Aida Dayton v. I.T.O. Corp.

• Decision Date: 06 April 2001
• Docket Number: Civ No. H-00-1821.
• Parties: AIDA DAYTON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. I.T.O. CORPORATION OF BALTIMORE and Trism Specialized Carriers, Inc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

Page 637

137 F.Supp.2d 637

AIDA DAYTON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. I.T.O. CORPORATION OF BALTIMORE and Trism Specialized Carriers, Inc., Defendants.

Civ No. H-00-1821.

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

April 6, 2001.

James D. Skeen, Wright, Constable & Skeen, Baltimore, MD, for plaintiff.

Robert L. Ferguson, Jr., Ferguson, Schetelich, Heffernan, P.A., Baltimore, MD, Kip D. Richards, Kansas City, MO, for defendant Trism.

Jo Anne Zawitoski, and Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, Baltimore, MD, for defendant I.T.O. Corp. of Baltimore.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

HARVEY, Senior District Judge.

In this civil action, plaintiff AIDA Dayton Technologies Corporation ("AIDA") has named as defendants I.T.O. Corporation of Baltimore ("I.T.O.") and Trism Specialized Carriers, Inc. ("Trism"). Plaintiff here seeks a recovery for damage to a machine press which on June 23, 1997 fell from a Trism tractor trailer as it traveled on Interstate 66 near Haymarket, Virginia.

In Count I of its complaint, plaintiff AIDA alleges that defendant I.T.O. negligently loaded and secured the machine press onto Trism's tractor trailer in Baltimore, Maryland. In Count II, plaintiff AIDA alleges that defendant Trism, contrary to its duties and obligations as a common carrier of merchandise for hire by land, breached its contract of carriage whereby it had agreed to deliver the machine press to the plaintiff in Ohio in the same condition as received. In each of these Counts, plaintiff claims to have sustained damages in the amount of $150,000.

Together with its answer to the complaint, defendant I.T.O. filed a cross-claim against defendant Trism, seeking indemnity and contribution as a result of I.T.O.'s potential liability to plaintiff AIDA for damage to the machine press. Pursuant to Scheduling Orders entered by the Court, the parties have engaged in discovery.

Presently pending before the Court is a motion for summary judgment filed by defendant Trism. Claiming that both AIDA's claim and I.T.O.'s cross-claim are barred by limitations, defendant Trism seeks the entry of summary judgment in its favor against both parties. The parties have submitted extensive memoranda and numerous exhibits in support of and in opposition to the pending motion. No hearing is deemed necessary. See Local Rule 105.6. For the reasons stated herein, the Court will deny Trism's motion for summary judgment both as to the claim of plaintiff AIDA and as to the cross-claim of co-defendant I.T.O.

I Background Facts

AIDA is an Ohio corporation with its principal place of business in Dayton, Ohio. I.T.O. is a Maryland corporation engaged in the business of providing stevedoring and marine terminal services at the Port of Baltimore in Maryland. Trism is a corporation engaged in the common carriage of cargo by truck in interstate commerce, and it has a business office in Joplin, Missouri.¹

In May of 1997, Roger Simon ("Simon"), a Trism customer service representative, provided three separate freight quotes to Debbie Cooke ("Cooke"), an AIDA shipping and delivery clerk. These quotes related to the transportation of machinery by Trism from the Port of Baltimore to Matsushita Appliance Corporation in Danville, Kentucky. The machinery in question was to be used for manufacturing automobile parts, and it included an AIDA two point gap frame press, Model No. NC2-160(2), and an AIDA leveller feeder, Model No. LFM-500R. The delivery would require the use of six separate tractor trailers because the machinery had a total weight of more than 95 tons.

On or about May 14, 1997, the machinery in question was shipped by Wilhelmsen Lines aboard the M/V TOBA from the Port of Yokohama, Japan to the Port of Baltimore. The shipment arrived in Baltimore on June 9, 1997. On June 23, 1997, defendant I.T.O. loaded one section of the machine press² onto a step-deck tractor trailer owned by defendant Trism and driven by its employee, John Geoghagan ("Geoghagan"). This particular piece was twelve feet long, approximately eight feet wide, almost nine feet high and weighed more than twenty tons. The unit had been placed in an upright position inside a wooden crate.³ Geoghagan lashed the crate to the trailer by placing five nylon straps over the top of the crate, and he also placed wooden beams in the front and back of the crate to provide support. No bill of lading was issued by any party covering transportation of this particular piece of machinery from Baltimore to Danville, Kentucky.

