Law Office of Ronald R. Benjamin, Binghamton (Ronald R. Benjamin of counsel), for appellant. Coughlin & Gerhart, LLP, Binghamton (Paul J. Sweeney of counsel), for respondent. Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court (Faughnan, J.), entered September 30, 2020 in Broome County, which, among other things, granted a motion by defendant The Raymond Corporation for summary judgment dismissing the amended complaint against it. Plaintiff is an employee of Contract Packaging Services, Inc. (hereinafter CWS), where she carries out “various activities in connection with the production of . . . pallet trucks.” Defendant The Raymond Corporation (hereinafter defendant) is a New York company that markets and sells hand trucks and, as relevant to this action, had a relationship with Raymond-Muscatine, Inc. (hereinafter Muscatine), a company based in Iowa, whereby Muscatine would manufacture pallet trucks for defendant. Upon the transfer of assembly line equipment previously used by Muscatine to a New York warehouse and assembly facility owned by defendant Rogers Service Group, Inc. in 2015, defendant contracted with Rogers to assemble and package hand pallet trucks (hereinafter HPTs) based on a manufacturing services agreement (hereinafter the MSA). The MSA included, in part, a bailment provision naming defendant as the title holder of the equipment and solely responsible for its repair, with the exception of preventative maintenance that was the responsibility of Rogers. Rogers hired employees from CWS to carry out the assembly of the HPTs for defendant. In November 2015, when an air line in a Coney table (hereinafter the table)1 malfunctioned, plaintiff sustained injuries to her elbow, shoulder, wrist and hand. Plaintiff commenced this action against defendant on theories of strict products liability, breach of implied warranty, negligence and failure to warn.2 Defendant answered and asserted 28 affirmative defenses.
1 This table “received . . . palletized load[s] of HPT frames on rollers, and[,] when activated by a pneumatic-controlled hand lever, would flip the pallet (and its load) 90- degrees forward (and then back . . . ), by means of a series of four . . . pneumatic air cylinders.” The table is referred to as a “Coney table,” “6-pack-flipper” and “Roller Rack Tilter.”
