Conversano, M. v. Parker Oil Company

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 23, 2020
Docket2094 EDA 2019
StatusUnpublished

This text of Conversano, M. v. Parker Oil Company (Conversano, M. v. Parker Oil Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conversano, M. v. Parker Oil Company, (Pa. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

J-A04010-20

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

MARIE CONVERSANO AND BRAD : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF HOYT AND JOHN HOYT : PENNSYLVANIA : Appellants : : : v. : : : No. 2094 EDA 2019 PARKER OIL COMPANY, SYCAMORE : ENERGY-ROCKAWAY TERMINAL, LLC : AND SYCAMORE ENERGY-ROCKAWAY : RETAIL, LLC T/A AND/OR D/B/A : SYCAMORE COMPANIES :

Appeal from the Judgment Entered June 26, 2019 In the Court of Common Pleas of Monroe County Civil Division at No(s): 2016-Civil-5404

BEFORE: PANELLA, P.J., STRASSBURGER, J., and COLINS, J.

MEMORANDUM BY PANELLA, P.J.: Filed: March 23, 2020

Marie Conversano-Hoyt1, Brad Hoyt, and John Hoyt (collectively,

“Owners”) appeal from the judgment entered on June 26, 2019,2 following a

jury trial in a negligence action resulting in a defense verdict. The Owners

suggest, inter alia, that the trial court erred when it did not enter judgment

notwithstanding the verdict (“judgment n.o.v.”) and further erred when it did

____________________________________________

 Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

1 The caption identifies Ms. Conversano-Hoyt as “Marie Conversano.”

2 See Pa.R.A.P. 108(b) (identifying that an order’s entry date is the “day on which the clerk makes the notation in the docket that notice of entry of the order has been given”). J-A04010-20

not give specific jury instructions requested by the Owners. After a thorough

review of the record, we affirm.

In this matter, the Owners received a delivery of heating oil while they

were not present at their residence in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. The

residence’s locked garage held the heating oil tank; however, the delivery

company, Sycamore Energy-Rockaway Terminal, LLC, (“Sycamore”) accessed

the tank through pipes that extended outside of the garage. The pipes were

designed to emit a whistle sound that continued until the tank was full.

Approximately ten days after the oil delivery, the Owners arrived at the

residence, smelled the odor of oil emanating from the garage, and saw oil

spilled all over the floor in the garage. The owners contacted Sycamore, who

sent a recovery/remediation company to inspect the residence. That company

concluded that oil had soaked through an expansion joint between the floor

slab and a cinderblock wall. Subsequently, the Pennsylvania Department of

Environment Protection (“DEP”) received notification of the spill and sent a

notice of violation to Sycamore requiring the residence to be cleaned within

fourteen days.

The Owners instituted the underlying action by filing a complaint

alleging that Sycamore had been negligent in its filling of the oil tank. The

complaint asserted that Sycamore caused the tank to rupture because

Sycamore’s employee either overpressurized or overfilled the tank, resulting

in the spill. Eventually, the case proceeded to a jury trial, which resulted in a

verdict in favor of Sycamore. The Owners then filed a post-trial motion, which

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the trial court denied. This timely appeal followed.

On appeal, the Owners raise three issues for our review:

1) Did the trial court err when it denied the Owner’s post-trial motion to vacate the jury’s verdict and enter judgment n.o.v.?

2) Did the trial court err when it refused to instruct the jury as to negligence per se for Sycamore’s admitted violation of the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law?

3) Did the trial court err when it gave the jury a non-standard instruction pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 6141(b) by indicating that Sycamore’s clean-up and remediation of the residence pursuant to notices issued by DEP was not an admission of liability?

See Appellants’ Brief, at 4.

In their first issue, the Owners contend that they were entitled to

judgment n.o.v. because they believe testimony presented on behalf of DEP

representatives in conjunction with Sycamore’s own admissions conclusively

established Sycamore’s negligence. Our standard of review from the denial of

a motion for judgment n.o.v. is well-settled:

A motion for judgment n.o.v. is a post-trial motion which requests the court to enter judgment in favor of the moving party. There are two bases on which the court can grant judgment n.o.v.: one, the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law and/or two, the evidence is such that no two reasonable minds could disagree that the outcome should have been rendered in favor of the movant. With the first, the court reviews the record and concludes that even with all factual inferences decided adverse to the movant the law nonetheless requires a verdict in his favor, whereas with the second, the court reviews the evidentiary record and concludes that the evidence was such that a verdict for the movant was beyond peradventure.

Stange v. Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 179 A.3d 45, 52-53 (Pa. Super.

-3- J-A04010-20

2018) (formatting altered).

In an appeal from the trial court's decision to deny judgment n.o.v., we must consider the evidence, together with all favorable inferences drawn therefrom, in a light most favorable to the verdict winner. Our standard of review when considering motions for a directed verdict and judgment notwithstanding the verdict are identical. We will reverse a trial court's grant or denial of a judgment notwithstanding the verdict only when we find an abuse of discretion or an error of law that controlled the outcome of the case. Further, the standard of review for an appellate court is the same as that for a trial court.

Id., at 53 (formatting altered and citation omitted).

Concerning any questions of law, our scope of review is plenary. Concerning questions of credibility and weight accorded the evidence at trial, we will not substitute our judgment for that of the finder of fact.... A [judgment n.o.v] should be entered only in a clear case. [T]he entry of a judgment notwithstanding the verdict ... is a drastic remedy. A court cannot lightly ignore the findings of a duly selected jury.

Id. (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

The Owners’ position is that “[t]he evidence in this case is overwhelming

and constitutes admissions by [Sycamore].” Appellants’ Brief, at 10. Further,

they contend that “[t]he uncontradicted evidence in this case clearly proves

that [Sycamore] admitted that it overfilled the oil tank causing it to rupture.”

Id.

In making these assertions, the Owners rely upon the information

Sycamore submitted to DEP following the spill’s discovery, Sycamore’s lengthy

remediation work on the residence, and the fact that Sycamore did not appeal

nor contest the notice of violation that it received from DEP. See id., at 10-

11. Accordingly, the Owners believe they irrefutably proved Sycamore’s

-4- J-A04010-20

negligence, and in that same vein, the jury’s finding was unreasonable.

The “elements of negligence are: a duty to conform to a certain standard

for the protection of others against unreasonable risks; the defendant's failure

to conform to that standard; a causal connection between the conduct and the

resulting injury; and actual loss or damage to the plaintiff.” Brewington for

Brewington v. City of Philadelphia, 199 A.3d 348, 355 (Pa. 2018). To

“prove[] … negligence,” Appellants’ Brief, at 11, the Owners cite to the

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Bluebook (online)
Conversano, M. v. Parker Oil Company, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conversano-m-v-parker-oil-company-pasuperct-2020.