Fields v. Performance Foods Corp.

832 F. Supp. 2d 655, 2011 WL 2076392, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56790
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. West Virginia
DecidedMay 25, 2011
DocketCivil Action No. 2:11-cv-00113
StatusPublished

This text of 832 F. Supp. 2d 655 (Fields v. Performance Foods Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fields v. Performance Foods Corp., 832 F. Supp. 2d 655, 2011 WL 2076392, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56790 (S.D.W. Va. 2011).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

JOSEPH R. GOODWIN, Chief Judge.

Pending before the court is Performance Foods Corp.’s Motion to Dismiss [Docket 4], For the reasons explained below, the motion is DENIED.

I. Background

The plaintiff, Melissa Ann Fields, worked for the defendant, Performance Foods Corp., at the defendant’s Long John Silver’s restaurant in Ripley, West Virginia. On the night of January 28, 2009, restaurant manager Jonathon Taylor allegedly instructed the plaintiff to close and lock one of the doors at the end of her shift. According to the plaintiff, the Performance Foods management and the employees knew that this specific door was “broken, unsafe and not functioning properly.” (Compl. [Docket 1-1] ¶ 9.) Nevertheless, the plaintiff followed orders and attempted to close and lock the door. While doing so, the plaintiffs “left ring finger was completely amputated by a malfunctioning portion of the door.” (Id. ¶ 10.) As a result of her injuries, the plaintiff claims she has suffered, inter alia, bodily injury and mental pain and suffering, incurred loss of wages, loss of earning capacity, loss of ability to perform household services, and loss of enjoyment of life.

The plaintiff alleges that her injuries are the result of specific unsafe working conditions. Specifically, the plaintiff alleges that she was required to close and lock a malfunctioning and defective restaurant door that violated OSHA standards and other approved safety statutes and codes. The defendants, the plaintiff alleges, were fully aware of the dangerous door condition, and had been for months prior to accident.

On January 25, 2011, the plaintiff filed a claim pursuant to West Virginia Code § 23 — 4—2(d)(2)(H) in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, West Virginia, alleging deliberate intention. Defendant Performance Foods removed this case to federal court on February 17, 2011 on the grounds of diversity jurisdiction. On February 23, 2011, Performance Foods filed the pending motion to dismiss arguing that the plaintiff failed to plead any factual allegations necessary to state a claim under the deliberate intent statute.

II. Standard of Review

A motion to dismiss filed under Rule 12(b)(6) tests the legal sufficiency of a complaint or pleading. Giarratano v. [657]*657Johnson, 521 F.3d 298, 302 (4th Cir.2008). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8 requires that a pleading contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 8. As the Supreme Court reiterated in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, that standard “does not require ‘detailed factual allegations’ but ‘it demands more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.’ ” 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). “[A] plaintiffs obligation to provide the ‘grounds’ of his ‘entitle[ment] to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (citing Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 286, 106 S.Ct. 2932, 92 L.Ed.2d 209 (1986) for the proposition that “on a motion to dismiss, courts ‘are not bound to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation”). A court cannot accept as true legal conclusions in a complaint that merely recite the elements of a cause of action supported by conclusory statements. Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1949-50. “To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Id. at 1949 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955). To achieve facial plausibility, the plaintiff must plead facts that allow the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable, and those facts must be more than merely consistent with the defendant’s liability to raise the claim from merely possible to probable. Id.

In determining whether a plausible claim exists, the court must undertake a context-specific inquiry, “[b]ut where the well-pleaded facts do not permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct, the complaint has alleged— but it has not ‘show[n]’ — ‘that the pleader is entitled to relief.’ ” Id. at 1950 (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2)). A complaint must contain enough facts to “nudge[ ][a] claim cross the line from conceivable to plausible.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

The Iqbal court suggested a two-pronged inquiry to determine if the complaint survives a motion to dismiss as set forth by Iqbal, which I will follow here. First, I will identify any pleadings that are not entitled to the assumption of truth because they are conclusory and unsupported by factual allegations. See Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1949-50. Where there are well-pleaded factual allegations, I will assume the veracity of those facts and then will determine whether they plausibly give rise to a valid claim for relief. See id.

III. Discussion

The plaintiff asserts that Performance Foods exposed her to unsafe working conditions in violation of West Virginia Code § 23 — 4—2(d)(2)(ii). In West Virginia, the worker’s compensation statute immunizes an employer from liability for negligent injury of an employee. W. Va.Code § 23-2-6. This immunity can be overcome, however, if the plaintiff establishes that the employer acted with “deliberate intention.” W. Va.Code § 23-4-2(d)(2). The plaintiff can prove “deliberate intention” by satisfying all of the following five elements:

(A) That a specific unsafe working condition existed in the workplace which presented a high degree of risk and a strong probability of serious injury or death;
(B) That the employer, prior to the injury, had actual knowledge of the existence of the specific unsafe working con[658]*658dition and of the high degree of risk and the strong probability of serious injury or death presented by the specific unsafe working condition;
(C) That the specific unsafe working condition was a violation of a state or federal safety statute, rule or regulation, ... or of a commonly accepted and well-known safety standard within the industry or business of the employer ...;
(D) That ... the employer nevertheless intentionally thereafter exposed an employee to the specific unsafe working condition; and
(E) That the employee exposed suffered serious compensable injury....

W. Va.Code § 23^-2(d)(2)(ii).

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Related

Papasan v. Allain
478 U.S. 265 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Giarratano v. Johnson
521 F.3d 298 (Fourth Circuit, 2008)
Mumaw v. U.S. Silica Co.
511 S.E.2d 117 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 1998)
Ryan v. Clonch Industries, Inc.
639 S.E.2d 756 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 2006)

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Bluebook (online)
832 F. Supp. 2d 655, 2011 WL 2076392, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56790, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fields-v-performance-foods-corp-wvsd-2011.