Stubblefield v. Jesco, Inc.

Citation464 So.2d 47
Decision Date26 September 1984
Docket NumberNo. 54242,54242
PartiesTalmadge STUBBLEFIELD v. JESCO, INC., et al.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Mississippi

William S. Lawson, Tupelo, for appellant.

William M. Beasley, W.P. Mitchell, Mitchell, Eskridge, Voge, Clayton & Beasley, Tupelo, Darden, Sumners, Carter & Trout, New Albany, for appellees.

En Banc.

DAN M. LEE, Justice, for the Court:

This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Lee County wherein the appellant, Talmadge Stubblefield, was awarded a jury verdict of $1.2 million dollars. That jury had determined that the negligence of the appellee, Jesco, Inc., was the proximate cause of injuries sustained by Stubblefield in a grain mill explosion in Tupelo on December 22, 1977. The circuit judge sustained a motion by Jesco to enter a judgment notwithstanding the verdict and Stubblefield now appeals the granting of that motion. In addition, Jesco has cross-appealed and assigns the following error:

(1) The Court erred in admitting into evidence the testimony of the witness John Sims.

(2) The verdict of the jury is contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

(3) The Court erred in not granting a new trial on the issue of damages when the amount of damages awarded by the jury was so excessive as to evince bias, passion and prejudice on the part of the jury.

For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the granting of the judgment notwithstanding the verdict and affirm on cross-appeal.

THE FACTS

A substantial portion of the evidence presented at trial is uncontradicted. The design and operation of the Sunshine Grain Mill, the nature and extent of Stubblefield's injuries, and the general nature of the work Jesco was performing on the day of the explosion are without dispute. As to the remaining operative facts our standard of review when a judgment notwithstanding the verdict has been entered requires that we view the evidence most favorable to Stubblefield and grant him the benefit of all favorable inferences which may reasonably be drawn from the evidence.

Talmadge Stubblefield worked as an expander operator for Sunshine Grain mills since 1969. Sunshine manufactured dried, processed dog food. The manufacturing complex consisted of a four story concrete mill building, a number of smaller metal buildings, and several grain elevators used to store wheat, corn and soybeans. Conveyor belts connected the elevators with the fourth floor of the mill building. Once grain was transported by means of the conveyor belts to the fourth floor it was there subjected to a system of hammermills which ground or pulverized the grain to a fine dust. The third floor of the building consisted primarily of the sides of large grain bins through which the pulverized grain dropped and where it was stored until it was removed on the second floor of the building at the bottom of these bins. From there the grain passed through a series of screens designed to separate it by size. Grain was then transported by means of auger screws to the first floor where it was processed through the expanders, dried and packaged, then loaded for shipping. Each floor of the building was connected by a stairwell and a manlift. Talmadge Stubblefield operated a grain expander on the first floor of the mill building. The expander room was located in the middle of the first floor. Sunshine Mill employees were stationed only on the first floor of the building.

As an expander operator, Stubblefield earned $12,821 in 1977. At the time of the explosion he was married and had two children. Prior to his injuries he enjoyed fishing, hunting, gardening and tinkering with electronics.

On December 22, 1977 Talmadge Stubblefield's life was permanently and tragically changed as a result of an explosion and fire at the mill. It is undisputed that on the date of the explosion there was in effect a City of Tupelo ordinance, designed as a fire prevention code, which regulated activities such as welding. It is this code which formed the basis of Stubblefield's allegations of negligence by Jesco that proximately caused his injury. Jesco had been hired as an independent contractor to make certain modifications to the mill. These modifications necessarily involved welding and cutting, both with an arc welder and acetylene torches.