At approximately 6:30 p.m. on June 23, 1997, Geoghagan was traveling west on Interstate 66 near Haymarket, Virginia when the machine press in question broke through the side of the crate as the tractor trailer started into a curve. Both the machine press and the crate fell from the side of the trailer, and the crate was demolished upon impact with the ground. The machine press itself tumbled down an embankment, coming to rest approximately 50 feet below the level of the road.

After being informed of this incident, AIDA requested that Trism transport the unit directly to AIDA's principal place of business in Dayton, Ohio. A crane was used to put the machine press back onto a Trism tractor trailer, and a Trism driver then delivered the cargo to Dayton. Upon arrival on June 26, 1997, Cooke signed a non-negotiable straight bill of lading which had been prepared by Trism after the press machine had fallen from Trism's tractor trailer. The front of the bill of lading referred to certain tariffs maintained at Trism's office in Georgia.

In correspondence dated September 4, 1997, Cooke informed Trism that the press had been damaged, and that AIDA was as a result holding Trism responsible for damages estimated as $243,020.89. On September 17, 1997, Darenda Rohrbach ("Rohrbach"), a cargo claims supervisor for Trism, responded in a letter which stated that Trism "must deny your claim on the grounds that the cargo was not properly secured inside the enclosed crate." On January 12, 1998, Gibson & Robb LLP, a law firm representing "the cargo interests," sent a letter with various attachments to Trism, indicating that the "value of the cargo (a total loss) is $119,596.18, and it is feared that the added expenses associated with the loss could total $80,403.82." In a follow-up letter dated September 9, 1998, Gibson & Robb explained that the claim for the damaged press had been "itemized" and "finalized" in the amount of "$148,138.51."

In an October 14, 1998 letter to Gibson & Robb, Rohrbach reiterated that the "failure to have the press secured inside the crate was the direct and only cause for this incident," and as a consequence, Trism cannot "accept the responsibility for this loss." In correspondence dated July 10, 1999, Gibson & Robb encouraged Trism to engage in settlement discussions because "[f]ederal law makes the carrier liable ... for the load which it transports." Finally, on August 31, 1999, Walters Bender & Strohbehn, another law firm, sent a letter to Gibson & Robb on behalf of Trism, in which the earlier denial of liability was repeated, based upon the fact that the "problem here was the way in which the machine was crated, not the way in which the sealed crate was positioned and secured to the trailer." In closing, the letter suggested that "if [AIDA] truly intend[s] to file a lawsuit against Trism, [AIDA] should do so without any further delay."

On June 16, 2000, AIDA filed this civil action in this Court, naming as defendants both I.T.O. and Trism.⁴

II Applicable Principles of Law

The principles to be applied by this Court in considering a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56, F.R.Civ.P., are well established. A party moving for summary judgment bears the burden of showing the absence of any genuine issue of material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Barwick v. Celotex Corp., 736 F.2d 946, 958 (4th Cir.1984). Where, as here, the nonmoving party will bear the ultimate burden of persuasion at trial, "the burden on the moving party [at the summary judgment stage] may be discharged by `showing' — that is, pointing out to the district court — that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

In Phoenix Sav. & Loan, Inc. v. Aetna Cas. Co., 381 F.2d 245, 249 (4th Cir.1967), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals summarized the principles applicable under Rule 56 as follows: "It is well settled that summary judgment should not be granted unless the entire record shows a right to judgment with such clarity as to leave no room for controversy and establishes affirmatively that the adverse party cannot prevail under any circumstances." Id. Hence, the party opposing a motion for summary judgment is entitled to all favorable inferences which can be drawn from the evidence. See, e.a., Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 158-59, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970); Cram v. Sun Ins. Office, Ltd., 375 F.2d 670, 674 (4th Cir.1967).

The party moving for summary judgment has the burden of establishing that there is no genuine issue of material fact. Barwick, 736 F.2d at 958. This burden is met by consideration of affidavits, exhibits, depositions and other discovery materials. Id. Nevertheless, "[t]he facts, and the inferences to be drawn from the facts, must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion." Ballinger v. North Carolina Agric. Extension Serv., 815 F.2d 1001, 1004-05 (4th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 897, 108 S.Ct. 232, 98 L.Ed.2d 191 (1987) (citing Ross v. Communications Satellite Corp., 759 F.2d 355, 364 (4th Cir.1985)).

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