Virden v. Betts and Beer Const. Co., Inc.
Decision Date | 23 January 2003 |
Docket Number | No. 01-0596.,01-0596. |
Citation | 656 N.W.2d 805 |
Parties | Ron VIRDEN, Appellant, v. BETTS AND BEER CONSTRUCTION CO., INC. and Stroh Corporation, Appellees. |
Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Channing L. Dutton of Lawyer, Lawyer, Dutton & Drake, L.L.P., West Des Moines, for appellant.
Gregory A. Witke and Matthew J. Haindfield of Bradshaw, Fowler, Proctor & Fairgrave, P.C., Des Moines, for appellee Betts and Beer Construction Co., Inc.
Richard K. Updegraff and Brian P. Rickert of Brown, Winick, Graves, Gross, Baskerville and Schoenebaum, P.L.C., Des Moines, for appellee Stroh Corporation.
Plaintiff, Ron Virden, worked in the maintenance department of Indianola High School. On the first day of school in 1997, Virden's supervisor asked him to reinstall an angle iron that had fallen from the ceiling of the school's new wrestling room. As Virden was bolting the angle iron into place, he fell from the top of the ten-foot ladder on which he was standing. He sustained severe injuries to his left leg, requiring several surgeries.
Virden sued the contractors, defendants Betts & Beer Construction and Stroh Corporation, who earlier in the year had installed the wrestling room ceiling. Over Virden's objection, the district court granted these defendants summary judgment. It held their negligence, if any, was not the proximate cause of Virden's injuries. Virden appealed and the court of appeals reversed. We granted further review and, now, vacate the court of appeals decision and affirm the judgment of the district court.
Because this case reaches us on appeal from a summary judgment ruling, our task is to determine whether the record made before the district court demonstrates "no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.981. We are obliged to "view the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, giving him the benefit of every legitimate inference the evidence will bear." Walls v. Jacob North Printing Co., 618 N.W.2d 282, 284 (Iowa 2000).
Johnson v. Junkmann, 395 N.W.2d 862, 865-66 (Iowa 1986). The question is whether this is such an exceptional case. For the reasons that follow, we think that it is.
To sustain his tort claim against these defendants, Virden would have to prove that the defendants owed him a duty of care, they breached that duty, their breach was the actual and proximate cause of Virden's injuries, and he suffered damages. Walls, 618 N.W.2d at 285. Virden's petition claimed that defendants' failure to "properly assemble, install and/or inspect the roof system" required Virden to "put himself at risk to re-install the angle iron," leading to his fall from the ladder.
The summary judgment record makes plain that neither Virden nor his employer contacted the defendants about the fallen angle iron before attempting to effect repairs. Virden also concedes that he sought no help in positioning or securing the ladder, even though several pieces of weight-lifting equipment hampered clear access to the repair site. With this record in mind, we turn to the disputed elements of Virden's claim: duty and causation.
Thompson v. Burke Eng'g Sales Co., 252 Iowa 146, 155, 106 N.W.2d 351, 356 (1960). This rule rests on fundamental principles:
106 N.W.2d at 353 ( ).
Virden did not suffer, however, from being hit by the angle iron or tripping over it once it fell from the ceiling. In his words, he was injured when the ladder he stood on to replace the fallen hardware "suddenly kicked out from under [him] and [he] fell." That brings us to the crux of the case.
B. Causation. Defendants' breach of their duty of care only constitutes actionable negligence if it is "also the proximate cause of the injury." City of Cedar Falls v. Cedar Falls Cmty. Sch. Dist., 617 N.W.2d 11, 17 (Iowa 2000). There are two components to the proximate-cause inquiry: "(1) the defendant's conduct must have in fact caused the damages; and (2) the policy of the law must require the defendant to be legally responsible for them." Id.; see also Gerst v. Marshall, 549 N.W.2d 810, 815 (Iowa 1996)
.
With respect to the first component, a plaintiff must at a minimum prove that the damages would not have occurred but for the defendant's negligence. City of Cedar Falls, 617 N.W.2d at 17
; Gerst, 549 N.W.2d at 817. Here, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to Virden, we assume that but for the faulty weld in the angle iron he would not have been perched precariously upon a ladder attempting to fix it. So, minimally, the but-for test...
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