Commercial Coatings of Northwest Florida, Inc. v. Pensacola Concrete Const. Co., Inc.
| Decision Date | 08 April 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 79488,79488 |
| Citation | 616 So.2d 960 |
| Parties | 18 Fla. L. Week. S224 COMMERCIAL COATINGS OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA, INC., Petitioner, v. PENSACOLA CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC., Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Larry Hill, Moore, Hill & Westmoreland, P.A., Pensacola, for petitioner.
Kathryn E. Errington and W.H.F. Wiltshire, Harrell, Wiltshire, Swearingen, Wilson & Harrell, P.A., Pensacola, and John Beranek, Aurell, Radey, Hinkle, Thomas & Beranek, Tallahassee, for respondent.
We have for review Pensacola Concrete Construction Co. v. Commercial Coatings, Inc., 595 So.2d 145 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992). In prior proceedings, the district court held that Pensacola Concrete, which loaned Commercial Coatings a crane, was vicariously liable under the dangerous instrumentality doctrine for injuries sustained by a Commercial Coatings employee and that workers' compensation immunity did not extend to Pensacola Concrete. In this action, Pensacola Concrete sought indemnification from Commercial Coatings for a judgment entered against Pensacola Concrete in the amount of $1.2 million. The district court held that common law indemnity applied even though the effect would require Commercial Coatings to pay damages to one of its employees covered by workers' compensation. The district court then certified its decision. We have jurisdiction. 1
This case is unusual in its facts and procedural posture. It is the direct result of the First District Court of Appeal's initial decision in Mann v. Pensacola Concrete Construction Co., 448 So.2d 1132 (Fla. 1st DCA), review denied, 461 So.2d 115 (Fla.1984), holding that workers' compensation immunity did not apply to Pensacola Concrete in these circumstances, and our subsequent decision in Halifax Paving, Inc. v. Scott & Jobalia Construction Co., 565 So.2d 1346 (Fla.1990), disapproving that holding. This case presents us with the difficult task of deciding which of the parties is responsible for this judgment, without affecting the immunity under the workers' compensation law or the principles of common law indemnity. For the reasons expressed, we approve the decision of the district court and find that both equity and common law principles of indemnity allow recovery by Pensacola Concrete against Commercial Coatings in these limited and unique circumstances.
This is the third appeal proceeding arising from this incident, and it is necessary to detail the facts and procedural history to understand our decision in this case.
This cause began in 1981 when Frank Randall Mann was injured at work. The district court, in its first decision in this claim, in Mann v. Pensacola Concrete Construction Co., 448 So.2d 1132, 1133-34 (Fla. 1st DCA), review denied, 461 So.2d 115 (Fla.1984) (Mann I ), stated the facts as follows:
James Murphy, Mann's employer and owner of Commercial Coatings, Inc., arranged with Robert Harris, owner of Pensacola Concrete Construction Company, Inc., to borrow Pensacola Concrete's crane. Harris agreed to loan Murphy the crane, free of charge, as a favor.
The following weekend, on the day of the accident, Donald Moore, another of Murphy's employees, decided that the use of the crane was necessary to expedite a particular phase of construction. Apparently without asking permission of Murphy, who was not present at the construction site that day, Moore and a co-employee drove to Pensacola Concrete's yard to pick up the crane. Moore approached the crane, noticed it had the keys in it, and drove it back to the construction site without any instructions from, or conversation with, an agent or employee of Pensacola Concrete.
When Moore returned to the job driving the crane, Mann signaled to him and jumped onto the hook and ball at the end of the crane's cable. Moore was under the impression from Mann's smiling that he wanted to have some fun, so Moore extended the crane's boom, and raised Mann several feet from the ground. The cable snapped, causing Mann to fall and thereby to suffer severe injury.
According to Murphy, when he inspected the crane after the accident he observed no defects. Rather, it was his opinion that Moore had extended the boom of the crane too far without allowing slack on the cable, thereby causing the cable to break from tension.
