Suarez v. Dickmont Plastics Corp.

• Decision Date: 05 August 1997
• Docket Number: No. 15452,15452
• Citation: 242 Conn. 255,698 A.2d 838
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Alfonso SUAREZ v. DICKMONT PLASTICS CORPORATION.

Page 838

698 A.2d 838

242 Conn. 255

Alfonso SUAREZ v. DICKMONT PLASTICS CORPORATION.

No. 15452.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Feb. 18, 1997.

Decided Aug. 5, 1997.

Christopher Rooney, with Kevin C. Doyle, New Haven, for appellant (defendant).

Scott S. Centrella, with, on the brief, was Jonathan P. Whitcomb, Stamford, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before BERDON, NORCOTT, KATZ, PALMER and PETERS, JJ.

KATZ, Associate Justice.

This appeal arises from a judgment rendered for the plaintiff, Alfonso Suarez, following a jury verdict against the defendant, Dickmont Plastics Corporation, after remand from this court in Suarez v. Dickmont Plastics Corp., 229 Conn. 99, 639 A.2d 507 (1994), in which we reversed the summary judgment originally rendered for the defendant. In Suarez, this court concluded that a plaintiff employee could establish an intentional tort claim and overcome the exclusivity bar of the Workers' Compensation Act (act); General Statutes § 31-275 et seq.; ¹ by proving either that the employer actually intended to injure the plaintiff (actual intent standard) or that the employer intentionally created a dangerous condition that made the plaintiff's injuries substantially certain to occur (substantial certainty standard). We reasoned: "The substantial certainty test differs from the true intentional tort test but still preserves the statutory scheme and the overall purposes of the act. The problem with the intentional tort test, i.e., whether the employer intended the specific injury, appears to be that it allows employers to injure and even kill employees and suffer only workers' compensation damages so long as the employer did not specifically intend to hurt the worker.... Prohibiting a civil action in such a case would allow a corporation to 'cost-out' an investment decision to kill workers.... The substantial certainty test provides for the intent to injure exception to be strictly construed and still allows for a plaintiff to maintain a cause of action against an employer where the evidence is sufficient to support an inference that the employer deliberately instructed an employee to injure himself." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id. at 109-10, 639 A.2d 507.

After a trial on the merits following our remand, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. By its answers to special interrogatories, the jury indicated that the plaintiff had proven that the defendant was liable for the plaintiff's injury, and that the plaintiff was not responsible for his own injury. The trial court refused to set aside the verdict or to render a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The defendant appealed from the judgment of the trial court to the Appellate Court, and we transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to Practice Book § 4023 and General Statutes § 51-199(c).

On appeal, the defendant argues that: (1) because the jury found that the plaintiff had failed to prove the defendant liable under the substantial certainty standard, judgment must be rendered for the defendant because the actual intent standard was not before the jury; (2) even if the actual intent standard had been before the jury, the trial court improperly instructed the jury that the actions of a foreman employed by the defendant may be attributed to the defendant under the theory of either apparent authority or alter ego to establish the defendant's underlying intentional conduct; (3) there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's conclusion that the defendant was liable for the actions of the foreman based on the theory that the foreman was the alter ego of the defendant; and (4) there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's conclusion that the defendant actually intended to injure the plaintiff. We reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the case to that court with direction to render judgment for the defendant.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. In 1973, the plaintiff, a Guatemalan native with a sixth grade education, began working for the defendant and continued his employment, with the exception of a few brief periods, for approximately thirteen years prior to his injury. The defendant is a family owned and operated corporation that manufactures plastic parts using horizontal injection molding machines. As a "floorman," the plaintiff was responsible for, among other duties, removing hot plastic material from the machines at the end of his shift, which ran from 4 p.m. to midnight, so that the material could be stored in an oven until the next working day.

