Shelton v. Steelcase, Inc.

• Decision Date: 16 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. COA08-560.,COA08-560.
• Citation: 677 S.E.2d 485
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: Maxine SHELTON and Jerry Shelton, Plaintiffs, v. STEELCASE, INC. and M.B. Haynes Corporation, Defendants.

677 S.E.2d 485

Maxine SHELTON and Jerry Shelton, Plaintiffs, v. STEELCASE, INC. and M.B. Haynes Corporation, Defendants.

No. COA08-560.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

June 16, 2009.

Appeal by plaintiffs from order entered 13 July 2007 by Judge Mark E. Powell and appeal by defendant Steelcase, Inc. from order and judgment entered 29 November 2007 by Judge James U. Downs in Henderson County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 19 November 2008.

Grimes & Teich LLP, by Scott M. Anderson, Greenville; and Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog LLP, by Jaye E. Bingham and Roy G. Pettigrew, Raleigh, for plaintiffs.

Dean & Gibson PLLC, by Rodney Dean and Barbara J. Dean, Charlotte, for defendant Steelcase, Inc.

Ball, Barden & Bell, P.A., by Thomas R. Bell, Asheville, for defendant-appellee M.B. Haynes Corporation.

GEER, Judge.

Defendant Steelcase, Inc. appeals from the trial court's order and judgment denying its motions for directed verdict and judgment notwithstanding the verdict ("JNOV") and upholding the jury's verdict finding Steelcase liable to plaintiffs Maxine Shelton and her husband Jerry Shelton for negligence and loss of consortium. Plaintiffs have also appealed from the trial court's order granting summary judgment to defendant M.B. Haynes Corporation.

Steelcase primarily argues that plaintiffs were precluded from proceeding with their negligence action because Ms. Shelton, although formally employed by another company, should have been considered a special employee of Steelcase as a matter of law and, therefore, subject to the exclusive remedy of workers' compensation. One of the critical elements for finding a special employee is that the special employer had the right to control the details of the alleged special employee's work. Since Steelcase had by contract expressly provided that Ms. Shelton's employer would be responsible for the supervision and control of Ms. Shelton's work, Steelcase has not demonstrated its entitlement to a directed verdict or JNOV on that issue.

Alternatively, Steelcase argues that its motions for a directed verdict or JNOV should have been granted for lack of evidence of negligence. Steelcase's arguments fail to recognize that this case was tried on a premises liability theory. Since plaintiffs presented evidence that Steelcase maintained a hazardous condition on its premises (an unsecured fire door leaning against a wall), that it knew or should have known that the unsecured door was a hazard, that it nonetheless failed to warn Ms. Shelton of that hazard, and that the hazardous nature of the door was not open and obvious, we hold that the trial court properly denied defendants' motions. Steelcase's remaining arguments are unpersuasive and, therefore, we find no error.

With respect to plaintiffs' appeal, we hold that plaintiffs presented sufficient evidence to raise an issue of fact regarding whether M.B. Haynes workers moved the fire door into a position making it likely that it would tip over and fall—precisely what occurred here—with the result that Ms. Shelton was seriously injured. Because genuine issues of material fact existed, the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to M.B. Haynes. We, therefore, reverse the summary judgment order and remand for further proceedings.

Facts

At the time of trial, Ms. Shelton was 53 years old and had a GED. Sometime in 2000, she began working for Drew, LLC, a company that contracted with other businesses to provide cleaning and janitorial services. Drew provided services to Steelcase, with Ms. Shelton being the on-site supervisor at Steelcase's Fletcher, North Carolina facility.

In October 2003, Steelcase decided to consolidate some of its space in the 990,000 square-foot Fletcher facility and lease the unused space to generate revenue. Steelcase opted to lease out the maintenance area of the facility and hired M.B. Haynes Corporation to remove some duct work in that area and install a new dock door. In addition, Steelcase requested that Drew, as a special project, clean out the maintenance area so that Steelcase could lease that space to a tenant it had found. Prior to beginning the cleanup project, none of the Drew employees, including Ms. Shelton, had been allowed to enter the maintenance area. Robert Flicker, Steelcase's maintenance manager, told Ms. Shelton that he had marked the items in the maintenance area to be discarded with spray paint and that Drew employees should remove those items that could be picked up by hand.

