Sinyard v. Georgia Power Company
| Decision Date | 10 March 2022 |
| Docket Number | A21A1424, A21A1425, A21A1426 |
| Citation | 363 Ga.App. 195,871 S.E.2d 45 |
| Parties | SINYARD et al. v. GEORGIA POWER COMPANY. Sinyard et al. v. Ford Motor Company. Sinyard et al. v. Piedmont Hospital, Inc. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Robert Cape Buck, Peachtree Corners, for Appellant.
William Middleton Droze, Jill Cox Kuhn, Kathryn Elise Hopkins, Atlanta, Katarzyna Anna Hebda, for Appellee in A21A1424.
Jennifer Rachel Burbine, Richard Charles Beaulieu, Atlanta, for Appellee in A21A1425.
Eric Todd Hawkins, David C. Marshall, Atlanta, for Appellee in A21A1426.
Kevin Sinyard worked as a pipefitter for more than 25 years. From 1975 to 1989, he was employed by the local pipefitters union and worked for various contractors as a pipefitter on projects at Georgia Power Company, Ford Motor Company, and Piedmont Hospital. In 2014, Sinyard was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma
. He and his wife sued Georgia Power, Ford, and Piedmont, claiming that his disease was caused by his exposure to asbestos while working at facilities owned by these three companies. The trial court granted complete summary judgment in favor of each defendant, and the Sinyards now appeal.
In A21A1424, Sinyard appeals from the trial court's order granting summary judgment in favor of Georgia Power. We affirm the trial court's order in part: we agree that Georgia Power is immune from tort liability related to Sinyard's work on the new Units at Plants Scherer and Vogtle because Georgia Power was acting as a contractor and thus was a "statutory employer" entitled to such immunity under the Workers’ Compensation Act. But we agree with Sinyard that genuine issues of material fact preclude summary judgment as to the remaining issues: (1) whether Sinyard had equal knowledge of the specific risks of exposure to asbestos at the time he worked at the Georgia Power plants; (2) whether the narrow "hired worker" exception relieves Georgia Power of its ordinary duty towards Sinyard as an invitee; and (3) whether Georgia Power had relinquished control and possession of the premises to Sinyard's employers, which would have also relieved it of that duty.
In A21A1425, Sinyard appeals from the trial court's order granting summary judgment to Ford. Here, too, we conclude that genuine issues of material fact preclude summary judgment, including (1) whether Sinyard had equal knowledge of the specific hazards posed by asbestos at the Ford plant, and (2) whether Ford relinquished possession and control over the relevant portion of the plant.
In A21A1426, Sinyard appeals from the trial court's grant of summary judgment to Piedmont. Here, we affirm the trial court's order because the evidence viewed in the proper light shows that McKenney's—Sinyard's employing contractor for his work at Piedmont—had equal knowledge of the specific hazards of asbestos and its presence at Piedmont.
Viewed in the light most favorable to Sinyard, the nonmovant,1 the record shows that Sinyard was a pipefitter for more than 25 years and worked for more than 41 contractors at various job sites across Georgia.2 From 1975 to 1989, Sinyard worked for contractors on projects at Piedmont, Georgia Power, and Ford. We will first review Sinyard's knowledge of the risks of asbestos at the relevant times, and then we will describe Sinyard's work for each of the three defendants.
Sinyard was a member of Local Plumbers, Pipefitters & HVAC Technicians Union 72 in Atlanta from 1978 until 1996. After Sinyard completed high school, he did an apprenticeship program with the local union. The national union distributed a monthly newsletter called the "UA Journal" that was delivered to its members’ homes. Beginning in 1971, these newsletters occasionally contained articles regarding the dangers of asbestos exposure. Sinyard testified that he "never read" the newsletters because they looked like "junk mail."
Sinyard testified that he did not learn of the specific risks of developing cancer
or other diseases as a result of exposure to asbestos until the late 1980s. Sinyard explained that, as part of his apprentice training in 1978, he was taught that if he identified asbestos, he was supposed to wear an "Armstrong-style" paper mask and "wet it down" to minimize the creation of dust while he worked. Sinyard testified that he never wore a respirator mask or protective suits while working with asbestos. He had never been given formal training by the union or his supervisors about how to identify asbestos, but rather had learned in the late 1980s "through the ranks and through the knowledge of the people that were on the job." He also did not recall any discussion of asbestos at local or national union meetings that he attended.
