Easton v. Chevron Industries, Inc.

• Decision Date: 28 May 1992
• Docket Number: No. 90-CA-1741,90-CA-1741
• Citation: 602 So.2d 1032
• Parties: Jeanette EASTON, Individually, v. CHEVRON INDUSTRIES, INC., Grove Manufacturing Company, Inc. and Head & Engquist Equipment, Inc. 602 So.2d 1032
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 1032

602 So.2d 1032

Jeanette EASTON, Individually, v. CHEVRON INDUSTRIES, INC., Grove Manufacturing Company, Inc. and Head & Engquist Equipment, Inc.

No. 90-CA-1741.

602 So.2d 1032

Court of Appeal of Louisiana Fourth Circuit.

May 28, 1992.

Writ Denied Oct. 2, 1992.

Wendell H. Gauthier, C. Scott LaBarre, Gauthier & Murphy, Metairie, for Jeanette Easton.

Michael R.C. Riess, House, Looney, Golden, Kingsmill & Riess, New Orleans, and Joseph W. Looney, Adams and Reese, New

Orleans, for Chevron U.S.A., Inc. and Chevron Industries, Inc.

Thomas W. Lewis, Charles A. Boggs, Boggs, Loehn & Rodrigue, New Orleans, for Head & Engquist Equipment Co., Inc. and St. Paul Fire and Marine Ins. Co.

William F. Grace, Jr., Marc G. Shachat, Kenneth J. Servay, Douglas L. Grundmeyer, Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Toler & Sarpy, New Orleans, for Kidde, Inc. (Grove Mfg. Co.) and Nat. Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa.

Before BARRY, WARD and ARMSTRONG, JJ.

WARD, Judge.

Jeannette Easton filed suit for the wrongful death of her husband, Amos Easton, who died on May 23, 1986 in an industrial accident while operating a large mobile crane owned by Chevron Industries, Inc. Easton, an employee of Chevron, was learning to operate the crane under the tutelage of Raymond Constant, his supervisor at Chevron. While Easton was operating the crane it began to turn over, and after he jumped from its cab it fell upon him. His widow sued Chevron and Constant, alleging that Constant as Chevrons's employee, acted in such a grossly negligent manner that his actions amounted to an intentional tort, for which Chevron and Constant are liable.

In addition to Chevron and Constant, Mrs. Easton sued the manufacturer of the crane, Grove Manufacturing Company, Inc. and its insurer, National Union Fire Insurance Company. She also sued the seller of the crane to Chevron, Head and Engquist and its insurer, St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co., Inc. She alleges Grove manufactured a defective product, defective primarily because of the absence of warnings about tipover instructions and what an operator should do. She combined allegations of strict liability with allegations of negligence for failure to warn.

She alleges Head and Engquist sold a crane with the defects described above and also that they were negligent in training Chevron employees in the operation of the crane. As an incidental demand Head and Engquist sued National Union claiming it owed Head and Engquist a defense and indemnification.

Mrs. Easton settled her claims against Chevron and Constant. Chevron agreed to pay all death benefits provided by Louisiana worker's compensation law, Mrs. Easton agreed to dismiss her suit for intentional tort damages against Chevron and Constant. Chevron then reentered the lawsuit as an intervenor to recover worker's compensation payments.

Mrs. Easton went forward with her tort claims against the remaining defendants, Grove Manufacturing and Head and Engquist. Grove Manufacturing and Head and Engquist have the same interest as their insurers, and they alone, not their insurers, will be referred to as defendants hereafter, except when discussing the third party demand.

The case was tried before a jury. The trial court instructed the jury that it must not consider the fault of any party other than the defendants, Grove Manufacturing and Head and Engquist, and the court refused to permit the jury to consider the fault of Raymond Constant or the liability of Chevron as Constant's employer. The jury found the defendants at fault, and rendered a verdict favorable to Mrs. Easton and against both Grove Manufacturing and Head and Engquist. In compliance with the instructions of the trial court, the jury apportioned fault between Grove Manufacturing and Head and Engquist, holding Grove 55% at fault, and Head and Engquist 45% at fault. The trial court made the jury verdict the judgment of the court, and at the same time recognized Chevron's statutory right as an intervenor to recoup from the judgment the amount it paid as worker's compensation death benefits. That same statute gives Chevron priority for payment.

