Ritchie v. Glidden Co.

• Decision Date: 27 February 2001
• Docket Number: I,No. 00-1253,WORLD-GROUP and GRAC,00-1253
• Citation: 242 F.3d 713
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2001) SHEILA RITCHIE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GLIDDEN COMPANY, ICI PAINTSnc., Defendants-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 713

242 F.3d 713 (7th Cir. 2001)

SHEILA RITCHIE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GLIDDEN COMPANY, ICI PAINTS WORLD-GROUP and GRACO, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 00-1253

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued September 19, 2000

Decided February 27, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Fort Wayne Division. No. 98 C 111--William C. Lee, Chief Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Before Bauer, Manion, and Kanne, Circuit Judges.

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff- appellant Sheila Ritchie suffered a paint injection injury while operating airless spray paint equipment that resulted in the eventual amputation of her left index finger. Ritchie brought a products liability action against the manufacturer of the pump, Graco, Inc. ("Graco"), as well as against the owner and supplier of the pump, Glidden Company, ICI Paints World Group ("Glidden"), based on the parties' failure to warn of the dangerous nature of the high pressure airless pump system. Graco and Glidden moved for summary judgment, arguing that Ritchie had not presented sufficient evidence to meet all of the elements of her prima facie case under the Indiana Products Liability Act. The district court agreed and granted summary judgment for both Graco and Glidden. Ritchie appeals, claiming that the district court erred in finding that there was no issue of material fact regarding whether the pump involved in the accident left Graco's control without proper warnings. Because we find that genuine issues of material fact remain, we reverse and remand.

I. History

A. Ritchie's Injury

Redman Homes ("Redman") is a manufacturer of modular unit homes located in Topeka, Indiana. As part of their business of building modular homes, Redman paints the inside of the units prior to assembling them. On July 11, 1994, Redman hired Ritchie to perform touch-up painting of the modular units. A little over a year later Ritchie was moved to a spray painting position. As a spray painter, Ritchie applied paint to the interior surfaces of the units with airless spray painting equipment. The equipment that Richie used in her job as a spray painter is composed of three parts: a pump, a hose, and a spray nozzle/gun. The pump that Ritchie normally used was mounted on a fifty-five gallon drum that contained the paint. Ritchie had no previous experience using high pressure spray painting equipment and Redman did not provide any formal training. Ritchie learned how to operate the equipment solely by watching her co- workers. At no time prior to her accident did Ritchie receive any operating manuals or other safety information regarding the equipment.

On February 29, 1996, while using the airless spray equipment to paint the inside of a unit, Ritchie noticed that her pump was not working properly and heard her co-workers yelling that paint was "flying everywhere." She realized that she had lost pressure in her spray gun so she turned off the air pressure to the pump. Ritchie contacted her foreman, Reuben Brandenburger, to notify him of the problem. Brandenburger in turn contacted the maintenance crew. The maintenance crew advised him that they were too busy to immediately attend to the broken spray gun, so they asked him to determine whether the problem was with the hose or the pump. Brandenburger instructed Ritchie to check the hose for raw spots or holes while he checked the pump. As Ritchie inspected the hose by running her hands over it and twisting it, Brandenburger turned on the pump and Ritchie felt a prick to her left index finger. She described the incident as follows:

While I was checking the hose, I was twisting, you know, and looking at it. I have no idea why he did it . . . . But he turned the pump on. I felt a prick to my left index finger. It felt more like a splinter, like I had poked it. I put it, like in the back of my mind saying 'I'll check it later.' I told Rubin, 'Yes, I know it's the hose. There's a hole in it.'

(Ritchie Dep. at 35).

When Ritchie went to wash her hands a few minutes later, she noticed that the pricked finger had a small hole in it and had turned white. She notified the assistant production manager, Tim Oesch, of the injection injury and asked him what she should do. Oesch asked her if it hurt, and Ritchie replied that it did not. Oesch called the personnel manager, and asked her if Ritchie should go to the doctor. The personnel manager replied that if the injury did not look too bad and Ritchie was not complaining about the pain then Oesch should just "forget about it." Oesch then suggested that Ritchie return to work which she did without complaint.

