Stemple v. Phillips Petroleum Company

• Decision Date: 23 September 1970
• Docket Number: No. 359-69,360-69.,359-69
• Citation: 430 F.2d 178
• Parties: Darrow L. STEMPLE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant. Darrow L. STEMPLE, Plaintiff-Cross-Appellant, v. PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY, Defendant-Cross-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

430 F.2d 178 (1970)

Darrow L. STEMPLE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.

Darrow L. STEMPLE, Plaintiff-Cross-Appellant, v. PHILLIPS PETROLEUM COMPANY, Defendant-Cross-Appellee.

Nos. 359-69, 360-69.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

July 20, 1970.

Rehearing Denied September 23, 1970.

John S. Pfeiffer, Denver, Colo. (Frederic L. Kirgis and John J. Mullins, Jr., of Gorsuch, Kirgis, Campbell, Walker & Grover, Denver, Colo., were with him on the brief) for Phillips Petroleum Co.

William K. Ris, Denver, Colo. (Thomas D. Smart and James M. Roberts of

Thomas D. Smart, Wood, Ris & Hames, Denver, Colo., were with him on the brief) for Darrow L. Stemple.

Before LEWIS, Chief Judge, and HILL and SETH, Circuit Judges.

Rehearing Denied in No. 359-69 September 23, 1970.

LEWIS, Chief Judge.

These cases present an appeal and cross-appeal taken by the parties from a judgment entered by the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on a jury verdict in the amount of $237,600 in favor of Stemple, plaintiff below, and against Phillips Petroleum Company (Phillips). The judgment represents damages for personal injuries suffered by Stemple in a fire that occurred on July 9, 1967, in a Phillips-owned service station located at Rawlins, Wyoming. Although the appeal of Phillips sets out multiple claims of trial error, the primary appellate question probes whether, under Wyoming law, any basic potential for liability exists on the part of Phillips for the results of the tragic fire.

At the time Stemple was burned he was 17 years old and working as an attendant for the operator of a "66" service station subleased from the lessee of Phillips. Phillips had purchased the station in 1963. It contained a gas-fired heater located in an alcove off the grease bay; the opening connecting the two rooms was seven feet high and six feet wide. The legs of the heater rested on a concrete floor with the pilot flame at approximately nine inches above floor level. On the night of the accident, after having filled the 14-gallon gas tank of a customer's automobile, Stemple was guiding the car onto the hoist in the lubrication room when the tank ruptured while over the hoist and spilled out over the floor. Stemple stood near the alcove in or near the spreading gasoline as it ignited and severely burned him. According to witness testimony, from the time the spillage was visible to him, Stemple had tried to use the sump gun, equipment for removing the gas, and then put it away.

Both parties' experts agreed that the fire was probably caused by the contact between the hot water heater flame, which stood approximately 12 feet from the hoist, and the vapor from the released gasoline. The causative theory was that the hot water heater proved to be the lowest source of ignition down to which the heavier gasoline vapors flowed. Although there was some equivocation on point, the experts also stated that elevation of the heater would have reduced the possibility of fire, and Stemple's experts concluded that a height of 18 inches would have rendered the fire possible, but improbable. In that regard plaintiff introduced standards promulgated by the National Fire Protection Association and adopted by the Wyoming Fire Marshal prior to July 7, pursuant to Wyo.Stat.Ann. § 35-421(4) (1957) as amended, recommending an 18-inch height for heating equipment installed in service station areas where no gasoline is dispensed. Stipulated evidence was presented that one McKelvey, Phillips' District Representative in the area, was charged with inspecting stations for unusual fire hazards.

Against this general factual background of the cause and result of the fire, the trial court instructed in part that Phillips could be found liable if it retained "a general supervision over the premises for a limited purpose, such as the making of repairs or maintenance * * *."¹ Citing the provisions of both the leases between Phillips and the lessee Kaspar and running from Kaspar to Wilcox, as the sublessee operator,² Phillips has argued that the lease agreements negative any relationship charging the company with a duty of control of the premises and that, apart from the leases, the evidence failed to support the imposition of such a duty.

