Blanchard v. Riley Stoker Corp.

• Decision Date: 05 June 1986
• Docket Number: No. CA-4109,CA-4109
• Citation: Blanchard v. Riley Stoker Corp., 492 So.2d 1236 (La. App. 1986)
• Parties: Charles J. BLANCHARD v. RILEY STOKER CORPORATION, et al.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana

Page 1236

492 So.2d 1236

Charles J. BLANCHARD v. RILEY STOKER CORPORATION, et al.

No. CA-4109.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana Fourth Circuit.

June 5, 1986.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 17, 1986.

Ogden, Ogden & McCune, Charlton B. Ogden, II, Carter B. Wright, New Orleans, for defendant/appellant.

Jacques F. Bezou, P.L.C., New Orleans, for plaintiff/appellant.

Borrello, Huber & Dubuclet, Victor A. Dubuclet, III, Metairie, for intervenor-appellee.

Before CIACCIO, WARD and WILLIAMS, JJ.

WARD, Judge.

On April 11, 1975 Charles Blanchard, age 57, tripped over a welding lead placed across a catwalk and fell on the floor of the catwalk while he was working at the Michoud Power Plant owned by New Orleans Public Service, Inc. Blanchard was employed as a pipefitter foreman by Riley Stoker Corporation. NOPSI had hired Riley Stoker and other companies to convert NOPSI's boilers to oil burners. Blanchard suffered a ruptured intervertebral disc from the fall. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, the worker's compensation insurer of Riley Stoker, paid Blanchard $39,112.23 in worker's compensation and medical benefits.

Blanchard filed a negligence suit against NOPSI, Riley Stoker and its executive officers, Liberty Mutual and several other defendants. Prior to trial Blanchard settled with the executive officer's insurer. After trial the jury entered a verdict and award in favor of Blanchard and against NOPSI for $1,250,000 in damages, which the Trial Judge reduced by remittitur to $566,000. The Trial Judge also entered a judgment in favor of Liberty Mutual and against Blanchard for reimbursement of the worker's compensation benefits.

Seeking to reinstate the original jury award, Blanchard appealed. NOPSI also appealed, arguing that the verdict of the jury was clearly erroneous on the issue of NOPSI's liability, and, in the alternative, that the damages, although partially remitted, are still excessive. NOPSI also argued that the award in favor of Liberty Mutual should be reversed. Liberty Mutual answered and requested the judgment be affirmed, particularly the portion recognizing reimbursement for Liberty.

We hold that NOPSI is not liable for Blanchard's injuries and reverse the verdict of the jury. Thus, we need not address the other issues raised by NOPSI, Liberty Mutual and Blanchard.

We are mindful that jury verdicts are entitled to great weight. Nonetheless, we are obliged to review the facts and when a jury verdict is manifestly erroneous, we must reverse. Davis v. Moore, 353 So.2d 740 (La.App. 4th Cir.1977).

A duty-risk analysis is used to determine the issue of NOPSI's fault. Under this analysis, to establish a defendant's liability and recover tort damages, the plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of evidence that: 1) a defendant's conduct contributed to plaintiff's injury, that is, defendant was a cause in fact of plaintiff's harm; 2) a duty was imposed by a general rule of law on defendant to protect this plaintiff from this type of harm arising in this manner; 3) defendant violated the duty with respect to plaintiff, i.e., defendant acted unreasonably; and 4) damages were sustained. Hill v. Lundin & Associates, Inc., 260 La. 542, 256 So.2d 620 (1972); McCurry v. City of New Orleans, 475 So.2d 2 (La.App. 4th Cir.1985); Crowe, The Anatomy of a Tort--Greenian, As Interpreted By Crowe Who Has Been Influenced By Malone--A Primer, 22 Loy.L.Rev. 903 (1976).

The record shows that NOPSI employed many companies to modify its boilers which had been manufactured by Riley Stoker. For the fuel conversion, NOPSI hired Riley Stoker to add more soot blowers to the boilers, a highly specialized installation job for which Riley Stoker had hired approximately fifty men to work at NOPSI's plant.

On the day of the accident at approximately 5:15 p.m. Blanchard and Dan Pettis, a welder for Riley Stoker, finished work on an upper level of a NOPSI boiler and picked up their tools to take them to the tool box located on a lower level. Carrying armloads of tools, they went to the elevator to go down, but it was full. Blanchard, followed by Pettis, then went to leave by an alternate route of stairs and catwalks which were used by employees of NOPSI, Riley Stoker and other contractors to go from one level to the next.

Blanchard failed to see a black, three-quarter inch thick welding lead suspended over four-inch high kickplates and across the black grated floor of a four-foot wide galvanized steel catwalk. Tripping over the lead, Blanchard fell on the floor of the catwalk. Pettis testified he had been on the catwalk at lunch time that day and the lead was not there at that time. The accident was reported to two Riley Stoker employees, Blackie Wolf and O.B. Melvin, Sr., who were Blanchard's supervisors. The accident was never reported to NOPSI. Pettis took Blanchard to the hospital. The following morning, Pettis and two other men removed the...