Sinyard's union foreman, Eugene West, testified that the union pipefitters lacked knowledge of the dangers posed by asbestos in the 1980s. He explained that, because he was a supervisor, the pipefitters union would have informed him before rank-and-file members about dangerous working conditions, but he did not learn about the specific health risks posed by asbestos until the late 1980s. West testified that although he knew asbestos was "bad for you" as early as the late 1970s, he "didn't realize it was so dangerous" or that it could cause mesothelioma
until the late 1980s.
Sinyard performed work as an independent contractor for four Georgia Power plants—Scherer, Branch, McDonough and Vogtle—between 1979 and 1986. Sinyard was never directly employed by Georgia Power, and his work was not continuous during this time; instead, he would work for four to six weeks when needed, which was approximately once a year.
Georgia Power was the majority owner of Plants Scherer and Vogtle. The minority co-owners were Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, the City of Dalton, and Oglethorpe Power Company. Under the terms of its agreements with the co-owners, Georgia Power assumed "sole ... responsibility" for the construction and planning of the new Units at Plant Scherer and Plant Vogtle. Sinyard worked at Plant Scherer as an independent contractor with two companies, Power Piping and Combustion Engineers, on and off between 1980 and 1983. He worked all over the facility, but primarily in the boiler areas, main steam lines, and the turbine areas during the construction of Units 1, 2, and 3 while each Unit was being built. Sinyard worked at Plant Vogtle as a pipefitter during the new construction of Units 1 and 2 in 1985.
Sinyard worked at Plant McDonough on two occasions in 1983 for Combustion Engineering and Cleveland Consolidated. Sinyard testified that, while doing maintenance work at Plant McDonough during plant shutdowns, he worked next to the boiler and had "to tear the insulation and stuff all around the boiler" and related piping systems. He recalled installing valves manufactured by Crane and Honeywell, pumps manufactured by Ingersoll Rand and Garlock, and gaskets manufactured by Garlock. To install these new items, he had to break "apart the old system, scraping all the old gaskets off and brushing them off and then putting in [the] new valve ... torque it up to spec [and] tighten up all [the] packings." This work created dust that he would breathe in. Sinyard testified that there were no warnings or labels regarding the dangers of asbestos on these products or around the facilities.
Sinyard worked at Plant Branch in 1982 and 1983 as an independent contractor with Cleveland Consolidated and in 1986 as an independent contractor with Atlanta Steel. He performed maintenance during plant shutdowns, which included replacing old Ingersoll Rand pumps with new pumps. West testified that he supervised Sinyard while working at Plant Branch, and that they worked with Crane, Honeywell, and Ingersoll Rand valves while working there.
A representative for Georgia Power testified that Georgia Power has used asbestos gaskets, asbestos packing, and asbestos insulation in its plants since the 1930s and continued to stock asbestos products as late as 1992. The representative agreed that asbestos-containing materials existed in all of Georgia Power's plants during the period of Sinyard's employment. Georgia Power records confirm that Crane and other asbestos gasket and packing material identified by Sinyard was installed in Georgia Power facilities. West testified that Georgia Power's plants contained "miles" of pipe that was insulated with asbestos.
Georgia Power's representative testified that Georgia Power knew that asbestos-containing materials were present in its plants. She also testified that the company knew—before Sinyard began work at the facilities—that a person who is exposed to asbestos could contract mesothelioma
. Georgia Power admitted that it was aware of OSHA's earliest regulations relating to asbestos as early as 1972, that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health published standards in 1976 that informed Georgia Power that cases of mesothelioma had been associated with exposures to asbestos "as brief as one day," and that it was aware that scientific literature from as early as 1973 showed that exposure to asbestos caused cancers such as mesothelioma.
In response, Georgia Power enacted policies and procedures to protect its own employees from asbestos exposure. In 1977, Georgia Power drafted an interim policy concerning "Use of Asbestos and Asbestos Products" addressed to production managers, operating managers, construction managers, and construction superintendents that acknowledged asbestos as part of Georgia Power's "hazardous materials control program." Georgia Power's representative further admitted that in 1981, it received Material Safety Data Sheets relating to the Crane asbestos packing used in its plants advising of safety precautions necessary when...
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