Hausman v. Monarch Mach. Tool Co.
| Decision Date | 30 June 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 92-1587,92-1587 |
| Citation | 997 F.2d 351 |
| Parties | Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 13,601 Fred E. HAUSMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MONARCH MACHINE TOOL COMPANY and Stamco Industries, Incorporated, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Robert L. Carter, Reinert, Duree & Crane, St. Louis, MO, William C. Evers, III, Collinsville, IL, David M. Duree (argued), O'Fallon, IL, for plaintiff-appellant.
Edward L. Adelman, Eric C. Young (argued), Dunham, Boman & Leskera, East St. Louis, IL, for defendants-appellees.
Before CUDAHY and FLAUM, Circuit Judges, and MIHM, District Judge. *
The plaintiff, whose hand was injured in an accident involving equipment he operated at his job, sued the manufacturer for negligent design and manufacture of the equipment. The district court held the suit barred by Illinois' statute of repose and granted summary judgment for the manufacturer. We affirm.
The plaintiff, Fred E. Hausman, was an employee of Olin Corporation in February 1988 when the injury that gave rise to this action occurred. More than 20 years earlier, in July 1966, Olin contracted with Midland Ross Corp. to design and construct an anneal line at Olin's plant in East Alton, Illinois. Midland Ross hired Stamco, Inc.--which the defendant, Monarch Machine Tool Company, later purchased 1--to furnish labor and material to provide the terminal equipment for the continuous anneal line. Monarch had earlier provided Midland Ross with specifications and a quotation to provide various components for the anneal line's entry and exit terminals and for the services of one of Monarch's erection engineers.
Over the course of the next several months, Monarch designed twenty-eight system components, meeting regularly with representatives from Olin and other contractors to work out the details of the project and to ensure that the components Monarch provided functioned properly with the other components of the anneal line. A Monarch engineer supervised the alignment and start-up and assisted in problem-solving. The shear table that the plaintiff was operating when his injury occurred was designed and custom-built to attach to two related components, the exit shear and the exit deflector roll. Monarch bought the shear table from a weldment supplier and machined and assembled the unit.
The shear table is part of the continuous anneal line that processes metal coils coming from a rolling mill. Equipment in the entry terminal unwraps the coil and joins it to another coil already being processed. The coils are then stitched together so that the coil being processed pulls the next coil through the system. When a coil has been processed, the exit terminal equipment winds the coil and cuts it from the following coil. The shear table Hausman operated is used to cut the stitch out between the rolls to allow the first coil to be wound. The shear table allows the leading edge of the strip of coil to go through an oiling roll and onto the thread table at the terminal end.
On February 21, 1988, Hausman was operating the shear table when it collapsed and crushed his left wrist. Hausman filed a complaint in Illinois state court on February 20, 1990, contending that Monarch negligently designed the exit end shear table by locating a pneumatic cylinder, which raises and lowers the shear table, on the side of the table instead of centering it underneath. The side location created an offset load that strained the bolts holding the cylinder to the shear table, according to Hausman, who sustained his injury when the bolts failed and the table collapsed. Hausman also alleges that the design and manufacture of the shear table should have included a safety stop to prevent it from collapsing into the scrap bin and injuring the operator's hands.
The case was removed to the District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, which had diversity jurisdiction. 2 On September 23, 1991, Monarch moved for summary judgment, arguing that Hausman's claim was barred by the Statute of Repose for Improvements to Real Property, ch. 110, § 13-214(b) Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 110 para. 13-214(b). The district court subsequently granted summary judgment on that basis. Hausman appeals.
The Illinois statute of repose at issue in this case, entitled "Construction--Design, Management and Supervision," provides that
[n]o action based upon tort, contract or otherwise may be brought against any person for an act or omission of such person in the design, planning, supervision, observation or management of construction, or construction of an improvement to real property after 10 years have elapsed from the time of such act or omission. However, any person who discovers such act or omission prior to expiration of 10 years from the time of such act or omission shall in no event have less than 2 years to bring an action as provided in subsection (a) of this section.
Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 110, para. 13-214. The district court stated that a defendant qualifies for relief under the statute if it (a) participated in the design, planning, supervision, observation or management of the construction of (b) an improvement to real property and (c) that improvement occurred more than 10 years before the claim arose. 3 Concluding that the activity of Stamco--Monarch's predecessor--was not merely as a supplier or manufacturer of a component, but "integral" to the improvement to real property and that the improvements occurred more than ten years before the cause of action accrued, the district court granted Monarch's motion for summary judgment.
We review that grant of summary judgment de novo, considering the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Hausman's appeal challenges both the district court's determination that the equipment at issue constitutes an "improvement to real property" and that Monarch participated in the design, planning, supervision or management of its construction within the meaning of the statute of repose. Our task is to determine whether, as a matter of law based upon undisputed facts, the statute of repose bars Hausman's claim.
We turn first to Hausman's contention that genuine issues of fact remain as to whether Monarch participated in the "design, planning, supervision, observation or management of construction, or construction" within the meaning of paragraph 13-214. The list of included activities is notably disjunctive; Monarch therefore falls within the protected class if it engaged in any one of the listed activities. Hausman portrays Monarch as a mere manufacturer that is quite unlike the contractors, architects and engineers contemplated in section 13-214. But as we noted in Hilliard v. Lummus Co., 834 F.2d 1352 (7th Cir.1987), "[m]ere labels are not dispositive" and section 13-214 "protects, on its face, anyone who engages in the enumerated activities." Id. at 1358 n. 6 (citing Skinner v. Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Inc., 114 Ill.2d 252, 261, 102 Ill.Dec. 412, 415, 500 N.E.2d 34, 37 (1986) (emphasis omitted)). Hausman makes much of the fact that under the contract Monarch was explicitly not responsible for installation of the equipment and that Monarch admitted it did not participate significantly in the alterations and modifications to the Olin building that housed the anneal line. Even if we accept Hausman's characterization as true, however, there can be no doubt that Monarch was involved, at the very least, in the design, planning and supervision of the construction of the project, if not the observation or management of construction and the construction itself. Monarch designed the entry and exit terminals of the continuous anneal line, assembled the components and supervised their installation to ensure that the components were properly integrated with the rest of the system. The facts can support no other conclusion but that Monarch participated in the design, planning, supervision, observation or management of construction, or construction of the project. As to this issue, the district court did not err in granting summary judgment on behalf of Monarch.
A somewhat harder question is whether the equipment Monarch furnished constitutes an "improvement to real property" within the meaning of the statute. Illinois courts and this court have viewed the application of the statute of repose to this issue as a question of law. See, e.g., Hilliard, 834 F.2d at 1354; St. Louis v. Rockwell Graphic Systems, Inc., 153 Ill.2d 1, 178 Ill.Dec. 761, 605 N.E.2d 555 (1992).
The Illinois Supreme Court appeared poised to resolve the issue in the recent case St. Louis v. Rockwell Graphic Systems, Inc., 153 Ill.2d 1, 178...
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