Conway v. Hi-Tech Engineering, Inc.

2011 Ark. 180, 381 S.W.3d 56, 2011 WL 1587752, 2011 Ark. LEXIS 163
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 28, 2011
DocketNo. 09-1049
StatusPublished

This text of 2011 Ark. 180 (Conway v. Hi-Tech Engineering, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conway v. Hi-Tech Engineering, Inc., 2011 Ark. 180, 381 S.W.3d 56, 2011 WL 1587752, 2011 Ark. LEXIS 163 (Ark. 2011).

Opinion

DONALD L. CORBIN, Justice.

| lAppellant, Carol Diane Conway, individually as the surviving mother and in her capacity as independent administratrix of the estate of Dennis Howard, deceased, appeals the order of the Garland County Circuit Court granting summary judgment to Appellees, Hi-Tech Engineering, Inc. (HTE), and Gillingham Best, Inc. (GBI), on her complaint for damages resulting from the death of her son. She raises three points for reversal, arguing that the circuit court erred in granting summary judgment on her claims for negligence, gross negligence, and breach of contract. Jurisdiction is properly in this court pursuant to Arkansas Supreme Court Rules 1-2(b)(1) and (b)(5) (2010), as the case presents an issue of first impression and an issue needing clarification or development of the law. We find no error and affirm.

1⅞1. Facts and Procedural History

This case has a rather long procedural history that includes a complaint that was amended seven times, multiple motions to dismiss, and three motions for summary judgment. In addition, there were multiple rulings along the way from different judges in the circuit court. We do not recite a detailed and complete procedural history, but only the basic parts necessary for an understanding of the issues presented on this appeal.

Appellant’s son Dennis Howard was crushed to his death on September 9, 2004, between the roll case and the stacker carriage arm of an automated log-stacking machine while working at a Weyerhaeuser sawmill facility near New Bern, North Carolina. Appellant filed suit against Ap-pellee HTE on February 3, 2005, alleging that HTE was an Arkansas corporation located in Hot Springs that had negligently and defectively designed, manufactured, and marketed the log-stacking machine involved in Appellant’s death.

HTE subsequently filed a third-party complaint for indemnity against Appellee GBI, denying that it designed the automated stacking machine at issue in the lawsuit and alleging that GBI designed the stacker at issue. According to the third-party complaint, HTE sold the automated stacker at issue to Weyerhaeuser pursuant to an exclusive licensing agreement between HTE and GBI. Appellant later amended her complaint to name GBI as a defendant. In other amendments to her complaint, Appellant asserted claims for gross negligence and for breach of warranties and breach of contract as a third-party beneficiary to the contract for the sale of the lumber stacker from HTE to Weyerhaeu-ser.

la After HTE and GBI jointly filed their first motion for summary judgment, the circuit court entered an order on December 29, 2006, granting partial summary judgment on Appellant’s products-liability claim as barred under the North Carolina statute of repose for defective products, N.C. GemStat. § l-50(a)(6) (Repl.2007). The circuit court conducted a choice-of-law analysis and concluded that North Carolina law should be applied in deciding this case. The circuit court reasoned that the place of injury and the contacts were overwhelmingly found in North Carolina, as Appellant was from North Carolina, the estate was being administered in North Carolina, the machine remained in North Carolina, and most of the witnesses to the accident were in North Carolina. The circuit court also reasoned that North Carolina law included a statute of repose that would be outcome determinative. Appellant and Appellees do not raise choice of law as an issue in this appeal. The circuit court later denied Appellant’s motion to reconsider and entered an order clarifying that the December 29, 2006 order granted partial summary judgment only on Appellant’s products-liability claims and that the contract and warranty claims remained viable. Appellant appealed the December 2006 order to the Arkansas Court of Appeals and then voluntarily dismissed that appeal.

