Hansen v. Ritter

375 S.W.3d 201, 2012 Mo. App. LEXIS 876, 2012 WL 2498845
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 29, 2012
DocketNo. WD 74115
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 375 S.W.3d 201 (Hansen v. Ritter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hansen v. Ritter, 375 S.W.3d 201, 2012 Mo. App. LEXIS 876, 2012 WL 2498845 (Mo. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

CYNTHIA L. MARTIN, Judge.

This appeal follows the trial court’s dismissal of a wrongful death petition which asserted a common law claim of negligence against two co-employees of a man tragically killed in a workplace accident. The issue on appeal is whether co-employees owe one another a personal duty of care to provide a safe workplace. The trial court concluded that co-employees do not owe a personal duty of care to provide a safe workplace and cannot, therefore, be sued for negligence in acting or failing to act in breach of such a duty. We agree and affirm.

Factual and Procedural History

The petition dismissed by the trial court alleged1 that Robert Hursman (“Hurs-man”) was killed on January 22, 2008 in a workplace accident. Hursman was working for Wire Rope Corporation of America, now known as Wire Co World Group, Inc. (“Employer”). Hursman died when a guard gave way as he was leaning over a wire-stranding machine, causing him to become entangled in the moving parts of the machine.

Hursman’s mother, Patricia Hansen (“Hansen”), filed a wrongful death action on November 18, 2010, and amended her petition on . January 21, 2011 (“Amended

[204]*204Petition”). Hansen named Wire Machinery Corporation of America, the manufacturer of the wire-stranding machine, as a defendant. Hansen also named Randy Snyder (“Snyder”) and Randy Ritter (“Rit-ter”) as defendants. Snyder was Employer’s corporate safety manager. Ritter was Employer’s operations manager.

The Amended Petition alleged that Snyder and Ritter each owed the following duties to Hursman:2

(a) Each “had a duty and/or undertook to provide [Employer’s] employees with a safe working environment, which included making hazardous conditions safe and warning employees of unsafe or hazardous conditions present in [Employer’s] facilities.” (Count II, paragraph 7; Count III, paragraph 7)
(b) Each “had a duty to detect, correct and prevent work practices and working conditions which would render the plant not reasonably safe for its employees.” (Count II, paragraph 7; Count III, paragraph 7)
(c) Each “was an agent of [Employer] who undertook to act for [Employer] under such circumstances that [each] had a duty to take some action for the protection of the person or tangible things of [Employer’s] employees and other individuals present in [Employer’s] manufacturing facilities.” (Count II, paragraph 9; Count III, paragraph 9)
(d) Each “had a duty and/or undertook a duty to work in conjunction with and direct [the other], and other employees of the plant whose duties included the implementation of safety provisions and performance of plant maintenance, to detect and correct dangerous conditions at the plant and to warn plant employees of such dangerous and hazardous conditions.” (Count II, paragraph 10; Count III, paragraph 10)

The Petition alleged that Snyder and Rit-ter were negligent and failed to use reasonable care in breach of these duties in several particulars, each of which involved either a failure to recognize, address, protect Hursman from, or warn Hursman about, alleged deficiencies in the design, use, and/or maintenance of the wire-stranding machine.

Snyder and Ritter filed a motion to dismiss and for judgment on the pleadings seeking dismissal of Counts II and III of the Amended Petition for failure to state a cause of action. Snyder and Ritter alleged that the Amended Petition did not state “facts showing that [Snyder and Ritter] owed [Hursman] a personal duty of care.” Alternatively, the motion alleged that Hursman’s claims were “barred by the exclusivity provision of the Workers’ Compensation Act,” challenging the holding in Robinson v. Hooker, 323 S.W.3d 418 (Mo.App. W.D.2010), that co-employees are not within the scope of the exclusivity provision of the Act.

On June 7, 2011, the trial court entered an amended judgment (“Judgment”) granting the motion to dismiss. The trial court held that “[e]ach duty [Hansen] alleges [Snyder and Ritter] breached [is a] part of the employer’s non-delegable duty to make the workplace safe,”3 and that employees do not owe fellow employees the duty to perform an employer’s non-[205]*205delegable duties. The trial court thus concluded that the Amended Petition failed to allege that Snyder and Ritter owed Hurs-man a recognized duty as a matter of law and therefore failed to state a cause of action for negligence against Snyder and Ritter. The Judgment dismissed Counts II and III of the Amended Petition without prejudice.

The trial court did not dismiss the Amended Petition based on the alternative argument that, notwithstanding Robinson, Hansen’s wrongful death claim was barred by the exclusivity provision of the Workers’ Compensation Act (“Act”).

The Judgment resolved all claims and issues in dispute as to Snyder and Ritter. The trial court acknowledged that the Judgment disposed of less than all claims as to all parties but expressly found that there was no just reason for delay.4

Hansen timely filed this appeal.

Standard of Reviéw

We review a trial court’s grant of a motion to dismiss a petition for failure to state a claim de novo.5 Robinson, 323 S.W.3d at 421. “In reviewing the dismissal of a petition, the sole issue to be decided is whether, after allowing the pleading its broadest intendment, treating all facts alleged as true and construing all allegations favorably to the plaintiff, the plaintiff is entitled to relief.” Stabler v. Stabler, 326 S.W.3d 561, 564 (Mo.App. E.D.2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). “ ‘If the petition sets forth any set of facts that, if proven, would entitle the plaintiff to relief, then the petition states a claim.’ ” Id. (quoting Lynch v. Lynch, 260 S.W.3d 834, 836 (Mo. banc 2008)).

No attempt is made to weigh any facts alleged as to whether they are credible or persuasive. Instead, the petition is reviewed in an almost academic manner, to determine if the facts alleged meet the elements of a recognized cause of action, or a cause that might be adopted in that case.

State ex rel. Henley v. Bickel, 285 S.W.3d 327, 329 (Mo. banc 2009) (internal quotation marks omitted). “[Although we treat all of the factual allegations in a petition as true, ... ‘conclusory allegations of fact and legal conclusions are not considered in determining whether a petition states a claim upon which relief can be granted.’ ” Hendricks v. Curators of the Univ. of Mo., 308 S.W.3d 740, 747 (Mo.App. W.D.2010) (quoting Willamette Indus., Inc. v. Clean Water Comm’n, 34 S.W.3d 197, 200 (Mo.App. W.D.2000)).

Analysis

Hansen raises a single point on appeal.

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Bluebook (online)
375 S.W.3d 201, 2012 Mo. App. LEXIS 876, 2012 WL 2498845, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hansen-v-ritter-moctapp-2012.