Alejandro-Ortiz v. P.R. Elec. Power Auth.

908 F. Supp. 2d 290, 2012 WL 5462918, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161222
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedNovember 8, 2012
DocketCiv. No. 10-1320(SCC)
StatusPublished

This text of 908 F. Supp. 2d 290 (Alejandro-Ortiz v. P.R. Elec. Power Auth.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alejandro-Ortiz v. P.R. Elec. Power Auth., 908 F. Supp. 2d 290, 2012 WL 5462918, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161222 (prd 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

SILVIA CARREÑO-COLL, United States Magistrate Judge.

Orlando Alejandro-Ortiz, along with his wife and their minor children, sued Defendant Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (“PREPA”) for its alleged negligence in causing the injuries he suffered when he came into contact with a low-hanging power line. At trial, PREPA’s defense was that it had not acted negligently and, even if it had, its own liability was precluded by Alejandro’s superseding negligence,1 which it said it could not have foreseen. After a jury trial, a verdict was rendered in favor of Plaintiffs. We now take up PREPA’s post-judgment motions, which include a consolidated Rule 50 motion for judgment as a matter of law and Rule 59 motion for a new trial, Docket No. 341, and a Rule 60(b) motion for relief from judgment. Docket No. 347.

I. PREPA’s motion for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial.

A motion for judgment as a matter of law may be granted if the trial court finds that “a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis” for its verdict. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a)(1). In reviewing the motion, we interpret the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, and we will grant the motion only if “ ‘the evidence points so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of the moving party that no reasonable jury could have returned a verdict adverse to that party.’ ” Marcano Rivera v. Turabo Med. Ctr. P’ship, 415 F.3d 162, 167 (1st Cir.2005) (quoting Rivera Castillo v. Autokirey, Inc., 379 F.3d 4, 9 (1st Cir.2004)); see also id. (“A party seeking to overturn a jury verdict faces an uphill battle.”); Crowe v. Bolduc, 334 F.3d 124, 134 (1st Cir.2003) (noting that review of motions [293]*293under Rule 50 is “weighted toward preservation of the jury verdict”). If we deny the motion under Rule 50, we may still grant a motion for a new trial under Rule 59. In reviewing the motion for a new trial, we are free to independently weigh the trial evidence, and we will grant the motion if we feel that the jury’s “verdict is against the weight of the evidence.” Jennings v. Jones, 587 F.3d 430, 436 (1st Cir.2009). Our decision on this question is a matter of substantial discretion. See Cham v. Station Operators, Inc., 685 F.3d 87, 97 (1st Cir.2012).

Plaintiff Alejandro suffered an accident and sued PREPA for its alleged negligence in causing the incident. His wife and minor children sued for their own injuries related to Alejandro’s accident. PREPA’s motion under Rules 50(b) and 59 focus on two separate points, which we address separately: first, PREPA argues that there was legally insufficient evidence to support a verdict in favor of Alejandro;2 second, PREPA argues that the claims of Alejandro’s wife, Co-Plaintiff Sonia Rodriguez-Jiménez are time barred.

A. Is the jury’s verdict in favor of Plaintiff Orlando Alejandro-Ortiz supported by legally sufficient evidence?

What is undisputed in this case is the following: Alejandro, at the time of his accident, was employed by the company that was responsible for garbage collection for the area around Cidra, Puerto Rico. Alejandro worked as a “helper,” which meant it was his job to ride on the back of the garbage truck as it did its rounds, moving the trash from the street to the truck. One day, his truck encountered a low-hanging cable blocking its path. Employing a method that he had used in the past under similar circumstances, Alejandro climbed on top of the truck, tied a rope to the low-hanging cable, threw the rope’s other end over a higher cable, and attempted to hoist the low cable to a height that would make passage possible. Something went wrong, and Alejandro received a very severe shock that caused permanent damage to his hands and arms.

