Creamer v. Bucy

700 P.2d 668
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 3, 1985
Docket61879
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 700 P.2d 668 (Creamer v. Bucy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Creamer v. Bucy, 700 P.2d 668 (Okla. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, Judge:

Negligence action. Cox Cable of Oklahoma City, Inc. (“Cox”) hired Greg Buey d/b/a Cybernetic Communications (“Buey”), an independent contractor, to install a co-axial television cable from Cox’s main cable to Wanda Joyce Creamer’s (“Creamer’s”) residence. Cox’s main cable is located in Creamer’s front yard easement. In running the co-axial cable from the front yard easement to Creamer’s residence, Bucy’s agent, Robert LaForce (“La-Force”), traversed a sidewalk by placing the cable in an expansion joint of the sidewalk. A few evenings after the installation, Creamer, carrying a 40-gallon trash can, walked down the sidewalk, tripped and fell over the cable, and sustained personal injury.

At the conclusion of all the evidence, trial court sustained Cox’s motion for directed verdict and dismissal. Jury returned a verdict in favor of Creamer and against Buey for $45,000.00, reduced by 15% because of Creamer’s contributory negligence, for a net award of $38,250.00. Buey appeals trial court’s denial of motion for new trial.

*670 As his first proposition, Buey urges trial court erred in dismissing Cox from the action. Buey contends the dismissal of Cox caused irreparable harm to Buey by leaving Buey “alone as a party defendant against Mrs. Creamer”. Cox, relying on Cleary Petroleum Corp. v. Harrison, 621 P.2d 528 (Okl.1980), responds that Buey has no right to appeal trial court’s dismissal of Cox because Buey is not a party aggrieved by such action. In Cleary, supra, p. 530, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma stated:

One who is not aggrieved by a court’s decision — however erroneous — may not bring an appeal from it. Case law defines an “aggrieved party” as one whose pecuniary interest in the subject-matter is directly and injuriously affected or one whose right in property is either established or divested by the decision from which the appeal is prosecuted. Generally, if the judgment sought to be reviewed does not, by its own force, operate to impose a burden or obligation, and it has no binding effect upon any right, interest, person or property of the appealing party, that appellant is not deemed aggrieved. The effect of a judgment must be direct, substantial and immediate, rather than contingent on some future event.

Creamer did not appeal trial court’s dismissal of Cox. Buey filed no cross-claim against Cox. “Standing to prosecute an appeal must be predicated on that interest in the trial court’s decision which is direct, immediate and substantial. Conjecture or speculation about possible adverse consequences that may flow from the decision at some.point in the future will not suffice to support a person’s ‘aggrieved’ status.” Underside v. Lathrop, 645 P.2d 514, 517 (Okl. 1982). [Emphasis in original.] We hold Buey lacks standing to contest trial court’s dismissal of Cox.

For his second proposition, Buey states: “That the trial court erred in not directing a verdict in favor of Greg Buey because as a matter of law in Oklahoma the sub-contractor’s liability to third persons for negligent construction is terminated upon acceptance by the contractee.” Buey cites four cases to support his position that, as a matter of law, he cannot be held liable to Creamer for negligent installation: Minor v. Zidell Trust, 618 P.2d 392 (Okl.1980); Schlender v. Andy Jansen Company, 380 P.2d 523 (Okl.1963); Greenwood v. Lyles & Buckner, Inc., 329 P.2d 1063 (Okl.1958); and Armstrong v. City of Tulsa, 102 Okl. 49, 226 P. 560 (1924). Minor, the most recent decision cited by Buey, does not address the accepted-work doctrine. In Minor, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma specifically stated: “We need not hence concern ourselves with the correctness of the architect’s contention that their liability to the Motorist is legally expressible in terms coextensive with that of a builder or contractor whose ‘job’ has been ‘accepted’ by the owner.” Minor, supra, p. 393.

Buey relies most heavily upon the oldest decision, Armstrong, where the Supreme Court of Oklahoma stated in the third paragraph of its syllabus:

The general rule is that, after an independent contractor has turned over the work performed by him, and it has been accepted by the proprietor, the contractor incurs no further liability to third parties by reason of the condition of the work; but the responsibility, if any, for maintaining or using it in its defective condition is shifted to the proprietor. The contractor remains liable, if at all, only to the proprietor for a breach of his contract. Armstrong, supra, p. 561.

The more recent cases of Schlender and Greenwood, while affirming the general rule announced in Armstrong, expressly state that there are exceptions to the general rule. In Schlender, supra, p. 524, the Supreme Court stated in the first paragraph of its syllabus:

Generally, as a matter of public policy, a builder’s liability to third persons for negligent construction is terminated upon acceptance by the contractee, but where the contractor has wilfully created a condition which he knows, or by the exercise of ordinary diligence *671 should have known, to be immediately and certainly dangerous to persons other than the contractee, who will be necessarily exposed to such danger, considerations of public policy do not require the application of the general rule. [Emphasis added.]

We hold there was sufficient evidence from which the jury could find as a matter of fact that Buey willfully created a condition which, by the exercise of ordinary diligence, he should have known to be immediately and certainly dangerously to persons other than Cox (such as Creamer) who were necessarily exposed to such danger.

For his third proposition, Buey asserts: Trial court erred in not directing a verdict for the defendant, Greg Buey, in that the plaintiff, when faced with an open and obvious defect, have (sic) primary responsibility to act reasonably in protecting her own person and her failure to act reasonably in protecting her own person and her failure to act reasonably is the sole and proximate cause of the injuries sustained.

In Jack Healey Linen Service Co. v. Travis, 434 P.2d 924, 926 (Okl.1967), the Supreme Court of Oklahoma once again set forth the test for defendant’s motion for directed verdict:

The question presented on defendant’s motion to direct a verdict is whether, admitting the truth of all the evidence favorable to the plaintiff, together with such inferences as may reasonably be drawn from it, there is enough competent evidence reasonably to sustain a verdict for the plaintiff should the jury find in her favor. Where the evidence is conflicting, all facts and inferences unfavorable to the plaintiff must be disregarded, leaving for consideration that evidence only which is favorable to the plaintiff. If there is any competent evidence tending to show a right to recover under any view of the evidence so considered, the matter should be left for the jury.

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Bluebook (online)
700 P.2d 668, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/creamer-v-bucy-oklacivapp-1985.