intended. He claimed that the absence of a protective cover on the 12-volt direct current switch created a danger that enabled…