Approximately three hours after Ritchie's return to work, a co-worker notified Brandenburger that Ritchie's finger had swollen to almost three times its normal size. Ritchie was sent to the personnel office to fill out paperwork and to see Redman's worker's compensation doctor. Ritchie was unable to see the company doctor, so she drove herself to the emergency room at LaGrange Hospital. The doctor at LaGrange Hospital recognized the serious nature of Ritchie's injury and immediately sent her to Fort Wayne Orthopedics. After arriving at Fort Wayne Orthopedics, Ritchie was rushed into surgery. When the surgeon opened her finger, it was filled with paint. During surgery that lasted three and a half hours, the doctor first attempted to rinse and then attempted to drain the paint out of her finger. When this was unsuccessful, he attempted to cut the paint out of her finger. Ritchie subsequently endured six more surgeries, but doctors were unable to save her finger from amputation.

B. The Accident Pump

The origin of the pump that Ritchie was using at the time of the accident is disputed. Ritchie claims that the accident pump was supplied by Glidden immediately preceding the injury. The defendants, on the other hand, deny this. Patrick Cross, the General Manager of the Topeka facility, testified that Redman has no records showing the purchase, sale, lease, or ownership of the pump used by Ritchie on the date of the accident. Ritchie testified that she had been using the same type of pump since she began working as a spray painter, but she could not specifically identify the pump that she was using when the injury occurred.¹ Redman continued to use the offending pump for a while after the accident, but its present whereabouts are unknown. Several witnesses, however, have testified that the accident pump was a Graco pump, and Graco does not dispute that fact for the purposes of this appeal.

Prior to May of 1994, various companies supplied paint, spray painting pumps, and other painting equipment to Redman. In May 1994, Glidden began supplying paint and painting equipment to Redman. Glidden does not manufacture painting equipment, but distributes brushes, rollers, hoses, pumps, and other painting equipment made by a variety of manufacturers. Tim Pieri, a Glidden sales representative, was responsible for the Redman account at all times relevant to this case. Redman's previous supplier provided Redman with spray painting pumps made by various manufacturers including Binks, Speedflo, and Graco. When Glidden first took over the account, Pieri continued to supply Redman with pumps made by various manufacturers.

At some point after Glidden became Redman's supplier, Redman decided to upgrade its painting equipment due to frequent problems with the existing equipment. Because Graco pumps were thought to be the best in the industry, Redman determined that the existing pumps would be replaced by Graco pumps. Redman and Pieri came to an agreement whereby Redman would buy all of its paint from Glidden, and in exchange, Glidden would supply Redman with the necessary Graco pumps. At that time, Glidden was not an authorized dealer of Graco pumps, so Pieri purchased Graco pumps for Redman from Devoe Paints, an authorized Graco distributor. Glidden retained ownership of the pumps and was responsible for their periodic service and inspection, though Redman was responsible for day-to- day maintenance of the pumps. It is unclear whether Glidden had completed the pump upgrade at the time of Ritchie's accident. It is undisputed, however, that pumps manufactured by three different manufacturers were on the Redman premises at the time of Ritchie's accident.

In January 1996, Pieri supplied Redman with two new Graco Bulldog pumps. These two pumps arrived in crates, were unpacked by maintenance, and were set-up by Pieri with the assistance of Redman employee Hodgie Thulin. Graco denies that either of these pumps was the pump used by Ritchie at the time of her accident. Pieri claims that the two pumps that he delivered were cart-mounted pumps-- unlike the accident pump which was indisputably a drum-mounted pump. Cart mounted pumps are small, mobile pumps that Redman employees use primarily as back-up pumps when the drum-mounted pumps are being serviced or are not operable. Pieri did initially testify that the accident pump Ritchie used was one of the new pumps that he delivered in January. Upon learning that Ritchie described the accident pump as a drum-mounted pump, however, Pieri recanted. He then testified that if the accident pump was a drum-mounted pump then it was not one of the pumps that he had delivered in January.

In direct contradiction, Ritchie argues that the accident pump was one of the pumps that Pieri delivered in January. Ritchie claims that Pieri is incorrect in his assertion that he delivered cart- mounted pumps to Redman in January. She bases this claim on the testimony of Richard Grooms, Redman's production manager. Grooms testified that the accident pump was a Graco Bulldog pump² brought in by Glidden as part of the upgrade of Redman's painting equipment. Ritchie also relies on the testimony of Thulin to show that the pumps that Pieri delivered were drum- mounted pumps. Thulin testified...