The scope of the project required Drew to hire another worker. Ms. Shelton hired Alfredo Morales, who primarily spoke Spanish. Another Drew employee, Tomas Vergera, translated for Ms. Shelton. On 29 October 2003, Ms. Shelton, Mr. Vergera, and Mr. Morales did a walk-through of the maintenance area. On that same day, other Steelcase employees were in the area moving materials. M.B. Haynes also had employees working in the maintenance area, cleaning the walls, cutting a hole in the wall with heavy machinery, removing ducting near the pipes and conduits on the wall, and excavating just outside the area for a new dock.

Ms. Shelton gave Mr. Morales instructions, through Mr. Vergera, about what to do. When Mr. Morales pointed to a fire door leaning against the wall with an "X" spray painted on it, Ms. Shelton told Mr. Morales "no," pointed to Mr. Vergera, and indicated that Mr. Vergera would have to remove it with a forklift. The fire door was roughly eight feet long and six feet high and weighed about 300 pounds.

Kenneth Matthews, the Fletcher facility maintenance supervisor, testified that the fire door had been removed from a wall in another section of the facility and moved to the maintenance area for storage. The door had been in storage for two or three years prior to the accident. James Ogle, an electrician at the Fletcher plant, stated that about three to four months before the accident, the door was secured to conduits on the wall with rope, but at the time of the accident, the rope was gone. The maintenance area had also been cordoned off with curtains and some sort of fence or cage, but the curtain, cage, and rope had all been removed from the area for the cleaning project.

The fire door was propped up against an uneven wall. Coming down from the ceiling, the wall recessed five to six inches and continued to the floor; piping or conduit also ran down the wall to the floor. The fire door was leaning against the conduits along this span, so that the conduits held the door off the wall several inches. One of the conduits had flex or "spring" in it and could be pushed in. Mr. Flicker admitted this "probably wasn't the best place to store the door...."

Ms. Shelton testified that when she first saw the fire door, it looked like it was standing straight up against the wall, as if it were part of the wall. At first glance, she thought that it might be a door to another room because there were other doors like it throughout the plant and she had never been in this part of the facility before.

Near the end of the day, Ms. Shelton returned to the maintenance area to check on Mr. Morales' progress. As most of the trash had been cleared, Ms. Shelton pointed at a broom, indicating that Mr. Morales should sweep the floor. Mr. Morales nodded and turned in the direction of the broom. Ms. Shelton spotted a metal C-clamp on the floor and bent down to pick it up. At that moment, the fire door fell on Ms. Shelton, pinning her to the floor. Mr. Morales heard her cry out and ran to lift the door off of her, but it was too heavy. Mr. Morales shouted for help and two M.B. Haynes employees, Thomas Allen and Jeffrey Burrell, who were working in the area came running. They were able to lift the door off of Ms. Shelton.

Eighteen months after the accident, Mr. Allen and Mr. Burrell told M.B. Haynes' safety director, Charles Lively, that they had moved the fire door the day before it fell on Ms. Shelton. Mr. Allen explained that he and Mr. Burrell were cleaning the wall on which the door was positioned. Mr. Allen was in a lift using an air hose to blow off the wall, and Mr. Burrell was below guiding the hose. Seeing skid marks from the door on the floor, the two men were concerned that they might have moved the door while working with the hose. The men moved the bottom of the door closer to the base of the wall, so that it was close to a "straight angle." Mr. Allen stated that they "repositioned it against the wall where it was steadfast, where we felt comfortable with it, and left it there. Left it alone. It was in the same place it was, but we had just rectified it." Mr. Allen believed that it would be safer to place the door flat on the ground but decided not to do so because he and Mr. Burrell were not authorized under M.B. Haynes' safety policy to move the door.

As a result of the door falling on her, Ms. Shelton sustained a crushed pelvis with multiple fractures, a broken sacrum, and nerve damage. She spent two weeks in the hospital and was bedridden for a month afterward. Ms. Shelton continues to have headaches, blurred vision, and intestinal dysfunction. She is no longer physically able to have sex with her husband. She walks with a cane and takes several medications.

On 3 October 2005, Ms. Shelton and her husband filed suit against Steelcase. Subsequently, on 18 August 2006, plaintiffs amended their complaint to add M.B. Haynes as a defendant. Steelcase, M.B. Haynes, and plaintiffs all moved for summary judgment. The trial court denied summary judgment to Steelcase and plaintiffs, but granted summary judgment to M.B. Haynes. Plaintiffs' negligence and loss of consortium claims against Steelcase proceeded to trial, where a jury found Steelcase liable to Ms. Shelton in the amount of $1,250,000.00, although it awarded no damages to Mr. Shelton. Steelcase moved for JNOV, a new trial, and reduction of the verdict based on indemnification. In an order and judgment entered 29 November 2007, the trial...