Walden v. U.S. Steel Corp., 83-7472

• Decision Date: 06 May 1985
• Docket Number: No. 83-7472,83-7472
• Parties: Mary Katherine WALDEN, etc., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, a corporation, et al., Defendants, United States Steel Corporation, a corporation, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 834

759 F.2d 834

Mary Katherine WALDEN, etc., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, a corporation, et al., Defendants United States Steel Corporation, a corporation, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 83-7472.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

May 6, 1985.

William C. Knight, Birmingham, William F. Murray, Jr., J. Ross Forman, Birmingham, Ala., for defendant-appellant.

Cabaniss, Johnston, Gardner, Dumas & O'Neal, Tony G. Miller, Birmingham, Ala., for amicus Ala., et al.

G. Stephen Parker, Atlanta, Ga., for amicus, Southeastern Legal Foundation, Inc.

John T. Roach, Jr., Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiff-appellee.

Thomas J. Whyte, Thomas A. Smock, David J. Laurent, Pittsburgh, Pa., for American Mining-amicus.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before VANCE and ANDERSON, ¹ Circuit Judges, and PITTMAN ^*, District Judge.

PER CURIAM:

United States Steel Corporation (U.S. Steel) appeals from an adverse jury verdict in a suit by Mary Katherine Walden for the wrongful death of her husband Harold. At the time of his death, Harold Walden was employed by Cowin & Co. (Cowin), an independent contractor hired by U.S. Steel to do construction and excavation work at U.S. Steel's Oak Grove coal mine. The district court submitted the case to the jury on three separate negligence theories and they returned a general verdict in Mrs. Walden's favor. U.S. Steel filed a motion for judgment n.o.v. asserting that it was entitled to a directed verdict on each of the negligence theories. The district court denied the motion. 567 F.Supp. 1443. We affirm the district court's denial of the motion as to two of the theories and certify the third to the Supreme Court of Alabama for clarification of the duty owed by U.S. Steel to employees of this independent contractor.

Harold Walden was killed in 1974 in an accident during the construction of U.S. Steel's Oak Grove coal mine. Walden was employed by Cowin, which had been hired by U.S. Steel to sink a fan shaft and an elevator-ventilation shaft for the mine. U.S. Steel provided plans and specifications for the shafts to Cowin and the other contractors that bid on the job. The "bid package" given the contractors bidding on the elevator-ventilation shaft included a geologic survey and a construction drawing showing the desired dimensions and shape of the finished shaft, but no other construction specifications. Cowin's contract with U.S. Steel specifically delegated all responsibility for safety at the construction site to Cowin. Cowin prepared the construction plans, including the method for sinking the shaft, which were submitted by U.S. Steel to the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration (MESA) for approval. The plans identified both U.S. Steel Safety Director Walter Fleming and Cowin Safety Director Richard Gallentine as the principal officers in charge of health and safety.

Cowin sank the shaft by drilling holes into the ground and inserting and discharging dynamite charges to fragment the rock. The resulting debris, called "muck," was loaded into a bucket attached to a hoist for removal at the top of the shaft. Cowin used the two-bucket hoist method. Workmen loaded one bucket on the floor of the shaft while another bucket was being hoisted to the top. Once the elevator shaft reached the coal seam (approximately 1100 feet down) Cowin began constructing horizontal headings (tunnels). As required, Cowin submitted a new plan to MESA detailing the method for removing coal and muck from the headings. Although the plan stated that a conveyor feeder would be used to load the buckets at the bottom of the shaft, Cowin chose to load the buckets with an EIMCO 630 loader instead. Because Cowin's EIMCO 630 loader was too tall to permit loading in the horizontal headings, workers were forced to remain in the shaft underneath the bucket being hoisted while loading the other bucket. The hoist did not have an automatic brake or any other safety mechanisms and Cowin did not install a safety trap door or any other safety device in the shaft.

John Allen, U.S. Steel's Project Engineer, was at the site continuously from March 1973, monitoring the contractors' progress and their compliance with the plans. When Cowin began constructing the headings, he was involved in day-to-day planning to determine the best method for extracting the coal and connecting the shafts. He was in the shaft almost daily to check the work. Allen had an intimate knowledge of the federal and state regulations for mining and mine construction. He was aware of the safety requirements for the hoist being used by Cowin and he had checked all the equipment on the site at one time or another. He made suggestions to contractors from time to time for improving the operation and safety at the site. At one point he asked Cowin to tighten the ventilation curtain in the bottom of the mine shaft to prevent the build-up of noxious gases, and Cowin did so. Cowin always promptly complied with Allen's suggestions.

On May 23, 1973, Herbert Wilson was killed at the Oak Grove site when the brakes on a hoisting mechanism failed and a three-ton bucket of muck fell back down the fan shaft on top of him. Walter Fleming of U.S. Steel reported the accident to MESA. MESA investigated the accident and in the requirements section of its report directed that "[w]orkmen shall not work directly beneath a bucket being hoisted or lowered." No changes were made in the plans or construction method after Wilson's death. Allen knew of the citations issued by MESA after the accident and was aware that Cowin nevertheless continued its excavation efforts without complying with the plan that had been submitted to and approved by MESA.

On April 8, 1974, less than a year after Wilson's death, Harold Walden was killed at the bottom of the elevator-ventilation shaft. The bucket of coal being hoisted came up too high out of the shaft and hit the hoist frame at high speed. The steel hoist cable broke and the bucket fell back down the shaft, crushing Walden.

Walden's wife brought a wrongful death action against U.S. Steel based on several theories of liability. The district court submitted the case to the jury on the following three negligence theories: (1) that U.S. Steel was allegedly negligent in its design, plans, and specifications for the Oak Grove mine; (2) that U.S. Steel was allegedly negligent in its inspection of the equipment used where Walden was killed, after voluntarily undertaking safety inspections; and (3) that U.S. Steel was allegedly negligent in failing to warn of dangers at the site and in providing a safe work place for Walden as the employee of an independent contractor on U.S. Steel's property who was engaged in intrinsically dangerous activity.

The jury returned a general verdict in favor of the plaintiff. U.S. Steel appeals, assigning error to the trial court's refusal to grant a directed verdict or judgment n.o.v. on each claim. We will address each theory in turn.

In reviewing the denial of a motion for judgment n.o.v., this court is...