PREPA’s legal sufficiency argument casts the trial evidence as supporting — or, rather, requiring — a finding that Alejandro is solely responsible for his accident and injuries. To this end, PREPA points to evidence showing that Alejandro, by dealing with the low-hanging cable himself, was not following his employer’s procedures, as relayed to him through a safety manual and training sessions.3 In particular, PREPA points to the testimony of Miguel Rodríguez, a former colleague of Alejandro, and Annabelle Hernandez, Alejandro’s supervisor, both of whom testified that the proper procedure was to allow a smaller pickup truck to collect the trash on parts of the route that the larger garbage truck could not reach.

PREPA’s theory, then, is that Alejandro’s own negligence caused his accident. The problem with this theory — and in our opinion it’s an insurmountable one — is that the jury did find that Alejandro had been negligent, but it found that PREPA had been significantly more so. Indeed, the [294]*294jury found that PREPA had proved that Alejandro had acted negligently, but in balancing the parties’ negligence it assigned 90% responsibility to PREPA and only 10% to Alejandro. See Jury Verdict Form, Docket No. 818, at 2. Thus, for PREPA to prevail on its motion, we must find that Alejandro’s actions were so abnormal or unforeseeable that PREPA, by exercising the proper degree of care, could not have acted to avoid them. See WoodsLeber v. Hyatt Hotels of P.R., Inc., 124 F.3d 47, 50-51 (1st Cir.1997) (holding that a plaintiff must prove that his injury “was reasonably foreseeable (and, thus, could have been prevented had the defendant acted with due care)” (citing Coyne v. Taber Partners I, 53 F.3d 454, 459 (1st Cir. 1995))).

In addressing the foreseeability of Alejandro’s injuries, we keep in mind the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico’s repeated holding that PREPA is required to “exercise the highest degree of care considering the inherently dangerous character” of its business. Mendez Purcell v. Water Res. Auth. of P.R., 10 P.R. Offic. Trans. 161, 167, 110 D.P.R. 130 (1980); see also Martinez De Jesus v. P.R. Elec. Power Auth., 256 F.Supp.2d 122, 125 (D.P.R. 2003) (“[T]he Supreme Court of Puerto Rico has repeatedly recognized that PREPA, as an entity that produces and distributes electricity, has the duty to exercise the highest degree of care, due to the inherently dangerous nature of the product that it markets.”). This duty extends to the installation, maintenance, and operation of its equipment, and PREPA is “obliged to carry out adequate inspections of its electrical units in order to discover defects and dangerous conditions that could place the public’s safety in jeopardy.” Martinez, 256 F.Supp.2d at 125 (citing Ramos v. Autoridad De Fuentes Fluviales De P.R., 86 D.P.R. 603, 609 (1962)). What this means is that PREPA, as a electrical utility, must foresee more than a typical actor.

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Crowe v. Bolduc
334 F.3d 124 (First Circuit, 2003)
Rivera Castillo v. Autokirey, Inc.
379 F.3d 4 (First Circuit, 2004)
Marcano Rivera v. Turabo Medical Center Partnership
415 F.3d 162 (First Circuit, 2005)
Jennings v. Jones
587 F.3d 430 (First Circuit, 2009)
Beresford N. Springer v. Gretchen Seaman
821 F.2d 871 (First Circuit, 1987)
Cham v. Station Operators, Inc.
685 F.3d 87 (First Circuit, 2012)
In Re N-500L Cases
517 F. Supp. 825 (D. Puerto Rico, 1981)
Martinez De Jesus v. Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority
256 F. Supp. 2d 122 (D. Puerto Rico, 2003)
Martinez De Jesus v. Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority
268 F. Supp. 2d 112 (D. Puerto Rico, 2003)
Ramos v. Autoridad de Fuentes Fluviales de Puerto Rico
86 P.R. Dec. 603 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1962)
Méndez Purcell v. Autoridad de las Fuentes Fluviales de Puerto Rico
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Colón Prieto v. Géigel
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
908 F. Supp. 2d 290, 2012 WL 5462918, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161222, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alejandro-ortiz-v-pr-elec-power-auth-prd-2012.