Pamperin v. Interlake Companies, Inc.
| Decision Date | 12 April 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-302,93-302 |
| Citation | 634 So.2d 1137 |
| Parties | 19 Fla. L. Weekly D843, Prod.Liab.Rep.(CCH)P. 13,921 John PAMPERIN, Appellant, v. The INTERLAKE COMPANIES, INC., a foreign corporation, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Robert Scott Cox and David H. Burns of Cox, Weaver & Burn, Tallahassee, and Joseph E. Brooks, Tallahassee, for appellant.
James B. Fensom and Christine C. Nichols of Barron, Redding, Hughes, Fite, Bassett & Fensom, P.A., Panama City, for appellee.
John Pamperin appeals from an order of the trial court granting summary judgment in favor of The Interlake Companies, Inc. (Interlake) on all counts of his complaint which alleged personal injuries caused in a fall from a storage rack system. We reverse.
Pamperin, an employee of Equimco Corporation, was injured on April 12, 1988, when a horizontal beam gave way as he was ascending a storage rack. Pamperin filed a complaint stating a cause of action in negligence, breach of implied warranty, and strict products liability against Interlake, the designer and manufacturer of the storage rack system. In due course, Interlake filed the instant motion for summary judgment asserting no genuine issue of material fact on the basis there could be no proximate cause relationship between any alleged defect or act and Pamperin's injuries.
The pertinent facts are as follows. The Russell Corporation (a non-party) purchased a storage rack system from Interlake for erection in their warehouse located in Marianna, Florida. Pamperin, an employee of Equimco, was hired as job superintendent overseeing assembly of the storage rack. No employees of Interlake were responsible for actual assemblage. The assembly process was conducted by use of a scissor lift. Assemblers would begin at the top of a 40-foot high vertical column and work down to the ground level, inserting brackets on 8-foot long horizontal cross beams into holes in the vertical columns. Once the horizontal beams were installed, assemblers engaged a safety lock to secure the beams. As assembly was underway, workers began to experience difficulties attaching and securing the horizontal members of the system into the vertical members. Specifically, the struts located on some of the vertical members were allegedly miswelded, blocking slots into which the brackets of the horizontal members were to be fitted. On some occasions, it became necessary for assemblers to use hammers or acetylene torches to engage the members.
On the date of the accident, several months into the assemblage process, Pamperin was informed that an alignment problem had arisen in a section of the storage rack. To determine the cause of misalignment, Pamperin had to obtain a diagonal measurement from one corner of the rack to the opposite corner. To do so, Pamperin climbed the system manually, in a ladder-like fashion, as he had done numerous times. Although a scissor lift and safety belt were available for his use, Pamperin chose not to utilize either on this date. Rick Alexander, Interlake's on-site manager, as well as several assembly workers, also commonly climbed the system manually. On this date, as Pamperin climbed the rack, at a point approximately 20 feet high a horizontal cross beam swung loose as he reached for it, causing him to lose his footing and fall to the floor sustaining severe injuries.
At the same time Pamperin was climbing the rack, assemblers had been installing horizontal members in the exact area. Unbeknownst to Pamperin, two assemblers had experienced difficulty engaging one side of a horizontal beam into a vertical beam. After several unsuccessful attempts, the assemblers decided that use of an acetylene torch would be necessary. However, they did not have a torch with them on the scissor lift and, rather than immediately lowering themselves to retrieve the torch and secure the beam, they elected to continue installing the remaining horizontal beams until the scissor lift returned to the ground, thus leaving the problematic beam unflagged and hanging loose in the interim. Although it is not entirely clear how long the beam was left unsecured, one assembler avowed it was not a "minute later" before Pamperin had began to climb the rack in the direction of the unattached horizontal beam.
In moving for summary judgment, Interlake disclaimed all liability by contending that the actions of the rack assemblers in leaving the beam unsecured, as well as Pamperin's improvident method of climbing the system, constituted independent, efficient intervening causes which broke the chain of causation between the alleged defective manufacturing and Pamperin's injuries. In addition, Interlake contended that responsibility for any defect in the component parts of the system shifted to Equimco, as assembler of the finished product. Lastly, Interlake argued that the storage rack could not be deemed a product for purposes of products liability, but should be considered a permanent fixture to real property. The lower court agreed, and entered summary judgment in favor of...
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