Because of the significant number of employees who spoke only Spanish, including the plaintiff, the defendant employed bilingual foremen to manage the employees on each shift. From approximately 1973 to 1976, the defendant employed a foreman, Santiago Santiago, who was the management person in charge of operations during the plaintiff's night shift, and reported directly to the defendant's owners. During the time period from 1973 to 1976, Santiago instructed the plaintiff that he was required to remove the material from a hopper using a scoop and to also remove the material from the feed shoot and feed chamber with his bare hands while the machine was still producing plastic parts. On one occasion, the plaintiff attempted to stop the production cycle before the end of his work shift in order to clean out the material and Santiago became angry, yelling "very bad words" at him. Santiago insulted the plaintiff and told him that if the owners were to find out that the plaintiff had stopped production early, they would fire him. During the remainder of his employment with the defendant, out of fear of losing his job, the plaintiff never again attempted to stop production to clean out the material.

On another occasion, the plaintiff attempted to use an industrial vacuum cleaner as a safer method to remove the hot material from the machine while it was still operating. Santiago again became angry, striking a table with a pipe and threatening to fire the plaintiff if he used the vacuum cleaner again, because it wasted the hot material. Because of Santiago's threats, no other floormen cleaned the hot material out of the machines in a manner other than by handling a scoop with bare hands while the machine was operating.

During the years after Santiago had left the defendant's employ, the plaintiff worked under the direction of four other foremen. None of these foremen ever instructed the plaintiff that he was cleaning the hot material out of the machines in an improper manner. The policy remained that the floormen were not authorized to stop the machines to clean out the hot material prior to the end of the work shift. In June, 1986, two fingers on the plaintiff's right hand were partially amputated while he was removing the hot material from one of the machines.

At the close of evidence, the trial court instructed the jury on both the actual intent and substantial certainty standards for proving an intentional injury. Additionally, the trial court submitted four special interrogatories to the jury--three that addressed the defendant's liability and one that addressed the plaintiff's own culpability. In reaching its verdict, the jury answered in the affirmative interrogatory number two, which addressed the actual intent standard, and answered the substantial certainty interrogatories in the negative. ² The jury also answered interrogatory number four in the negative, finding that the plaintiff was not culpable for his injury.

Accordingly, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff in the amount of $150,000. The defendant subsequently filed motions to set aside the verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, both of which the trial court denied. Specifically, the trial court stated that "viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, the jury could reasonably have reached the verdict it did. The court finds the jury could reasonably have reached this verdict...." Additional facts will be provided as warranted.

I

The defendant first argues that, because the jury found for the defendant on interrogatories numbers one and three relating to the substantial certainty standard, the jury could not have rendered a verdict for the plaintiff because the actual intent standard had not been presented to the jury. We disagree.

We begin with the defendant's claim that the case was pleaded and tried solely upon the substantial certainty standard and therefore, that the jury's negative answers to interrogatories numbers one and three contradict the general verdict in favor of the plaintiff. ³ In response, the plaintiff asserts that both the actual intent and substantial certainty standards were before the jury, and that the jury's affirmative answer to interrogatory number two warrants the general verdict. We agree with the plaintiff.

The plaintiff's third amended complaint alleged, in addition to allegations implicating the substantial certainty standard, that his injuries were caused by the "wilful, serious and intentional misconduct" of the defendant. ⁴ Although these allegations were denied, the defendant acknowledged in its memorandum submitted to the trial court that, with respect to these allegations, "[t]he plaintiff must prove that the defendant intended to injure him or committed serious and wilful misconduct such that the defendant believed that the plaintiff's injury was substantially certain to follow from the defendant's conduct." (Emphasis added.)

Both parties submitted proposed jury instructions and special interrogatories to the trial court. With respect to the special interrogatories, the trial court adopted nearly verbatim the defendant's proposed draft special interrogatories, ⁵ with the exception of the defendant's proposed draft special interrogatory number one, which also addressed the actual intent standard. ⁶ Although the parties had...