Boshears v. Saint-Gobain Calmar, Inc.

272 S.W.3d 215, 2008 Mo. App. LEXIS 1051, 2008 WL 3286950
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 12, 2008
DocketWD 67443
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 272 S.W.3d 215 (Boshears v. Saint-Gobain Calmar, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boshears v. Saint-Gobain Calmar, Inc., 272 S.W.3d 215, 2008 Mo. App. LEXIS 1051, 2008 WL 3286950 (Mo. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

JAMES EDWARD WELSH, Judge.

Larry Boshears (Boshears) and Jamie Baggett (Baggett) sued Saint-Gobain Cal-mar, Inc. (Calmar), and William T. Whit-low for negligence due to the injuries they suffered while performing work for Cal-mar on property leased by Calmar. A jury found for Boshears and Baggett. After comparative fault adjustments by the circuit court, the verdict in favor of Bosh-ears was for $1,360,000 and the verdict in favor of Baggett was for $1,700,00o. 1 Cal-mar and Whitlow filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict claiming that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction and that workers’ compensation was the exclusive remedy available to Boshears and another motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and/or for new trial. The circuit court denied both motions. Calmar and Whitlow appeal. 2 They assert *219 that: (1) the circuit court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Boshears’s negligence claim because, pursuant to section 287.040.2, RSMo Cum.Supp.2007, 3 Calmar was Boshears’s statutory employer, and, therefore, the case falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of workers’ compensation, (2) the circuit court erred in allowing Boshears to question Calmar’s witnesses regarding “who was at fault,” (3) the circuit court erred in allowing Boshears to question Calmar’s witnesses as to “whether [it] learned [its] lesson” or “what [it] would do differently in the future,” (4) the circuit court erred in allowing Boshears to argue in his closing statement that Bosh-ears had not hired expert George Cave, (5) the circuit court erred in excluding evidence that Boshears had hired expert Cave, (6) the circuit court erred in denying Calmar’s motion for new trial. We disagree and affirm the circuit court’s judgment.

Calmar manufactures liquid dispensing systems, such as trigger sprayers, lotion pumps, liquid soap dispensers, and fine mist sprayers. In 2004, Calmar decided to consolidate its two manufacturing operations into one plant and entered into a lease for a building in Grandview, Missouri. Calmar took possession of the Grandview property in March 2004. After Calmar took possession and control over the property, it began the process of construction and renovation of the property to meet its manufacturing needs. Although Calmar hired a general contractor to handle the work for the office portion of the facility, it did not hire a general contractor to supervise and manage the work in the manufacturing portion of the facility.

William Whitlow served as Calmar’s Plant Engineer. According to Whitlow, seventy-five percent of his primary duties were related to maintenance of the facility, contracts related to yard service, janitorial services, and maintenance contracts. The remaining twenty-five percent of his work involved potential remodel, construction, and design of facilities. Whitlow stated, “I get involved sometimes with divisions outside of where I currently work in somewhat of a consultant fashion for design of process systems.” Whitlow said that it was his job to plan the layout of the plant and the placement of the machines within the facility. He stated he was also responsible for designing the routing of the process piping of the machines and was involved with the electrical supplies to this facility, including designing and inspecting electrical systems.

Whitlow reported directly to Calmar’s Vice President of Operations, Keith Demp-ton. In describing Whitlow’s role at the renovation of the plant, Dempton said:

Bill Whitlow was very involved with the design of the layout and — as well as the infrastructure. Mr. Whitlow has designed support infrastructure for injection molding operations in the past, so he was very instrumental in developing the design to support that structure. He was also very instrumental in the layout of the equipment on the shop floor, both in molding and assembly. So he had a very integral part.
He was on the — a member of the steering committee who decided, when we quoted the project, which contractors we would send quotes to and we — I don’t think there was one portion of the con *220 tract that we didn’t get multiple quotes from multiple contractors.
He was on — I would say an on-site guy helping to answer questions as we started to get into renovation.

According to Dempton, Whitlow did not have any supervisory role or management role over anyone doing the construction work.

Calmar hired several outside contractors to perform the demolition and renovation work. Calmar hired Country Club Contractors to repaint the warehouse ceiling and to remove gas lines, electrical lines, and other fixtures from the Grandview property. County Club Contractors in turn subcontracted with Doc’s Painting to remove gas lines and fixtures from the property.

On June 22, 2004, Boshears and Bag-gett, employees of Doc’s Painting, used a scissor lift to reach gas lines near the ceiling so that they could cut the pipes. As they cut into one of the gas pipes, a fire erupted. Marion Michael Distefano, who was working for American Fire Protection, noticed the fire and noticed the men on the scissor lift. Distefano immediately drove a second scissor lift to the fire, raised the lift into the air, and pulled Boshears and Bag-gett from the burning lift. Boshears sustained deep and superficial 2nd degree burns to approximately 10% of his body, including the face, arms, shoulders, and upper extremities.

Whitlow assumed the duty to turn off and vent the gas lines at the building during the demolition and renovation. Whitlow admitted that he missed turning off the gas line on which Boshears and Baggett were cutting.

Boshears sued Calmar and Whitlow for negligence, and a jury awarded him $1,360,000, after the circuit court made the comparative fault adjustment. Calmar and Whitlow filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict claiming that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction and that workers’ compensation was the exclusive remedy available to Boshears and another motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and/or for new trial. The circuit court denied both motions. Calmar and Whitlow appeal from the circuit court’s judgment.

For its first point, Calmar contends that the circuit court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Boshears’s negligence claim because, pursuant to section 287.040.2, RSMo Supp.2007, Calmar was Boshears’s statutory employer, and, therefore, the case falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of workers’ compensation. Ordinarily, “[t]he determination of whether a case falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Workers’ Compensation Law is a question of fact that is left to the sound discretion of the trial court.” State ex rel. MW Builders, Inc. v. Midkiff, 222 S.W.3d 267, 269 (Mo. banc 2007). When, however, “the facts are not in dispute as to the nature of the agreement and the work required by it, the existence or absence of statutory employment is a question of law for the courts to decide.” Bass v. Nat’l Super Mkts., Inc., 911 S.W.2d 617

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Bluebook (online)
272 S.W.3d 215, 2008 Mo. App. LEXIS 1051, 2008 WL 3286950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boshears-v-saint-gobain-calmar-inc-moctapp-2008.