The defendants argue that the trial court made several erroneous rulings which led the jury to incorrect findings of fact. As to evidentiary rulings they contend the trial court erred by permitting evidence of other accidents to go to the jury, and by instructing the jury that it could not consider the fault of Raymond Constant when apportioning fault under comparative negligence. Continuing, they argue that as a consequence of this error, they will be held wholly liable although the major fault, if not all, was the gross negligence of Constant and Chevron. They point out the injustice of permitting Chevron to recoup its worker's compensation payment so that Chevron escapes any financial responsibility for the death of Easton, although it was by far the most culpable, because of Constant's gross negligence.

The jury, they argue, erred by finding that defendants were liable in any way, and they also contend the jury erred by awarding excessive damages for Amos Easton's death.

As a collateral issue, Head and Engquist has appealed the trial court's decision rejecting its claim that National Union Insurance company must provide it a defense and indemnification if it is held liable. This issue largely turns on the interpretation of an insurance policy issued to Grove Manufacturing and the liability of the defendants.

On the following facts the jury found Grove Manufacturing and Head and Engquist liable for the death of Amos Easton. Chevron purchased the Grove crane, an RT 420, from Head and Engquist Equipment Company, and after some negotiations Head and Engquist agreed to provide operator training to Chevron employees at the Barataria facility. A Head and Engquist instructor conducted an eight hour training session which consisted of classroom instruction--lecture, slides, printed matter supplied by the manufacturer, and hands-on training. Easton's supervisor, Raymond Constant, who had previous experience operating fixed, or "stiff leg" cranes, attended class; Easton, however, did not.

Easton was employed by Chevron as a roustabout. Chevron considered Easton a very promising diligent employee, with a bright future in the company, and gave him the opportunity for training so that he would shortly have an opportunity to be a supervisor. Part of Easton's training as a roustabout required that he learn to operate heavy equipment. On the day of the accident Easton and his supervisor were walking through Chevron's pipe and equipment yard at Barataria, Louisiana, when Easton observed the Grove mobile crane and inquired about it. Constant offered to show him how it worked. Although Easton indicated he had some experience with cranes, he had never operated a mobile hydraulic crane. Easton sat in the cab crane while Constant stood on the crane's ladder because the cab could accommodate only one person. Constant reviewed the controls with Easton and instructed him how to extend, retract, raise, lower and rotate the boom. The crane was stationary and there was no load on the boom. The "outriggers", hydraulically operated stabilizers, were not extended; thus, the crane was resting on its tires, which the manufacturer refers to as "on rubber." As Easton rotated the boom slightly to the left and extended it, the crane began to tip. Constant advised Easton to retract the boom; but Easton could not do it. Constant jumped from the crane and escaped. Easton did not. Before Constant jumped to safety, he told Easton to stay in the cab. Easton, however, instinctively attempted to jump and was crushed beneath the crane when he could not get clear of it and it fell upon him. Easton died two hours later. As it turns out Constant had neglected to tell Easton to extend the "outriggers" on the crane, the large hydraulic legs that jack up the crane, lifting its rubber tires off the ground, so that the crane's weight rests on these legs rather than on the rubber tires which are unstable.

To summarize Ms. Easton's argument that the manufacturer of the crane is liable, she contends that Grove Manufacturing placed into commerce a defective product, its crane. She reasons it was defective because it did not have a load moment indicator, a safety mechanism which gives an audible signal when either the crane is overloaded or the boom's movement will cause the crane to capsize. This was sold as optional equipment. Another defect she contends caused her husband's death was the lack of warning about the danger that a crane may tip over and the failure to advise the operator to stay inside the cab in that event. As to the seller of the crane, she argues that Head and Engquist placed into commerce a defective machine, for the reasons described above, and she also claims that Head and Engquist were negligent in their training of Chevron employees in the operation of the crane.

To summarize the defense, Grove Manufacturing and Head and Engquist deny that the crane was defective for any reason. They point out that the cab of the crane contains instructions that operators must read the operating manual before beginning to operate the crane. They also show that their operating manual, called "Operator's and Safety Handbook", is a model of clarity, its warnings impressive, with cautions about operations and admonitions that safety comes first. It warns of the danger of tip overs, Handbook page 2-65, and it tells the operator what to do when a tip over begins, page 2-66. The warnings were few, but it was emphasized that any operator must first read the manual before operating the crane.

They also contend that even if the warnings of the manual were insufficient, the failure to give clear warnings in the manual were not the cause of the accident because neither Constant nor Easton read the manual in spite of the warnings in the cab which cautioned against operating the crane without first...