Austin v. Kroger Tex., L.P.

• Decision Date: 12 June 2015
• Docket Number: No. 14–0216,14–0216
• Citation: 465 S.W.3d 193
• Parties: Randy Austin, Appellant, v. Kroger Texas, L.P., Appellee
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

465 S.W.3d 193

Randy Austin, Appellant

v.Kroger Texas, L.P., Appellee

No. 14–0216

Supreme Court of Texas.

Argued December 9, 2014

Opinion delivered: June 12, 2015

Matthew Joseph Kita, Attorney at Law, Dallas, for Appellant Randy Austin.

Donna C. Peavler, Bryan Kyle Briscoe, The Peavler Group, P.C., Grapevine, Mike A. Hatchell, Locke Lord LLP, Austin, Dale Wainwright, Bracewell & Giuliani, LLP, Austin, Charles R. 'Skip' Watson Jr., Locke Lord LLP, Austin, for Appellee Kroger Texas, L.P.

Deborah J. Race, Ireland Carroll & Kelley, P.C., Tyler, for Amicus Curiae Brookshire Grocery Co., Daryl Flood, Inc. and Quiktrip Corporation.

Brian A. Sheguit, The Bassett Firm, Dallas, for Amicus Curiae Mission Petroleum Carriers, Inc.

Harold McCall Jr., San Antonio, Javier Espinoza, The Espinoza Law Firm, PLLC, San Antonio, for Amicus Curiae San Antonio Trial Lawyers Association.

Peter M. Kelly, Kelly, Durham & Pittard, L.L.P., Houston, for Amicus Curiae Texas Trial Lawyers Association.

Opinion

Justice Boyd delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Justice Johnson, Justice Guzman, Justice Lehrmann, and Justice Devine joined, and in which Chief Justice Hecht, Justice Green, Justice Willett, and Justice Brown joined except as to Part IV.

Texas employers have a duty to exercise reasonable care to provide their employees with a safe place to work. Like all others who own or operate land, employers generally may fulfill their premises-liability duties to invitees either by eliminating any unreasonably dangerous condition or by adequately warning of the risks. In this case, the employer, which had opted out of the Texas workers' compensation system, sought to eliminate the danger, but the employee who was responsible for the task was himself injured while doing so. The employer could not have eliminated the danger without assigning the task to an employee, and the employee concedes that he was fully aware of the risks. Addressing a certified question from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,¹ we clarify that, under Texas law, (1) subject to two limited exceptions, an employer generally does not have a duty to warn or protect its employees from unreasonably dangerous premises conditions that are open and obvious or known to the employee; and (2) under this general rule, the Texas Workers' Compensation Act's (TWCA) waiver of a nonsubscribing employer's common law defenses does not eliminate an employee's burden of proving that the employer owed him a duty as an element of a premises liability claim. We also conclude that contemporaneous negligent activity by the employer is not necessary to an employee's instrumentalities claim.

I.Background

Randy Austin fell while mopping a restroom floor at the Kroger store where he worked in Mesquite, Texas. An oily liquid had leaked through the store's ventilation ducts after another Kroger employee power-washed the store's condenser units, creating spills in both the men's and women's restrooms. Consistent with Austin's duties as a self-described “floor clean-up person,” Austin's supervisor directed him to clean the spills. Kroger's safety handbook recommends that employees clean spills using a “Spill Magic” system that involves a powdery absorbent product, a broom, and a dustpan. According to the handbook, using this system reduces the likelihood of a slip-and-fall by 25%. Contrary to the handbook's instruction to store managers, however, the system was not available at the store that day. Austin thus attempted to clean the liquid with a mop. Austin successfully cleaned the women's room and then moved to the men's room, where the brownish liquid covered about 80% of the floor. Recognizing the danger that the slippery liquid presented, he placed “wet floor” signs around the area and carefully took “baby steps” as he moved throughout the spill.

After successfully cleaning 30% to 40% of the spill, Austin slipped in the remaining liquid and fell, fracturing his femur and dislocating his hip. As a result, he spent nine months in the hospital and underwent six surgeries, leaving his left leg two inches shorter than his right.

