Davis v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp.

205 Cal. App. 4th 731, 140 Cal. Rptr. 3d 682, 2012 WL 1435016, 2012 Cal. App. LEXIS 497
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 26, 2012
DocketNo. B226089
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 205 Cal. App. 4th 731 (Davis v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Foster Wheeler Energy Corp., 205 Cal. App. 4th 731, 140 Cal. Rptr. 3d 682, 2012 WL 1435016, 2012 Cal. App. LEXIS 497 (Cal. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

[733]*733Opinion

ARMSTRONG, J.

Plaintiffs and appellants Marilyn Davis, John Davis, Tim Davis, and Jeff Davis appeal from the judgment entered in favor of defendant and respondent Foster Wheeler Energy Corporation, after Foster Wheeler’s motion for summary judgment was granted. We affirm.

Background

In the 1960’s, Ronald Davis (husband to Marilyn and father to the other plaintiffs) worked at the Shell Chemicals plant in Torrance as an instrument technician. Foster Wheeler designs and manufactures steam generating equipment. There were three Foster Wheeler boilers at the Shell plant while Ronald Davis worked there, and Davis at times worked near those boilers.

Ronald Davis was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2008, and died in 2009.

Plaintiffs sued Foster Wheeler and many others, bringing causes of action for negligence, strict liability, breach of warranty, and loss of consortium,1 on factual allegations that Davis was exposed to defendants’ asbestos and asbestos-containing products and that defendants failed to warn of the dangers of those products.

Foster Wheeler moved for summary judgment on the ground that it did not manufacture, sell, or distribute any asbestos-containing product, that Davis was not exposed to asbestos dust emanating from any Foster Wheeler product, and raising other defenses. Plaintiffs’ response was that Foster Wheeler was liable because its boilers contained asbestos insulation and because it failed to warn Davis of the dangers of working around that insulation, and that Foster Wheeler was hable because it had itself exposed Davis to asbestos by removing asbestos-containing insulation from the boilers to perform routine maintenance.

Foster Wheeler’s motion was granted, judgment was entered, and this appeal was filed. Subsequently, our Supreme Court decided O’Neil v. Crane Co. (2012) 53 Cal.4th 335 [135 Cal.Rptr.3d 288, 266 P.3d 987], which concerned the liability of a manufacturer of pumps and other equipment for injury caused when third party asbestos was released when the equipment [734]*734was serviced. O ’Neil held that “a product manufacturer generally may not be held strictly liable for harm caused by another manufacturer’s product” (id. at p. 362), finding that a manufacturer’s duty does not extend to “preventing injuries caused by other products that might foreseeably be used in conjunction with a defendant’s product,” and that manufacturers do not have a duty “to warn about the dangerous propensities of products they do not design, make, or sell” (id. at pp. 342-343).

We invited the parties to file supplemental briefs on the effect of that case on this one. In response, plaintiffs argued that there are still two grounds for reversal.

First, plaintiffs contend that O’Neil does not affect their theory that Foster Wheeler is liable because its employees exposed Davis to asbestos dust by stripping old insulation from Foster Wheeler boilers in order to perform routine maintenance on the boilers. They contend that there is a triable issue on the facts, and that Foster Wheeler “cannot articulate anything that would immunize it from liability if its employees actually engaged in that conduct.”

Next, plaintiffs have an argument that concerns discovery. They contend that there may be evidence that Foster Wheeler directed the use of asbestos on the boilers, but that Foster Wheeler had not produced the evidence prior to the summary judgment.

Discussion

1. Boiler Maintenance

It was essentially undisputed that Foster Wheeler did not manufacture or sell asbestos-containing products, and that there was no asbestos insulation inside the Foster Wheeler boilers. Plaintiffs’ theory is that there is a triable issue on whether Davis was exposed to asbestos dust when Foster Wheeler employees stripped old asbestos-containing insulation from the outside of the boilers, during the twice-a-year maintenance.

Plaintiffs’ evidence on this point is found in the deposition testimony of a coworker of Davis’s, Claude Chabot, which plaintiffs proffered in response to Foster Wheeler’s motion for summary judgment.

In the evidence submitted by plaintiffs, Chabot testified that Foster Wheeler contractors worked on the three Foster Wheeler boilers, elaborating that he knew that a contractor was a Foster Wheeler contractor because “he had a hat with a ‘FW’ on it,” and that he saw this contractor come into the plant twice a year, each time for a period of two weeks. Chabot was asked [735]*735what he saw those contractors doing, and answered, “they were taking the insulation out and opening up the boiler and working.” He testified that he was sure that Foster Wheeler contractors were removing the insulation.

Chabot also testified that the new insulation that was installed on the boilers was in packages which said, “Johns Manville,” “asbestos-containing,”2 and “Kelloggs,” and that Kelloggs was “a contractor that installed the insulation.” Chabot did not know who brought the insulation to the plant.

In response, Foster Wheeler produced additional deposition testimony from Chabot, in which he testified that insulators removed the insulation from the boilers, and that those insulators were the same people whom he saw installing the insulation. He was asked, “At this point, do you know who employed the insulators that you saw removing insulation off the exterior of the boilers or furnaces, as well as installing the insulation? Do you know who employed them?” He answered, “Shell ordered from a contractor . . . ,” then testified that he did not know which insulation contractor Shell had hired. He was asked, “You have no information or knowledge that this contractor you associated with Foster Wheeler either removed or installed any insulation on the exteriors of any furnaces or boilers at Shell Chemical Torrance; is that true?” He answered, “Yes, that’s true.”

On this record, the trial court decided that “no reasonable jury considering this opposing testimony would conclude that the [Foster Wheeler] workers are the workers who removed the asbestos insulation around the Foster Wheeler boilers.”

Plaintiffs contend that there was a triable issue on the question. They cite the rule that “ ‘the task of disambiguating ambiguous utterances is for trial, not for summary judgment.’ [Citation.]” (Reid v. Google, Inc. (2010) 50 Cal.4th 512, 541 [113 Cal.Rptr.3d 327, 235 P.3d 988].) That rule refers to the task of determining the meaning of ambiguous statements, and means that “[determining the weight of discriminatory or ambiguous remarks is a role reserved for the jury.” (Ibid.)

Plaintiffs also cite Clemmer v. Hartford Insurance Co. (1978) 22 Cal.3d 865 [151 Cal.Rptr. 285, 587 P.2d 1098], but that case concerned a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, based on a contention that a witness’s testimony was so internally inconsistent as to be useless. It was in that context that the Supreme Court cited the established rule that “the fact that [736]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
205 Cal. App. 4th 731, 140 Cal. Rptr. 3d 682, 2012 WL 1435016, 2012 Cal. App. LEXIS 497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-foster-wheeler-energy-corp-calctapp-2012.