Daughter Sued In Tram Mishap -- Mother Injured At Redmond Home In 1989

REDMOND - A Virginia woman injured three years ago this month in a tram accident at her daughter's Redmond home is suing tram-parts manufacturers and distributors - and her daughter and son-in-law - for negligence.

Erna Grafton and her husband, Stanton, filed a civil suit in King County Superior Court last month asking for unspecified damages for medical care, pain and suffering and loss of consortium or marital relations.

Stanton Grafton, of Manassas, Va., said the fact he and his wife are suing their daughter and son-in-law, Donald and Carol Ulmer, does not mean the family is estranged.

"It's just the way things have to be done," he said. "A matter of following procedures."

Named as defendants in the suit are Thern Inc.; Peerless-Winsmith Inc.; H.K. Porter Co. Inc.; Winsmith Division of U.M.C. Industries Inc.; Cascade Machinery and Electric Inc.; and Donald and Carol Ulmer.

Peerless manufactured a speed-reducing gear assembly, a component of the winch, manufactured by Thern Inc., used on the failing tram. H.K. Porter is the parent company of Peerless and Winsmith Division of U.M.C. Industries Inc.

Cascade, the only local company named in the suit, sold the winch used in a kit to make the tram.

Donald and Carol Ulmer owned the tram, which was used to ferry people down a steep 100-foot slope from their garage at 2002 W. Lake Sammamish Pkwy. N.E. to their waterfront home.

The tram malfunctioned in May 1989, when the gearbox stripped, according to the state Department of Labor and Industries, which inspects the trams and investigates accidents.

`DANGEROUSLY DEFECTIVE'

According to court papers filed April 17, the Ulmers "failed to design, inspect, maintain, operate and use the . . . tram in a safe manner."

The other defendants, according to the Grafton lawsuit, designed, manufactured or sold "dangerously defective" parts and failed to warn of the possible dangers. "Such failures were the forseeable and proximate cause of serious personal injuries to . . . Erna Grafton," according to the lawsuit.

Dennis Smith, an attorney for Peerless-Winsmith, said an analysis of the speed-reducing gear indicated there had been a failure in it.

"The question is what caused that failure," Smith said. "The plantiffs' theory is that (it) was caused by a defect in the gear. Their alternate explanation is the gear failure was caused by some other aspect of the tram system, such as a failure to properly match the gear system to the winch."

CONFLICTING THEORIES

If the second explanation were correct, he said, "the person putting (the gear and winch) together would have the legal exposure."

Smith said it's early in the case and all the theories about what went wrong haven't yet been fully evaluated. "But what we know thus far is the failure did not in any way reflect a failure in the gear," he contended.

Erna Grafton was riding in her daughter and son-in-law's tram when it stopped unexpectedly about halfway down its descent. Donald Ulmer stepped out of the tram and started up to the garage for some tools, "leaving Erna Grafton and others precariously suspended some 60 feet from the bottom of the hill, and began experimenting with the controls," according to court papers.

The tram dropped to the ground, injuring Grafton, Carol Ulmer and Ulmer's 10-year-old daughter.

Grafton, then 63, was found "lodged beneath the tram with broken ribs and legs," according to court papers.

GEARBOX SUSPECTED

Bill O'Hara, chief inspector at the Department of Labor and Industries, said the cause of the accident was an inappropriate gearbox that "just completely disintegrated.

"It was way too small for the tram," O'Hara said. "The teeth were all chewed up inside."

The girl broke a leg in the fall. Carol Ulmer, then 40, suffered hip, pelvic and leg fractures.

"I'm certainly not the way I was before, but I am walking," Carol Ulmer said.

She said she preferred not to comment on the lawsuit.