document

[bruce1966us]

Happen to find a link. Maybe it's been here before? web page

 

[mark777]

Very interesting.

It would appear that even if Yanmar in Japan does not support the grey market tractor, any individual intentionally or inadvertently selling a part through Yanmar of America offers support to Smiths' case. Tractors imported "at a greatly reduced price" may find the deep pockets in their parent company.

Mark

 

[normde2001]

Any lawyers out there, so who won that case? Either way, if I were in Yanmar's shoes I would be fighting against gray market tractors also. I bought a pond scoop from Gordon Maynard, looks like he sold the offending tractor.

 

[lens12]

I'm not a lawyer , but this is my understanding of the document. Yanmar was trying to get the case thrown out ,because they contended that they did not have "such contacts with Alabama that it '"should reasonably anticipate being haled into court . Since they sold parts in Alabama through authorized Yanmar dealers who in turn sold them for grey market tractors , the court determined that they had sufficient contact & could be brought to court.

 

[thegreatrandini]

Well I if I were in Yanmars shoes I would not want to be sued for wrongful death. Nothing against the widow Smith but I doubt if it is Yanmars fault that her husband was killed. I wonder also who won the Smith trial? In my case I don't think rops were required in the US in 1977? Don't know.
I wonder if the grays were marked with warning labels saying that they are grays and the don't have ROPS etc... USE at Your OWN RISK... would prevent Law suites......Or better yet how big of deal would it be to bring them up to code? They could say we warned ya and we offered safty devices to prevent that from happening. To me it just sounds better than to say We did not build that for Americans? I don't think it would be hard to bring the greys up to code for the year they were built. Ford 8ns don't have rops. If you get killed good luck with the litigation against Ford....Just rehashed thoughts here....I will have to look at 1977 US tractor Safty codes. If you were to import a used 1977 german car it would have to meet US safty and pollution codes for the year it was built if you wanted to Register it!! I don't know if you could could win a suit against the manufacturer if your spouse got killed driving it unregistered in your driveway cuz it did not meet 1977 US safty regulations.......I guess if it just blew cuz it was poorly made and she died....but if she swerved to miss the cat and hit the horse trailer parked by the barn? Corporations are always gonna get sued cuz they have the ability to pay. I don't know what caused Mr Smiths death! Would he have died doing the same thing on a similar tractor built for use in the US?

 

[cfoxmd]

It sounds as if Yanmar tried the standard summary judgement ruse by saying they didn't do business in the jurisdiction (while admitting they did sell parts and they did know the tractors were being sold). Sounds like a reason for the certified letters to the US yanmar dealers not to sell parts for grays or they would be dropped as dealers. Now they are actively trying other defenses to try to shut down the market. I will bet since they new in the past that the tractors were coming in and that they were selling parts, they are on the hook for liability. Now they will try to keep the trade down, not sell parts, and shut down all support. Mostly they will threaten people, but occasionally will sue. It will help to prove that they are not willing accomplices and limit the liability for future suits.

I am guessing that they lost the suit--as I am sure the models were never even evaluated to see if they conformed with US safety standards.

 

[Villengineer]

I know that SAE had ROPS standards for ag tractors at least as early as 1970. Actually in the 1970's they had several different standards which were combined in 1977. I believe that OSHA accepted the new SAE standard in 1977 to meet compliance, so that would mean OSHA some requirement for them in 1977, if not before. What those specific requirements were, as in what tractors or situations were covered, I'm not sure.