Following the partial summary judgment on her products-liability claim, Appellant filed a fourth amended complaint in which she included an alternative claim for negligence, wherein she alleged that the lumber stacker was an improvement to real property and therefore governed by North Carolina’s statute of repose for improvements to real property, |4N.C. Gen. Stat. § l-50(a)(5) (Repl.2009). Appellant further alleged that, pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1 — 50(a)(5)(e) (Repl.2009), GBI and HTE would have no defense available under the statute of repose for improvements to real property because they designed the lumber stacker with a willful, wanton, and reckless disregard for the safety of others and for the terms of the contract with Weyerhaeuser that required compliance with OSHA standards.

HTE and GBI separately filed their second motions for summary judgment. The circuit court denied these motions, ruling that issues of fact remained as to whether Appellees’ conduct was willful and whether Appellant was an intended third-party-beneficiary.

Appellant made further amendments to her complaint, adding an assertion that comparative fault or contributory negligence was not an available defense to a claim for gross negligence. Ultimately, the seventh amended and final version of Appellant’s complaint alleged claims for wrongful death and survival against both HTE and GBI based on the theories of products liability, negligence, negligence per se or willful and wanton conduct, breach of warranties, breach of contract, and a defective or unsafe condition of an improvement to real property.

HTE filed a motion to dismiss the products-liability claims, as the court had previously granted summary judgment on the basis that they had been determined to be time-barred, and to reconsider the denial of summary judgment on the contract claim, arguing that it was also time-barred under the applicable statute of limitations. Subsequently, both Appellees separately filed their third and final motions for summary judgment. The circuit court held 15a hearing and later entered an order on May 27, 2009, granting the third motions for summary judgment and HTE’s motion to dismiss and to reconsider “on all grounds stated in the respective motions and briefs of GBI and HTE.” The order further ruled that Appellant’s “claims against all parties are fully dismissed with prejudice in their entirety. HTE’s third-party claims against GBI are dismissed as moot in their entirety.” Appellant now appeals the order granting summary judgment and presents three arguments for reversal.

II. Negligence Claim

Appellant first contends that the circuit court erred in granting summary judgment on her negligence claim because it was timely brought under the North Carolina statute of repose for improvements to real property, section l-50(a)(5). Appellant first advanced this argument after the circuit court granted partial summary judgment on the basis that her claim for products liability was barred by North Carolina’s statute of repose for products-liability actions, section l-50(a)(6). Appel-lees responded below, and on appeal, that Appellant’s complaint, including the amendments asserting that the stacker was an improvement to real property, sounded in products liability and therefore the controlling statute of repose applicable in this case is the one for products liability, specifically section l-fiOCaXb).1

| fiThus, the parties disagree as to which of the two referenced North Carolina statutes of repose controls this case.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Black v. Littlejohn
325 S.E.2d 469 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1985)
Vikingstad v. Baggott
282 P.2d 824 (Washington Supreme Court, 1955)
Yancey v. Lea
550 S.E.2d 155 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 2001)
Colony Hill Condominium I Ass'n v. Colony Co.
320 S.E.2d 273 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1984)
Chicopee, Inc. v. Sims Metal Works, Inc.
391 S.E.2d 211 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1990)
Whitehurst v. Hurst Built, Inc.
577 S.E.2d 168 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2003)
Cacha v. Montaco, Inc.
554 S.E.2d 388 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2001)
Bolick v. American Barmag Corp.
293 S.E.2d 415 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1982)
Nolan v. Paramount Homes, Inc.
518 S.E.2d 789 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1999)
Forsyth Memorial Hospital, Inc. v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc.
444 S.E.2d 423 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1994)
Bryant v. Adams
448 S.E.2d 832 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1994)
Bryant v. Don Galloway Homes, Inc.
556 S.E.2d 597 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2001)
National Property Investors v. Shell Oil Co.
950 F. Supp. 710 (E.D. North Carolina, 1996)
Lonsdale v. Chesterfield
662 P.2d 385 (Washington Supreme Court, 1983)
Hunter v. Runyan
2011 Ark. 43 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2011)
Vogl v. LVD Corp.
514 S.E.2d 113 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1999)
Robinson v. Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire, L.L.C.
703 S.E.2d 883 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2011 Ark. 180, 381 S.W.3d 56, 2011 WL 1587752, 2011 Ark. LEXIS 163, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conway-v-hi-tech-engineering-inc-ark-2011.