Fleetwood Homes of Florida, Inc. v. Reeves
| Decision Date | 27 December 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 2D01-5308.,2D01-5308. |
| Citation | 833 So.2d 857 |
| Parties | FLEETWOOD HOMES OF FLORIDA, INC., Marvin Miller, and Mickie Oliver, Appellants, v. Allison Gae REEVES, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Dennis Mitchell Reeves, deceased, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
John W. Frost, II, and Peter W. Van den Boom of Frost Tamayo Sessums & Aranda, P.A., Bartow, for Appellants.
Robin Gibson and Kevin A. Ashley of Gibson, Valenti & Ashley, Lake Wales; and John Hugh Shannon of John Hugh Shannon, P.A., Lakeland, for Appellee.
Fleetwood Homes of Florida (Fleetwood) and its employees, Marvin Miller and Mickie Oliver, appeal a nonfinal order that denies, as a matter of law, their motions for summary judgment on the issue of workers' compensation immunity. Fleetwood and its employees requested this ruling in a wrongful death action filed by Allison Gae Reeves, as the personal representative of the Estate of Dennis Mitchell Reeves. We conclude that we have jurisdiction to review this order and further conclude that Fleetwood and its employees are entitled to a summary judgment on the issue of workers' compensation immunity. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court's order. Because we are uncertain whether our exercise of jurisdiction and our resolution of these important immunity issues are faithful to the holdings in Hastings v. Demming, 694 So.2d 718 (Fla.1997), and Turner v. PCR, Inc., 754 So.2d 683, 686 (Fla.2000), we certify two questions of great public importance to the Supreme Court of Florida.
Dennis Reeves was an employee of Fleetwood, which manufactures homes in a factory. Although he normally had another job assignment, on April 1, 1991, he was assigned to work at a table inside the factory. The table was adjacent to an aisle used by the forklift operators to move supplies into the factory. A structural column that supported the roof of the factory was across the aisle from this table. A pipe ran up the aisle side of this column. Because of the layout of the factory near this column, for a distance of about 25 feet, the aisle was narrower at ground level than the width of some of the supplies that were transported by the forklifts. As a result, the forklift operators had been instructed to raise wide loads to approximately 14 feet in the air.
A common wide load that was transported by the forklifts was sheet metal used as roofing material for the manufactured homes. This sheet metal came in rolls that weighed about 600 pounds and were about 12-feet wide. The forklifts transported three rolls per trip. The roofing material was not strapped onto the forklifts. When the roofing material was raised 14 feet in the air, the forklift operators did not have a clear view of the column and had only a few inches of clearance. They relied upon a painted stripe on the floor to properly position their forklifts to negotiate this narrow location.
When a forklift entered the factory, the operator honked its horn. This was a signal for nearby workers to move out of the way. Affected workers were instructed to heed the warning provided by the horn, but workers did not always respond to the horn. The management at Fleetwood had instructed the forklift operators to continue transporting their loads even if another worker did not move. They were expected to report such a problem to management at a later time. Because Mr. Reeves had never worked at this table prior to the day of the accident, it is unclear whether he had been instructed to heed the horn.
On the day of this accident, Marvin Miller was the forklift operator. He sounded the forklift's horn as he entered this area with rolls of sheet metal. He did not know Mr. Reeves. He observed that Mr. Reeves was not leaving the table. He continued to transport the roofing material. As he was negotiating the narrow location by the column and the pipe, he was watching the painted marking on the floor for proper positioning. For some reason, the roofing material hit the pipe. The load was knocked off balance and a roll of the sheet metal slid off the driver's left side of the forklift, striking Mr. Reeves. He sustained severe injuries and died shortly after this accident.
The management at Fleetwood knew that forklift operators had occasionally bumped this pipe when transporting wide loads. Mr. Miller's foreman, Mickie Oliver, also knew that forklift operators had struck this pipe. There is no evidence, however, that a roll of roofing or any other wide load had ever previously fallen from a forklift or that any worker had ever been injured as a result of this procedure. Mr. Miller was a very experienced forklift operator. He had performed this maneuver on many occasions in the past. There is no evidence that he had any prior history of accidents, that he was driving too fast or recklessly at the time of this accident, or that he was under the influence of any unlawful substance. He simply misjudged the location of the pipe or the position of his load, and the accident happened.
OSHA investigated this accident. It declined to treat the accident as a willful violation of safety regulations. OSHA fined Fleetwood $7000 and ordered certain corrective action. Fleetwood is still allowed to raise wide loads into the air, but it now secures these elevated loads. It requires the forklift operators to clear employees from this area before transporting such loads. Fleetwood is taking greater steps to make certain that all employees are aware of this danger. Although it apparently was not required by OSHA, Fleetwood has moved the table away from the location of this accident.
Allison Reeves, as Mr. Reeves' personal representative, filed this wrongful death action in 1993. The parties engaged in extensive discovery. Thus, although this is an appeal from a nonfinal order, our record contains detailed evidence about the circumstances surrounding this accident.
The second amended complaint contained six counts and described the factual allegations in considerable detail. The first count contained allegations against Old Republic Insurance Company that are not relevant to this appeal. The second and third counts attempted to allege simple negligence against Mr. Miller, Mr. Oliver, and Fleetwood. All three of these counts have been dismissed and are not at issue in this appeal.
The fourth count attempted to allege gross negligence as to the conduct of Mr. Miller. It alleged that (1) he knew, prior to this accident, that other workers had not been getting out of his way when he drove the elevated loads; (2) he knew Mr. Reeves did not respond to his warning and remained in an area of danger at the time of this accident; (3) he knew he had poor visibility and a small margin of error in which to maneuver this elevated load; (4) he knew the load was not secured; and (5) he knew these procedures were dangerous and a violation of safety policies. This count included an allegation that Mr. Miller had engaged in a course of conduct that a reasonably prudent person would know was probably and most likely to result in injury to persons.
The fifth count attempted to allege gross negligence against the foreman, Mr. Oliver. It realleged the risks described in the count against Mr. Miller and explained that Mr. Oliver was an experienced forklift operator who worked essentially as a foreman with the responsibility to supervise Mr. Miller's work and to assure that it was performed safely. The complaint concluded that he too should have known that these circumstances were probably and most likely to result in injury to persons.
The sixth count attempted to allege an unspecified intentional tort against Fleetwood. It realleged the conduct of Mr. Miller and Mr. Oliver. It alleged that management at Fleetwood had knowledge of these circumstances. It alleged that Fleetwood pressured its workers to maintain a high degree of productivity and did not provide adequate safety training or properly respond to the known safety issues created by the forklifts. It concluded that the "course of conduct" of the Fleetwood employees was such that a reasonably prudent person would know that it was "substantially certain to result in injury or death."1
After this action had been pending for several years, Fleetwood and its employees moved for summary judgment. The parties apparently have never disputed that Mr. Reeves was an employee and that Fleetwood was a statutory employer who had provided workers' compensation benefits. Thus, the dispositive issue for purposes of summary judgment was whether workers' compensation benefits were the exclusive remedy in this case under section 440.11, Florida Statutes (Supp.1990), or, alternatively stated, whether Fleetwood and its employees could be sued in tort despite the availability of the statutory remedy.
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