Kincaid v. Kubota Tractor Corp.

── Kincaid v. Kubota Tractor Corp. ── Court: Court of Appeals of Kansas Date: May 15, 2026 Category: General NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION No. 128,050 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS KOLTON KINCAID, Appellee, v. KUBOTA TRACTOR CORPORATION, et al., Appellant. MEMORANDUM OPINION Appeal from Reno District Court; KEITH SCHROEDER, judge. Oral argument held October 14, 2025. Opinion filed May 15, 2026. Affirmed. James M. Armstrong and David E. Rogers, of Foulston Siefkin LLP, of Wichita, and Daniel J. Buller, of the same firm, of Overland Park, for appellant. Jesse Tanksley and Michael J. Wyatt, of Mann Wyatt Tanksley, of Hutchinson, for appellee. Before ISHERWOOD, P.J., CLINE, J., and COURTNEY D. CRAVER, District Judge, assigned. ISHERWOOD, J.: Kolton Kincaid brought this products liability claim following a catastrophic injury he suffered while riding on the outside of a skid steer manufactured by the Kubota Tractor Corporation (Kubota). The matter was tried to a jury and resulted in an award of over $22 million to Kincaid. Kubota appeals to this court for a determination of whether the district court erred when it denied Kubota's multiple requests for a judgment as a matter of law, and whether Kincaid was required to provide expert testimony to establish the requisite standard of care. We have carefully reviewed the record in conjunction with an extensive analysis of the claims presented to us for 1 consideration and decline to find that this trial was tainted by error. The decisions of the district court are affirmed. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND In 2013, Eric Harbaugh purchased a Kubota compact track loader, model number SVL 90 (skid steer). He then leased the skid steer to his company, HVJ Services, LLC, (HVJ), which provided various services to farmers. In November of that year, a work crew made up of Jacob Kentzler, Kolton Kincaid, and Riley Waggoner were in Harbaugh's employ, which was a regular occurrence. Each young man hailed from a farming family and, as such, were acclimated to the rigors of farming from a very young age. On the day in question, they were using a skid steer to resume their assigned task of installing a fence. Because it was cold, wet, and muddy, and their worksite was situated in the middle of a large field, the three boys decided that Kentzler would drive the skid steer to the worksite with Kincaid and Waggoner catching a ride. Kincaid sat on the front step designed to help the operator climb into the cab of the machine. As the skid steer approached a ravine with standing water, Kincaid signaled to Kentzler to raise the loader arms. When Kentzler did so, the mechanism caught Kincaid between the grapple attachment and the cab overhang, compressing Kincaid's spine and causing a traumatic injury that rendered Kincaid a paraplegic. Various warnings were attached to different portions of the skid steer, including a placard inside the cab which cautioned: "Warning—To Avoid Injury: Read and understand Operator's Manual before operating this machine." It also warned: "Keep by- standers away when operating" and "Never carry riders." The operator's manual instructed to "not allow passengers to ride on any part of the machine at any time." An 2 additional label on the outside of the cab displayed a pictogram that warned against people riding in the bucket attachment of the skid steer while it is operated. The picture consisted of a rudimentary drawing of a person standing in the bucket while it is in a raised position paired with a second drawing of the person landing on their head. Kubota's