Bishop v. GenTec Inc.

2002 UT 36, 48 P.3d 218, 444 Utah Adv. Rep. 10, 2002 Utah LEXIS 61, 2002 WL 472285
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 29, 2002
Docket20000467, 20000492
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 2002 UT 36 (Bishop v. GenTec Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bishop v. GenTec Inc., 2002 UT 36, 48 P.3d 218, 444 Utah Adv. Rep. 10, 2002 Utah LEXIS 61, 2002 WL 472285 (Utah 2002).

Opinion

DURHAM, Justice.

INTRODUCTION -

1 This appeal and cross-appeal challenge the judgment entered in a wrongful death action brought by Patty Bishop individually and as the executor of the decedent Douglas Bishop's estate and Bishop's children. Bishop, an employee of Valley Asphalt, Inc., died as a result of personal injuries sustained while performing repair work on asphalt silo components manufactured by Gen-Tec, Inc., and installed and maintained by Valley Asphalt. Bishop sued GenTee for products liability, and GenTee filed a third-party complaint against Valley Asphalt, seeking indemnification for. GenTec's negligence, strict liability, and products lability based on the language in an invoice signed by Valley Asphalt. With respect to the indemnification, the court granted GenTec's motion for summary judgment. The jury allocated fault to both GenTec and Valley Asphalt. Judgment was then apportioned *220 pursuant to Utah's Liability Reform Act. Bishop moved to amend the jury verdict based on clerical error, but the trial court denied the motion. Valley Asphalt and Bishop appealed, and GenTeec filed a cross-appeal.

BACKGROUND

T2 In late 1994 or early 1995, Valley As-phailt, planning to expand its asphalt storage capacity, contacted GenTee, a manufacturer and assembler of hot asphalt silos.and silo components, to purchase hot asphalt silo components. Valley Asphalt purchased components for an asphalt silo from GenTee on August 7, 1995,, and signed GenTec's standard invoice entitled "Equipment Sales Order and Security Agreement." On the reverse side of the pre-printed invoice were two sections entitled "INDEMNIFICATION" and "INSTALLATION," which purported to place limitations on GenTee's liability. Soon after completion of the purchase, Valley Asphalt received the silo components and constructed the system pursuant to the specifications provided by GenTee. |

T3 On July 12, 1997, while inspecting and attempting to repair one of Valley Asphalt's asphalt silos, Bishop was caught between the doors of the silo when they suddenly closed and was crushed. He died later that day as a result of his injuries. The components that crushed Bishop were those purchased under the August 7, 1995 invoice. Subsequently, Bishop's executor filed this wrongful death action against GenTeec.

T4 GenTee filed a third-party complaint against Valley Asphalt, seeking apportionment of fault and indemnification under the pre-printed terms on the reverse side of the August 7, 1995 invoice. After review of Gen-Tec's and Valley Asphalt's cross-motions for summary judgment on the indemnification question, the trial court found that the two entities were sophisticated business entities, that they negotiated the terms of the invoice at arm's length, and that the language in the invoice evidenced the intent of the parties to reallocate all liability to Valley Asphalt, including claims against GenTee for negligence, strict liability, and products liability.

5 The jury apportioned fault according to a special verdict form, allocating 25 percent of the fault to Bishop, 45 percent to GenTee, and 30 percent to Valley Asphalt. In addition to apportioning fault, the jury determined the amount of general damages to be $750,000 and special damages to be $800,000. Because Valley Asphalt was a party immune from suit pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 78-27-87(8)(a) (Supp.2001), the trial judge reapportioned Valley Asphalt's 30 percent fault according to Utah's Liability Reform Act ("LRA"), Utah Code Ann. §§ 78-27-87 to - 48 (1999), which resulted in allocating 64.29 percent of the total fault to GenTee and 35.71 percent to Bishop. The trial court then reduced the jury's damages award by the 85.71 percentage of fault. allocated to Bishop. Both GenTee and Valley Asphalt objected to the reapportionment. They claimed that either Valley Asphalt's liability should be combined with Bishop's liability under the common law doctrine of respondeat superior or, if respondeat superior did not apply, that the reapportionment part of the LRA, section 78-27-39(2)(a), is unconstitutional under both the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and the Uniform Operation of Laws Clause of the Utah Constitution, art. I, seetion 24. The trial court overruled GenTee's and Valley Asphalt's constitutional objections. With respect to the respondeat superior argument, the trial court found that the LRA superceded the common law and that "the statute clearly and unambiguously requires that [the] Court must consider the fault of Mr. Bishop and Valley [Asphalt] sep-grately." j

T6 After the trial ended and the jury was exeused, Bishop's counsel talked to at least three of the jurors, including the jury foreman, all of whom subsequently signed affidavits indicating they had made a mistake in their calculation of the jury award. In their affidavits, the jurors testified that they had mistakenly subtracted 25 percent (Bishop's proportion of fault as determined by the jury) from the general and special damages, not realizing that the subtraction for Bishop's fault was the duty of the trial court, not the jury. Relying on these affidavits, Bishop moved to amend the jury verdiet pursuant to *221 Utah R. Civ. P. 59, or 60(a) or 60(b); later, however, in a hearing on the matter, Bishop modified his motion from a request for impeachment or amendment of the verdiet under rule 59 or rule 60 to one solely for a correction of clerical error under rule 60. Bishop conceded that the juror affidavits would not support a rule 59 motion to impeach the jury verdict.

17 Bishop argued, with the support of the juror affidavits, that the jury's allocation error reduced the final general and special damages award announced in the jury ver-diet to a sum that was 25 percent lower than the amount the jury intended to award. Bishop maintained that the jury's intent was further evidenced by the fact that its special damages award was almost exactly 75 percent of the $1,067,000 special damages amount presented by Bishop's expert witness to the jury at trial, The trial court concluded that. Bishop's motion to amend the jury verdict was in reality a motion to impeach the verdict and ruled that the affidavits were not admissible pursuant to Utah R. Civ. P. 59(a)(2). In its order, however, the trial court did not specifically address Blshops rule 60 motion to amend.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

T8 The application of the LRA in apportioning fault is a legal question of statutory construction, which we review for correctness. Field v. Boyer Co., LC., 952 P.2d 1078, 1079 (Utah 1998). A district court's disposition of a summary judgment motion is a question of law that we review for correctness. Schurts v. BMW of North America, Inc., 814 P.2d 1108, 1111-12 (Utah 1991). "We accord a trial court's interpretation of a contract no deference and review it for correctness." - Aquagen Int'l, Inc, v. Calrae Trust, 972 P.2d 411, 418 (Utah 1998).

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Bluebook (online)
2002 UT 36, 48 P.3d 218, 444 Utah Adv. Rep. 10, 2002 Utah LEXIS 61, 2002 WL 472285, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bishop-v-gentec-inc-utah-2002.