Essex Insurance v. David's Floor Service, Inc.

23 Mass. L. Rptr. 325
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedOctober 22, 2007
DocketNo. MICV200500040C
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Mass. L. Rptr. 325 (Essex Insurance v. David's Floor Service, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Essex Insurance v. David's Floor Service, Inc., 23 Mass. L. Rptr. 325 (Mass. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

Smith, Herman J., J.

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter is before the court on the motion of the plaintiff, Essex Insurance Company (“Essex Insurance”), for summary judgment where Essex Insurance contends it owes no duly to defend or indemnify David’s Floor Service (“David’s Floor”), a flooring service company, for any property damage and bodily injury caused by a fire at 4 Foskett Street in Somer-ville, Massachusetts (“Foskett job” or “Foskett property”). The fire occurred during a floor sanding and refinishing job that killed two people, severely injured two others, and resulted in extensive damage to the Foskett property and to a neighboring building. All of the defendants, David’s Floor Service, Inc., Muoi Bui a/k/a Muoi Pham, individually and as administrators of the estate of Toan Bui, Loan Vu, individually and as administratrix of the estate of Ha Vu, Nam Dao, Trung Le, Tim D. Stein, Wayne Rolf and Maria Krings (collectively “defendants”) have filed oppositions. For the reasons set forth below, Essex Insurance’s motion for summary judgment is DENIED.

II. BACKGROUND

The following facts are summarized in the light most favorable to the non-moving parties. In September 2004, Tim Stein and Wayne Rolf Fette, owners of a three-family building located at 4 Foskett Street in Somerville, Massachusetts, verbally1 contracted with David’s Floor Service (“David’s Floor”) to sand and refinish the third floor and the stairways between the second and third floor at the Foskett property.2 David’s Floor is a small flooring business that at the time was owned by Min dang, and his father David Dang.3 Generally, Min Dang ran the business which included handling customer relations, estimates, and bookkeeping.

David’s Floors delegated the Foskett job to one of its crews, all of who, as claimed by Essex Insurance, were “employees” of David’s Floor. Essex Insurance asserts that Toan Bui was a field supervisor of one of these crews, and Ha VU, Nam Dao, and Trung Le were his assistants. It is disputed whether the members of the crew were employees of David’s Floor.

Toan Bui had worked with David’s Floors since 2001. David’s Floors dealt primarily with Bui. Bui received “65% of the total job” from which Bui was responsible for paying his assistants, providing needed transportation, tools, and other materials such as polyurethane and lacquer sealer. David’s Floor kept 35% of the gross contract price, and was responsible for advertising, customer relations and other business operating costs. Prior to the flooring job at the Foskett property, David’s Floor had not worked with Vu, Dao, or Le. Toan Bui selected them to work on the crew because Toan Bui worked with them or knew them from previous work.

Toan Bui asserts that he was a subcontractor to David’s Floor, and Le and Dao were employees of Bui and his company Bless Hardwood Floor. Toan Bui’s 2003 Individual Tax Return (Schedule C) lists Nam Dao and Trung Le as business expenses for Bless Hardwood Floor. Toan Bui paid Le and Dao on a regular basis, provided them with materials and tools, and transported them to and from any contracted job. Bui asserts that Ha Vu was a fellow worker. However, Ha Vu asserts that he was an employee of Toan Bui and Bless Hardwood Floors. Trung Le and Nam Dao have submitted affidavits asserting they were not employees of David’s Floors, and that they worked for Toan Bui.

Toan Bui also points to an insurance application dated December 12,2003 and filed with Essex Insurance which states David’s Floors annual payroll as $10,400.00, and its number of employees as two. Further, Toan Bui points to a fax to Essex’s insurance broker, X/S Brokers Insurance Agency (“X/S Brokers”), which indicates that David’s Floor did not have any employees.4

1. Safety Procedures

Min Dang and David Dang periodically discussed safety issues with their crews. The lacquer sealer5 was a particularly flammable product used in the finishing [327]*327process, and David’s Floors had prior fires6 involving the Harco brand of the lacquer sealer. Min Dang called Toan Bui on a weekly basis to assign him jobs for the following week. In these conversations, Min Dang asserted that at least once a month he reminded Toan Bui of safety issues such as opening the windows, turning off the pilot lights, and unplugging all electrical devices. David Dang also asserted that he regularly spoke with Toan Bui about safety precautions.

David’s Floors also created and regularly modified a safety document called “David’s Floor Service, Inc. Fire and Health Safety Provisions” (“David’s Safety Policy” or “Safety Policy”). The document was printed in English and Vietnamese. During the pay period, sometimes Toan Bui and his assistants would come in and discuss David’s Safety Policy with Min Dang. David Dang had the Safely Policy memorized and asserted that he gave a copy of the document to Toan Bui prior to the Foskett property job. In turn, Toan Bui was responsible for distributing the document to his team, and closely supervising the others’ work and compliance with the safety standards. Min Dang stated that he would visit about a quarter of the job sites especially when the job was complicated, “like installation or repair, stuff like that, or if there’s — if we know that there’s a gas stove with a pilot and not an electrical starter or something like that.” Min Dang did not visit the Foskett property job.

In some respects, David’s Safety Policy differed from the warnings on the Harco lacquer sealer used at the Foskett property. The warnings on the can of sealer listed more detailed restrictions than were included in David’s Safety Policy. David Dang explained that he verbally explained the additional warnings instead of including them in the Safety Policy. However, the defendants have pointed out that the warnings and Safety Policy conflicted with each other. The warnings on the Harco lacquer sealer7 indicated that the sealer should be applied at the rate of one gallon per each 600 square feet,8 yet David Dang asserted that workers were instructed to apply the sealer at a rate of one gallon per each 250 square feet. Also, the warnings on the can of sealer suggested allowing two hours drying time before applying a finish coat whereas Min Dang required only 45 minutes.9

Min Dang arranged the job at the Foskett property. It is unclear whether he spoke, about appliances, electric sources or any safety precautions with Tim Stein, his contact for the Foskett job. He explained that if Mr. Stein had any questions he could talk to him or Toan Bui even though it is also unclear whether Mr. Stein was ever told that Bui was an appropriate contact person. Tim Stein stated that no one spoke to him about any safety precautions or about anything that needed to be done to prepare the area prior to the flooring job.

David Dang explained that David’s Floors always spoke with homeowners regarding safety, terminating pilot lights, the flammable nature of Harco lacquer sealer, and other safety concerns. In fact, David’s Floors would try to limit the use of the Harco sealer, as did other companies in the flooring business, and would advise using the Harco sealer mixed with “poly.” The mixed sealer called “poly sealer" was less flammable but the downside was that it dried very slowly.

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23 Mass. L. Rptr. 325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/essex-insurance-v-davids-floor-service-inc-masssuperct-2007.