Austin's employer, Kroger Texas L.P., had elected not to subscribe to the Texas workers' compensation system.² Austin sued Kroger in state court, asserting claims for negligence, gross negligence, and premises liability. In support of his negligence claim, Austin alleged that Kroger had engaged in negligent activities³ and had failed to provide a “necessary instrumentality”—specifically, the Spill Magic system.⁴ Kroger removed the case to federal district court, which granted Kroger's motion for summary judgment on all of Austin's claims. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed as to Austin's negligent activity⁵ and gross negligence⁶ claims, but reversed and remanded the necessary-instrumentalities claim because the district court had “failed to consider whether ... [that theory] is sufficient to support a stand-alone ordinary negligence claim.” 746 F.3d at 197. As to Austin's premises-liability claim, the Fifth Circuit found that the “nature and scope” of an employer's duty to provide its employees with a safe workplace is “arguably unclear” under Texas law “when an employee is aware of the hazard or risk at issue.” Id. at 199. Concluding that “[i]t is best to leave the resolution of these matters to the good judgment of the highest state court,” the Fifth Circuit certified the following question:

Pursuant to Texas law, including § 406.033(a)(1)–(3) of the Texas Labor Code, can an employee recover against a non-subscribing employer for an injury caused by a premises defect of which he was fully aware but that his job duties required him to remedy? Put differently, does the employee's awareness of the defect eliminate the employer's duty to maintain a safe workplace?

Id. at 204.

II.The Parties' Arguments

The parties' arguments in this case reflect the significance of characterizing the question as involving Kroger's “duty” to its employees. Outside of the employment context, a landowner⁷ sued for premises liability may rely on an invitee's awareness of the dangerous condition as evidence of the invitee's own negligence and proportionate responsibility, as a defense to the invitee's claims. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 33.001 –.017 (proportionate responsibility statute). And an employer that elects to subscribe to the Texas workers' compensation system will not face the kinds of claims that Austin has asserted in this case, because the TWCA provides the employee's exclusive remedies. See Tex. Lab. Code § 406.033(a) ; In re Crawford & Co., 458 S.W.3d 920, 923–26 (Tex.2015) ; Tex. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Ruttiger, 381 S.W.3d 430 (Tex.2012). But an employer that opts out of the workers' compensation system, as Kroger has done here, is prohibited from asserting the employee's negligence or assumption of the risk as a defense. Tex. Lab. Code § 406.033(a) (providing that, in an action against a nonsubscribing employer, “it is not a defense that: (1) the employee was guilty of contributory negligence; (2) the employee assumed the risk of injury or death; or (3) the injury or death was caused by the negligence of a fellow employee”). If Austin's awareness and assumption of the risks are relevant here, they can be relevant only to the question of whether Kroger owed Austin a duty at all. If Kroger owed Austin a duty, its breach of that duty would result in liability for all of Austin's damages, regardless of Austin's awareness of the risks or any negligence on Austin's part.

Kroger argues that this Court's recent “trilogy” of employer-employee tort cases confirms that an employer has no duty to warn or protect employees against “hazards that are commonly known or already appreciated by the employee.” See Brookshire Grocery Co. v. Goss, 262 S.W.3d 793, 794 (Tex.2008) (holding employer owed no duty to employee injured while stepping over cart in store's cooler); Jack in the Box, Inc. v. Skiles, 221 S.W.3d 566, 568–69 (Tex.2007) (holding employer owed no duty to employee injured while climbing over broken lift gate to unload truck); Kroger Co. v. Elwood, 197 S.W.3d 793, 795 (Tex.2006) (holding employer owed no duty to employee injured when he placed his hand in car doorjamb while loading customer's groceries into car in sloped parking lot). Because the risk of slipping and falling on a wet floor is commonly known and Austin admitted that he was aware of the wet floor and appreciated the risk, Kroger asserts that it had no duty to protect or warn Austin against that risk. Kroger further argues that this Court's opinions in Elwood,Skiles, and Goss demonstrate that, although the TWCA waives a nonsubscribing employer's defenses, it does not relieve the employee of the burden of proving that the employer owed a duty.

Austin contends that Kroger is relying on the old “no-duty rule,” which this Court abolished in the employment-law context sixty years ago, see Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Robinson, 154 Tex. 336, 280 S.W.2d 238 (1955), and in all landowner-invitee cases nearly forty years ago, see Parker v. Highland Park, Inc., 565 S.W.2d 512 (Tex.1978). Under Robinson and Parker, Austin contends, his awareness of the dangerous condition does not affect Kroger's legal duty. Instead, his awareness can be relevant only to whether he was negligent and thus to his proportionate responsibility, which the TWCA prohibits Kroger from raising as a defense. Thus, according to Austin, Kroger cannot rely on Austin's awareness of the danger at all.

Reviewing the parties' arguments, the Fifth Circuit concluded that the cases on which the parties rely represent “arguably conflicting Texas Supreme Court precedent.” 746 F.3d at 197. We accepted the certified question as an opportunity to provide greater certainty in this important area of the law. Reviewing this Court's precedents, we endeavor to clarify where helpful and resolve apparent conflicts where needed. We do so mindful that our decisions regarding...