Harris stated that although he was not present when Moore picked up the crane, he was under the impression that one of his company employees brought the crane over to the construction site, and instructed Murphy's employee on the operation of the crane, as that was how it had been handled when Murphy borrowed the crane in the past. Harris maintained that the crane and the cable were always inspected before the crane was operated.
By amended complaint, Mann sued Pensacola Concrete and his co-employee Moore for damages, alleging only that Pensacola Concrete owned the crane which was operated, with its permission and consent, by Moore who acted with "gross negligence and reckless disregard to the rights of" Mann.
Pensacola Concrete answered the amended complaint by admitting that it had loaned the crane, free of charge, to Commercial Coatings, Inc., but denying that it had given permission to Donald Moore to operate the crane. Pensacola Concrete presumed that if any permission was given to Moore, it was given by Moore's employer, Murphy. It further denied exercising control over the operation of the crane at any time material to Mann's injury. Pensacola Concrete also moved for summary judgment on the basis that there was no negligence on its part, and that there was no defect in the crane known by, or which should have been known by, Pensacola.
(Footnote omitted).
The trial court granted Pensacola Concrete's motion for summary judgment based on Smith v. Ryder Truck Rentals, Inc., 182 So.2d 422 (Fla.1966), which extended an employer's immunity under workers' compensation for an employee's injuries to the lessor of the vehicle that caused the injury through its negligent operation. On appeal, the district court held that Pensacola Concrete was not negligent in operating the crane and that the crane was not defective at the time it was loaned to Commercial Coatings. However, the district court stated that "the amended complaint, although bare bones, [was] sufficient to raise the issue of vicarious liability predicated on the dangerous instrumentality doctrine." Mann I, 448 So.2d at 1135. The district court also held that, for workers' compensation immunity to extend to Pensacola Concrete under Smith, there must have been a signed lease for the crane to be considered "the 'equivalent' [of] one owned by Commercial Coatings." Id. at 1134. Since it was undisputed that no lease agreement existed between the parties and that Pensacola Concrete had informally loaned the crane to Commercial Coatings, the district court held that Commercial Coatings' workers' compensation immunity did not extend to Pensacola Concrete and reversed the trial court's summary judgment.
On remand from that decision, the jury returned a verdict in Mann's...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Carib Ocean Shipping, Inc. v. Armas
...Court has squarely held that the owner of a dangerous instrumentality is immune from such liability. Commercial Coatings, Inc. v. Pensacola Concrete Constr. Co., 616 So.2d 960 (Fla. 1993)(crane);1 Smith v. Ryder Truck Rentals, Inc., 182 So.2d 422 (Fla.1966)(motor vehicle); see Sherrill v. C......
-
Value Rent-A-Car, Inc. v. Grace
...the supreme court allowed the owner to obtain indemnity from the immune employer. Commercial Coatings of Northwest Fla. v. Pensacola Concrete Constr. Co., 616 So.2d 960 (Fla.1993). It is not clear to me why a different approach should exist for family Whatever the final result, the ramifica......
-
General Crane, Inc. v. McNeal
...is injured by a borrowed dangerous instrumentality" to absolve it from liability. See, e.g., Commercial Coatings of Northwest Fla., Inc. v. Pensacola Concrete Constr. Co., 616 So.2d 960 (Fla.1993); Halifax Paving, Inc. v. Scott & Jobalia Constr. Co., 565 So.2d 1346 (Fla.1990); Morales v. Ry......
-
Watson v. BROWNING FERRIS INDUSTRIES OF FLA., INC., 4D02-2568.
...is no formal lease agreement, but only an informal agreement to borrow the equipment. See Commercial Coatings of Northwest Fla., Inc. v. Pensacola Concrete Constr. Co., 616 So.2d 960 (Fla.1993). Smith applies to this case only if one assumes the corporate resolution effectuated the transfer......