Talmadge Stubblefield arrived at work at approximately 6:45 the morning of the explosion. At 7:00 o'clock he relieved the night shift, and between 7:30 and 7:45 his foreman asked him to go with Johnny Whitehead to clean out the wheat bin. Stubblefield and Whitehead went to the fourth floor of the grain mill building, the floor of which served as the top of the grain storage bins. Located in the floor were manhole covers which opened directly into the grain storage bins. Stubblefield and Whitehead climbed down into the wheat bin with a drop light and began to scrape clumps of wheat dust from the walls of the bin. These clumps fell to the bottom of the bin which was located on the second floor. Stubblefield testified that he and Whitehead cleaned the bin to the satisfaction of the Jesco welders. The purpose of cleaning out the bin was so that the Jesco employees could modify the grain bins by welding an additional grain chute onto the bottom of them at the second floor. Because he and Whitehead knew Once Stubblefield and Whitehead had finished cleaning the walls of the bin they returned to the second floor and watched the Jesco welders use an acetylene torch to cut three sides of a rectangle in the bottom of the bin. After cutting the three sides of the rectangle, the Jesco workers used a crowbar to bend the metal along the fourth side so that they could reach in and remove the chunks of grain. All of the large chunks of grain were removed from the bottom of the bin. Stubblefield and Whitehead then went back to the fourth floor, gathered their tools and used an air hose to blow the grain dust off of them. Stubblefield then returned to the control panel in the expander control room. Stubblefield testified that while he watched the welder cut the hole in the bottom of the wheat bin he did not see or smell any smoke. After the welding was completed, Tommy May, a Jesco welder, told Stubblefield to tell Stubblefield's foreman to turn the wheat line on.

that the Jesco welders would have to cut a hole in the bottom of the bin in order to perform their task, Stubblefield and Whitehead decided to remove the clumps of grain which had fallen to the bottom of the bin through that hole.

As Stubblefield stood facing the control panel, he heard a noise from behind. He testified that after hearing the noise he came to three months later in the intensive care unit in a hospital in Greenville. The time between the completion of the welding and the explosion is uncertain; however, it was not less than fifteen minutes nor more than an hour. Somewhere between three hundred fifty pounds to six tons of wheat had been run through the wheat bin before the explosion.

Stubblefield testified that he had seen the Jesco welders set up their equipment and begin welding. He stated that the welders had not swept the area in a circumference of thirty-five feet from the point of the welding. Nor had they wet down the area or the wheat bin or posted a fire guard. All of these omissions were in violation of the Tupelo City ordinance regulating welding.

The force of the explosion was so great that it literally destroyed the four story grain mill building. Frank Stubblefield, plant superintendent, was in the plant parking lot at the time of the explosion. He testified that he heard two explosions. Simultaneously he saw the third and fourth floor walls of the grain mill building blow out. After the explosion he toured the building and noted that the sheet metal walls separating the wheat bin on which the Jesco workers had been welding from a corn bin was buckled in towards the corn bin. The bins were arranged in groups of four in the shape of a square. Each bin represented a quadrant in the square. Although the bins were separated by sheet metal walls, there was an opening at the top of each of them which allowed ventilation or circulation from one bin to another. Frank Stubblefield testified that the corn bin was completely blown out and that the manhole covers on the fourth floor to these bins were blown off. The corn bins had suffered greater damage than the wheat bins and the bulk of the damage done to the bins was on the third floor.

Both Frank Stubblefield and Willie McClendan, a maintenance foreman for Sunshine Mills, testified that the morning of the explosion they had checked the bonding wires used in electrical junction boxes throughout the plant and found that these wires, were all intact. After the explosion McClendan and Stubblefield toured the plant and re-examined the wires. They performed an ohm meter test which indicated that a current was still running through these wires, negating the possibility that the wires were unconnected at the time of the explosion.

Talmadge Stubblefield's injuries, disfigurement and the attendant pain he continues to suffer are the manifestations of this great human tragedy. Stubblefield was burned on up to 60% of his body, including his face, neck, arms, chest, back and legs. Indeed, Dr. Robert Love, a plastic surgeon at the Greenville Burn Unit who has continued Margaret Allen, a registered nurse and former employee of the Greenville Burn Unit, testified that she was working at the burn unit during the time Talmadge Stubblefield was a patient there. She further corroborated the testimony of Stubblefield and Dr. Love regarding the extent of his injuries.

to treat Stubblefield since the time of his injuries, testified that Stubblefield was the most severely injured patient he had ever seen live. When Stubblefield arrived at the hospital he was in...

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