Carl Cusumano and Diane Cusumano v. Mapco Gas Products, Incorporated, Defendant-Third Party v. Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, Third Party Cross-Appellee

85 F.3d 631, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 32497
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedApril 29, 1996
Docket95-2031
StatusUnpublished

This text of 85 F.3d 631 (Carl Cusumano and Diane Cusumano v. Mapco Gas Products, Incorporated, Defendant-Third Party v. Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, Third Party Cross-Appellee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carl Cusumano and Diane Cusumano v. Mapco Gas Products, Incorporated, Defendant-Third Party v. Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, Third Party Cross-Appellee, 85 F.3d 631, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 32497 (3d Cir. 1996).

Opinion

85 F.3d 631

NOTICE: Seventh Circuit Rule 53(b)(2) states unpublished orders shall not be cited or used as precedent except to support a claim of res judicata, collateral estoppel or law of the case in any federal court within the circuit.
Carl CUSUMANO and Diane Cusumano, Plaintiffs, Cross-Appellees,
v.
MAPCO GAS PRODUCTS, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Third Party
Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant,
v.
ILLINOIS STATE TOLL HIGHWAY AUTHORITY, Third Party
Defendant-Appellant. Cross-Appellee.

Nos. 95-2031, 95-2119.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Nov. 8, 1995.
Decided April 29, 1996.

Before WOOD, Jr., FLAUM and MANION, Circuit Judges.

ORDER

Carl Cusumano sued Mapco Gas for serious injuries he incurred from a liquified natural gas explosion. Mapco brought in the Illinois State Highway Authority as a third party defendant. The jury awarded damages, designating fault among Mapco (50%), the Highway Authority (20%), and Cusumano (30%). On appeal the defendants contest who should pay and how much. We reverse summary judgment in favor of Mapco for breach of contract, affirm on the denial of remittitur and remand.

I.

A. The Bid

In June of 1990, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority ("Authority") solicited bids for a two-year contract to supply liquid propane ("LP") to certain of its toll plazas which employ LP-powered electric generators as a back-up power supply. To solicit bids, the Authority mailed invitation-to-bid packages to LP gas suppliers, including Mapco Gas Products, Inc. ("Mapco"). Each package consisted of: an Invitation to Bid, Standard Special Provisions, Additional Special Provisions, Specifications, Bid Form, Bid Envelope, Bidder's List and Questionnaire, and the Authority's Purchasing Practices and Procedures and General Provisions.

On June 25, 1990, Mapco submitted to the Authority a fully prepared and executed Bid for Contract No. 90-47-4738. The bid was signed by James Grote, the district manager of Mapco's Chicago area district. One month later the Authority awarded Mapco the contract on this bid, and the same day mailed a letter so stating along with a Contract Purchase Order. Mapco received but misfiled the letter. Mapco admits that the acceptance of its bid established a contractual relationship between it and the Authority beginning August 1, 1990, even though Mapco did not know that it had been awarded the contract.

John Canniff, the building maintenance manager for the Authority, also was unaware of the contractual relationship. Thus, when the toll plaza at Downer's Grove, Plaza 56A, ran low on propane, Canniff called Diane Fitzgerald in the Authority's Operations Department and asked which supplier had the new LP contract. After Fitzgerald told Canniff Mapco had the contract, Canniff phoned Mapco and spoke with Grote. Although they dispute many details of their conversation, they agree that Canniff informed Grote that Mapco had been awarded the contract and that Plaza 56A required an LP delivery. Because of the earlier misfiling of the award letter and Contract Purchase Order, this was the first that Grote was aware that Mapco had been awarded the bid. Grote agreed to have Mapco deliver LP gas to Plaza 56A the next morning, August 10, 1990.

B. The Explosion

The following morning Mapco employee Michael Spangler arrived at Plaza 56A with a 460-gallon tank of liquid propane. Spangler and Authority mechanic Carl Cusumano installed the tank. Spangler replaced the existing tank with the new tank and Cusumano lit the vaporizer that converts propane from a liquid to a vapor. After Spangler had connected the new tank the two men went into the generator room to bleed the line running between the vaporizer and the generator. LP gas in the generator room exploded, seriously injuring Spangler and Cusumano.

C. The Lawsuit

Toll Highway Authority mechanic Cusumano sued Mapco in tort. Counts I and II sought damages in negligence; counts III and IV sought damages in strict product liability; count V sought damages in strict liability for an abnormally dangerous activity; and count VI sought punitive damages for willful and wanton conduct. In response, Mapco filed a third-party complaint against the Authority based upon the Authority's alleged negligence, seeking to recover under a theory of implied indemnity in Count I and under the Illinois Contribution Act in Count II. Responding in turn, the Authority filed a cross-claim seeking a declaratory judgment against Mapco alleging that: (1) Mapco breached its contractual obligation to procure insurance naming the Authority as an additional insured; and (2) Mapco was contractually obligated to indemnify the Authority for losses resulting from Mapco's negligence. The Authority also filed a counterclaim against Mapco seeking costs, attorney's fees, and expenses incurred by the Authority in defending again Mapco's third party complaint. Count I based recovery on the contract's indemnity provision and Count II based recovery on breach of contract to install LP tanks in a safe manner.

The district court entered summary judgment for Mapco on the Authority's cross-claim for declaratory judgment. The court held that when the Authority requested that Mapco deliver LP gas without first ascertaining whether Mapco had complied with the contractual provision to procure insurance naming the Authority as an insured, the Authority had waived that provision.

Prior to a jury trial on the remaining counts, the court dismissed Count I of Mapco's third-party complaint for implied indemnity and entered summary judgment for Mapco on Cusumano's Count V strict liability claim. At the close of Cusumano's case, the district court entered a directed verdict for Mapco on Cusumano's Count VI claim for punitive damages.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Mapco on Cusumano's remaining strict liability claims and in favor of Cusumano on his negligence claims. The jury determined that Cusumano suffered $2,000,000 in total damages; $200,000 of the award was for past and future lost wages and $100,000 for future medical expenses. The jury assessed the relative fault of the parties as: 50% Mapco; 20% Authority; and 30% Cusumano himself. Thus, Cusumano's award was reduced to $1,400,000 due to his comparative negligence, and his past and future lost wages and future medical expenses were reduced to $140,000 and $70,000, respectively. The jury also returned a verdict for the Authority on its counterclaim against Mapco for breach of contract. The jury did not determine the damages caused by the breach due to a pretrial stipulation between the Authority and Mapco removing damages on the counterclaim from jury consideration.

Following the jury's verdict, the Authority and Cusumano reached a settlement agreement in which the Authority waived its right to recover Illinois Workers Compensation Act payments it had made to Cusumano out of the judgment Cusumano had won against Mapco. In return Cusumano waived his right to recover any further compensation under the Act. The settlement capped the Authority's payment at the $202,119.46 the Authority had already paid to Cusumano along with $33,000 in attorney's fees.

Both the Authority and Mapco filed post-trial motions.

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85 F.3d 631, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 32497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carl-cusumano-and-diane-cusumano-v-mapco-gas-products-incorporated-ca3-1996.