Izzo v. Linpro Co.

• Court: New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division
• Writing for the Court: KLEINER
• Citation: 651 A.2d 1047,278 N.J.Super. 550
• Decision Date: 19 January 1995
• Parties: Vincent IZZO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The LINPRO COMPANY, Angelo Morreale, Morristown Office Partners and Nova Interiors, Inc., Defendants-Respondents.

Page 550

278 N.J.Super. 550 651 A.2d 1047 Vincent IZZO, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
The LINPRO COMPANY, Angelo Morreale, Morristown Office
Partners and Nova Interiors, Inc., Defendants-Respondents. Superior Court of New Jersey,
Appellate Division. Argued Nov. 30, 1994.
Decided Jan. 19, 1995.

Page 551

Peter C. Ioannou, Morristown, for appellant (Maskaleris & Associates, attorneys; Mr. Ioannou, of counsel and on the brief).

[651 A.2d 1048] Kathleen B. Lucey, New Providence, for defendants-respondents the Linpro Co., Angelo Morreale and Morristown Office Partners (Scanlon & Akin, attorneys; Ms. Lucey, of counsel and on the brief).

Stephen C. Cahir, Parsippany, for defendant-respondent Nova Interiors, Inc. (Staehle & DeSanto, attorneys; Mr. Cahir, of counsel and on the letter brief).

Before Judges SKILLMAN and KLEINER.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

KLEINER, J.A.D.

Plaintiff Vincent Izzo, an employee of Protective Electric, suffered an electric shock while installing and relocating a wall receptacle at an office building owned by defendant Morristown Office Partners. Defendant Morristown Office Partners employed the services of defendant The Linpro Company to manage this office building.

Prior to May 7, 1987, a suite of offices became vacant. To accommodate the needs of a new tenant, it was necessary to

Page 552

relocate one electric receptacle and to install new electrical fixtures. Linpro's employee, defendant Angelo Morreale, engaged the services of defendant Nova Interiors, Inc. to remove the drywall in the office suite to expose the electric receptacle, and he engaged the services of Protective Electric to perform the electric installations.

From the pleadings, answers to interrogatories, affidavits and deposition testimony of plaintiff and the owner of Protective Electric, which were submitted in support of defendants' motions for summary judgment, we are able to conclude that employees of Nova Interiors, Inc. removed the drywall and exposed the electric receptacle. There is no evidence that those employees performed any work on the electric wiring or the receptacle.

When Nova Interiors, Inc. employees completed their job, plaintiff and a co-employee, a licensed electrician, were ready to commence their job function. Plaintiff was an electrician's helper, and therefore his co-employee was his supervisor on this particular job site. On the morning of May 7, 1987, before the electrical work commenced, Morreale advised the electrician not to indiscriminately disconnect the electricity in the office building, as other offices were occupied and a disconnection of all electricity might be disruptive to computers in operation within the building.

Plaintiff's deposition testimony reveals that he did not check whether the electric current to the specific receptacle which was to be removed had been turned off, before he commenced his job. The electricity in fact had not been turned off, and plaintiff received an electric shock which he contends caused neurologic injury, resulting in his hospitalization.

In an ensuing complaint, Izzo sued Linpro and Morreale, and by amended complaint joined Morristown Office Partners and Nova Interiors, Inc. as defendants. Thereafter, summary judgment was granted in three separate contested motions to Linpro and Morreale, to Morristown and to Nova. Plaintiff appeals from each order for summary judgment and from the denial of his subsequent motions for reconsideration of the first two orders. We now

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affirm the grant of summary judgment as to Nova Interiors, Inc. and Morristown Office Partners. We reverse the order which granted summary judgment to defendants The Linpro Company and Morreale.

The facts presented here are similar to the causative facts in Izhaky v. Jamesway Corp., 195 N.J.Super. 103, 478 A.2d 416 (App.Div.1984), where plaintiff, the employee of an electrical contractor retained by defendant to relocate a switch and install wall outlets during the remodeling of defendant's headquarters, was injured when his hand came in contact with a live wire. Id. at 105, 478 A.2d 416. After reviewing the law pertinent to a landowner's nondelegable duty to employees of an independent contractor to provide those employees with a reasonably safe place to work, as discussed in Wolczak v. National Elect. Products Corp., 66 N.J.Super. 64, 168 A.2d 412 (App.Div.1961), and thereafter in Rodrigues v. Elizabethtown Gas Co., 104 N.J.Super. 436, 250 A.2d 408 (App.Div.1969), we affirmed a jury verdict which imposed liability upon defendant Jamesway Corp. [651 A.2d 1049] Izhaky, supra, 195 N.J.Super. at 106-08, 478 A.2d 416. Our decision in Izhaky was predicated upon the concept that the landowner has...