The entire Wyoming case law on a lessor's liability for damage or injury occurring on premises over which he has specifically disclaimed control is found in Hefferin v. Scott Realty Co., 71 Wyo. 114, 254 P.2d 194, Annot., 78 A.L.R.2d 1241, 1243-45. The case does no more, or less, then hold a duty to repair defective leased premises does not devolve upon the landlord when the lease is silent on covenants to repair and warranting the condition of the leased premises, even if the lessor has gratuitously promised to repair the defect and in fact has attempted to do so. In contrast, the predicate of Phillips' liability was the control it exercised in practice over the subleased premises — as distinguished from the day-to-day business operation — despite the contrary recitations in the documents of lease.

We conclude that the court's instruction did no violence to the principles announced in Hefferin. Moreover, Stemple's evidence supporting liability was sufficient to uphold the verdict against Phillips. See Westinghouse Credit Corp. v. Green, 10 Cir., 384 F.2d 298, 301. The company knew of the condition of the premises when leased, had control over subletting, reserved in the several leases the right to enter the premises and to approve and make all repairs over the amount of $15.00, and did effect 11 major repairs during the period of ownership preceding the accident. Although Phillips was alerted to the need for all but one of the repairs by its sublessee, Stemple did show that Phillips was ultimately responsible for the maintenance of the premises, including equipment.³

Phillips has also urged properly noted objections to the court's instruction on standard of care, failure to give the proffered instruction on assumption of risk, and admission of evidence on subsequent precautions taken. According to Phillips, the standard of the National Fire Protection Association recommending an 18-inch elevation for hot water heater flames did not apply to existing installations unless "a distinct hazard to life or adjoining property" was posed, a situation arguably not present in the instant case. The court's instruction embracing the NFPA standard did not include this retroactivity limitation. The court advised the jury that the standard was to be considered with all the other evidence in the case, which included a series of stipulations covering the type of heater, height of flame, location of the heater in the room adjacent to the lift, and dimensions of the opening between the two rooms; expert testimony; the presence of gas in the area under normal operations; and District Representative McKelvey's knowledge of the presence of gas in the area. However, what is important in view of Phillips' objection is that no instruction was given that deviation from the standard was negligence per se. Moreover, the record is unclear whether the retroactivity provision appearing in an appendix to the NFPA standards was adopted in Wyoming. We conclude that in these circumstances the instruction was permissible. The evidence that Phillips required its District Representative to make periodic inspections was not prejudicial and irrelevant under Chicago B. & Q. R. R. v. Lampman, 18 Wyo. 106, 104 P. 533. The type of inspection required by Phillips and the recommendations in the NFPA standards coincide in effect; therefore, the evidence was merely cumulative.

Phillips next has argued that the court erred in ruling as a matter of law that the defense of assumption of risk was not available to appellant and, alternatively, in failing to submit the matter to the jury. Given the absence of facts that Stemple was aware of the danger inherent in the gas water heater, Phillips' contention must fall. The court proceeded to instruct the jury on contributory negligence, including elements of assumption of risk, which, we have held, is tantamount to the assumption of risk defense under Wyoming law. Askin v. Dalgarno, 10 Cir., 293 F.2d 424, 426 & n. 5.⁴

After overruling Phillips' objection, the court allowed Stemple to show that after the fire Phillips had built five stations in the Rawlins area, each equipped with hot water heaters elevated six feet above floor level. Phillips challenges the evidence under the well-recognized rule that subsequent precautions to prevent recurrence of an injury are inadmissible to demonstrate negligence. Columbia & Puget Sound R.R. v. Hawthorne, 144 U.S. 202, 12 S.Ct. 591, 36 L.Ed. 405. Stemple counters with the equally basic exceptions that the evidence was presented to rebut Phillips' testimony that elevation of the flame would not have prevented the fire, that it was possible and practicable to have avoided the accident, and that the evidence proved Phillips' recognition of the NFPA standard. Stemple's first two arguments are inapposite because the testimony was presented in Stemple's case in chief and the subsequent repairs did not pertain to operation of the subject station. However, we cannot say that adoption of a six-foot elevation is so inconsistent with recognition of the NFPA 18-inch standard as to constitute reversible error.

Finally, we summarily dispose of Phillips' remaining assignments of error going to the evidence supporting causation and amount of damages. The former was a jury question upon which the evidence furnished a sustainable basis. See Union Pacific R.R. v. Lumbert, 10 Cir., 401 F.2d 699, 700 & nn. 2-3 (Wyoming law). The question of damages was similarly a jury matter, with probable incapacitation and loss of...