Rannals v. Diamond Jo Casino
| Decision Date | 04 March 2003 |
| Docket Number | No.3:98 CV 7545.,3:98 CV 7545. |
| Citation | 250 F.Supp.2d 829 |
| Parties | Dawn RANNALS, Plaintiff, v. DIAMOND JO CASINO, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio |
Kirk E. Karamanian, Esq., Dennis Michael O'Bryan, Sr., Esq., O'Bryan Baun Cohen Kuebler, Birmingham, MI, for Plaintiff.
Amy M. Natyshak, Esq., Marshall & Melhorn, Toledo, OH, Kimbley Kearney, Esq., Clausen Miller, Chicago, IL, for Defendant.
Damon C. Miller, Trial Attorney, Torts Branch, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Third-Party Defendant.
This matter is before the Court on Third-Party Defendant's motion for sumary judgment (Doc. No. 68) to which Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff has filed a response (Doc. No. 75) and Third-Party Defendant has filed a reply (Doc. No. 76); Plaintiffs motion to vacate order granting Defendant leave to file a Third-Party Complaint or in the alternative for separate trials (Docs. Nos. 51 & 52) as to which Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff and Third-Party Defendant have filed responses (Docs. Nos. 58 & 64) and Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff has also filed a reply (Doc. No. 69); Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiffs motion for sanctions (Doc. No. 56) to which Plaintiff has filed a response (Doc. No. 60) and Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff has filed a reply (Doc. No. 62); and Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiffs motion for oral argument (Doc. No. 77).
For the reasons set forth below, Third-Party Defendant's motion for summary judgment will be granted; Plaintiffs motion to vacate order granting defendant leave to file a Third-Party Complaint or in the alternative for separate trials will be denied as moot; Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiffs motion for sanctions will be denied; and Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiffs motion for oral argument will be denied.
The factual background of this matter is set forth in this Court's Memorandum Opinion dated September 29, 1999 (Doc. No. 20). Plaintiff Dawn Rannals ("Rannals") brought suit under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688, to recover for injuries she suffered while she and three other employees of Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff Diamond Jo Casino ("Diamond Jo") attended a week long firefighting training program at the Great Lakes Region Fire Training Center, which is operated by the United States Department of Transportation in Toledo, Ohio. Plaintiff was not required to attend the training center as a condition of her employment, but the completion of such training was a prerequisite for promotion to a supervisory position, such as a lead deckhand.
At approximately 4:00 p.m. on January 16, 1998, the fourth day of the program, while walking to the rental car she and her co-employees had been using, Plaintiff slipped and fell on a patch of ice and frost in the training center's parking area, and fractured her ankle. There had been freezing rain, mist and snow in Toledo early that morning, and the temperature hovered in the mid-twenties for most of the day. Rannals brought suit for negligence against Diamond Jo, claiming that Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff defaulted on its nondelegable duty to provide a safe work place. Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff moved for summary judgment on Plaintiffs claim, which this Court granted.
Plaintiff appealed the judgment of this Court. On September 12, 2001, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of this Court. Rannals v. Diamond Jo, 265 F.3d 442 (6th Cir.2001). In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit concluded that this Court "erred by holding that any negligence on the part of the training center could not be imputed to Diamond Jo and by applying the defense of natural accumulation [to Diamond Jo] to defeat Rannals's claim." Id. at 449. The Sixth Circuit found that for the purpose of summary judgment, that Plaintiff had created a genuine issue of material fact as to whether she was acting within the terms of her employment at the time of her slipand-fall injury,1 whether Defendant or its agents (i.e. the training center) breached a non-delegable duty to provide a safe workplace by failing to cure icy conditions in the training center's parking area, whether there was a contractual relationship between the Defendant and the training center (i.e. existence of agency relationship), and whether the training center's negligence, if any, may be imputed to the Defendant because of that relationship.
With leave of the Court, Diamond Jo filed a Third-party Complaint against the Third-Party Defendant United States ("United States") seeking contribution and/or indemnity, pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act ("FTCA"), 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b)(1) and §§ 2671-2680, and tendering Third-Party Defendant to Rannals. Since Rannals had originally filed suit on the law side of the Court, the Third-Party Complaint was amended to remove the direct tender under Fed.R.Civ.P. 14(c). The only claim remaining under the Amended Third-Party Complaint is Diamond Jo's claim for contribution and/or indemnity.
Diamond Jo moves the Court for oral argument on the United States' motion for summary judgment due to the complexity of determining whether the common-law defense of natural accumulation under Ohio law precludes a finding of negligence on the part of the United States and thus bars Diamond Jo's claim for contribution and/or indemnity. Notwithstanding the fact that this motion remains unopposed, the salient facts are not in dispute. The Court finds that oral argument is not necessary for resolution of the United States' motion for summary judgment. Thus, Diamond Jo's motion for oral argument is denied.
As an initial matter, the Court sets forth the relative burdens of the parties once a motion for summary judgment is made. Summary judgment must be entered "against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, All U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Of course, the moving party always bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any," which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Id. at 323, 106 S.Ct. at 2553. The burden then shifts to the nonmoving party who "must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., All U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e)).
Once the burden of production has so shifted, the party opposing summary judgment cannot rest on its pleadings or merely reassert its previous allegations. It is not sufficient "simply [to] show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts." Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1356, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Rather, Rule 56(e) "requires the nonmoving party to go beyond the [unverified] pleadings" and present some type of evidentiary material in support of its position. Celotex, All U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. at 2553. Summary judgment shall be rendered if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c).
Third-Party Defendant moves for summary judgment, arguing that unlike Diamond Jo, it is not Rannals' Jones Act employer, and may avail itself of the common-law defense of natural accumulation under Ohio law, which relieves it of any direct liability to Rannals barring Diamond Jo's claim for contribution and/or indemnity. 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b)(1) states:
Subject to the provisions of chapter 171 of this title, the district courts, together with the United States District Court of he Canal Zone and the District of the Virgin Islands, shall have exclusive jurisdiction of civil claims against the United States for money damages, accruing on and after January 1, 1945, for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred.
In FDIC v. Meyer, 510 U.S. 471, 478, 114 S.Ct. 996, 127 L.Ed.2d 308 (1994) the Supreme Court stated: "[W]e have consistently held that § 1346(b)'s reference to `law of the place' means law of the state— the source of substantive liability under the FTCA." See also Fed. Express Corp. v. United States Postal Service, 151 F.3d 536 541 (6th Cir.1998); Hill v. United States, 453 F.2d 839, 840 (6th Cir.1972); Mider v. United States, 4 Ohio Misc. 23, 322 F.2d 193, 197 (6th Cir.1963); Ochran v. United States, 273 F.3d 1315, 1317 (11th Cir.2001); Franklin v. United States, 992 F.2d 1492, 1495 (10th Cir.1993); Kruchten v. United States, 914 F.2d 1106, 1107-08 (8th Cir. 1990); Brown v. United States, 653 F.2d 196, 200 (5th Cir.1981), cert, denied, 456 U.S. 925, 102 S.Ct. 1970, 72 L.Ed.2d 440 (1982). Consequently, any third-party liability on the part of the United States pursuant to Diamond Jo's claim for contribution and/or indemnity under the FTCA is determined by the law of the place where the act or omission occurred. Green Constr. Co. v. Williams Form Eng'g Corp., 506 F.Supp. 173, 178 (W....
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