Carroll v. Getty Oil Co.

498 F. Supp. 409, 1981 CCH OSHD 25,111, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13368
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedAugust 27, 1980
DocketCiv. A. 79-268
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 498 F. Supp. 409 (Carroll v. Getty Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carroll v. Getty Oil Co., 498 F. Supp. 409, 1981 CCH OSHD 25,111, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13368 (D. Del. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

LATCHUM, Chief Judge.

This action, based on diversity of citizenship, 1 was brought by plaintiffs, Thomas Carroll and his wife Grace, against Getty Oil Company, Getty Marketing and Refining Company, and Getty Oil Company (Eastern Operations), Inc. The plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages for personal injuries suffered by Mr. Carroll while he was operating a Milton Form Rolling Machine (“MFRM”) owned by Getty Marketing and Refining Company (“Getty”) which was located at Getty’s refinery at Delaware City, Delaware. Plaintiffs have moved for partial summary judgment on issues relating to negligence per se, proximate cause, contributory negligence, assumption of risk, and punitive damages.

While many of the facts are contested, the Court has found the following facts to be essentially undisputed: Plaintiff Thomas Carroll, a trained boilermaker, was at all times pertinent to this action an employee of Catalytic, Inc. (“Catalytic”). 2 Catalytic, a separate and distinct corporate entity from Getty was under contract with Getty to perform certain types of maintenance work for the latter at its Delaware City refinery. 3 On the night of September 24, 1977, Mr. Carroll was working in the tool- *411 room of the Maintenance and Construction Building at the refinery. 4 He and another Catalytic employee, Jim Hall, were rolling stainless steel mesh on the MFRM. 5 Although both men were using the machine, each worked independently, performing all the necessary tasks alone. 6 At the time Mr. Carroll was wearing welding gloves in order to protect his hands from being cut by the sharp edges of the wire mesh he was handling. 7 As Mr. Carroll was feeding a piece of wire mesh into the MFRM, the machine caught the edge of his glove and his left hand was pulled into the machine. Noticing his predicament, but unable to reach its controls with his right hand, Mr. Carroll vainly attempted to pull his hand out of the glove and away from the machine, ripping the glove in the process. By the time Mr. Hall realized what was happening and turned off the MFRM, Mr. Carroll had already managed to tear his hand out of the machine, leaving part of his hand and the glove behind. 8 As a result of his accident, Mr. Carroll’s left middle and index fingers were partially amputated and his left ring finger was damaged. 9

On June 6, 1979, plaintiffs brought this negligence action seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the injuries suffered by Mr. Carroll in this incident.

The second amended complaint alleges that Getty was negligent in five respects and that such negligence proximately caused Mr. Carroll’s injuries. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that Getty was negligent in that it:

(a) supplied to plaintiff a piece of machinery which [it] knew or should have known was, or was likely to be, dangerous for the use to which it was supplied;
(b) failed to exercise reasonable care to make the machinery safe for the use to which it was supplied;
(c) failed to exercise reasonable care to discover the machinery’s dangerous condition and to inform plaintiff thereof;
(d) failed to warn the plaintiff of the dangerous condition of the supplied machinery;
(e) failed to comply with the then existing and applicable federal and state safety regulations, including but not limited to, 29 C.F.R. § 1910.212. 10
Getty has denied these allegations and has raised the affirmative defenses of contributory negligence and assumption of risk. 11 Plaintiffs have moved for partial summary judgment requesting that an order be entered declaring that:
1. [Getty’s] lack of compliance with existing and applicable federal and state safety standards constitutes negligence as a matter of law;
2. [Getty] may not avail [itself] of the defenses of contributory negligence and assumption of risk;
3. [Getty’s] failure to comply with the existing and applicable federal and state safety standards was a proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries;
4. [Getty’s] conduct in consciously disregarding the above-referenced safety standards justifies the jury being instructed on the law of punitive damages. 12

Plaintiffs in moving for summary judgment face an extremely heavy burden in this Circuit. Consequently, this Court’s consideration of their motion is governed by the following stringent standards set forth in United States ex rei. Jones v. Rundle, 453 F.2d 147, 150 (C.A.3, 1971):

Summary judgment is proper only when “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of *412 law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. Rule 56(c). “Any doubt as to the existence of a genuine issue of fact is to be resolved against the moving party. . . . Documents filed in support of a motion for summary judgment are to be used to determine whether issues of fact exist and not to decide the fact issues themselves.” Krieger v. Ownership Corp., 270 F.2d 265, 270 (3d Cir. 1959); accord, Bowman Steel Corp. v. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co., 364 F.2d 246 (3d Cir. 1966); Janek v. Celebrezze, 336 F.2d 828 (3d Cir. 1964). The burden of demonstrating the justification for a motion for summary judgment lies with the movant. Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 153-161, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1606-1610, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1969).

“Summary judgment may not be granted where there is the slightest doubt as to the facts.” Tomalewski v. State Farm Ins. Co., 494 F.2d 882, 884 (C.A.3, 1974).

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498 F. Supp. 409, 1981 CCH OSHD 25,111, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carroll-v-getty-oil-co-ded-1980.