Melton v. General Electric Co.

566 So. 2d 98, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 1573, 1990 WL 79926
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 14, 1990
DocketNo. 89-CA-0118
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 566 So. 2d 98 (Melton v. General Electric Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Melton v. General Electric Co., 566 So. 2d 98, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 1573, 1990 WL 79926 (La. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

ARMSTRONG, Judge.

Defendants General Electric Environmental Services, Inc. (GEESI), and its insurer, Electric Mutual Liability Insurance Company (EMLIC), appeal from a judgment in favor of plaintiff, Edgar C. Melton, who was injured when a piece of heavy industrial equipment which had been loaded onto a flatbed tractor-trailer truck by GEESI employees, rolled off the truck and injured his foot. During the course of this incident plaintiff also sustained an injury to his neck. Plaintiff appealed the jury’s finding of fault on his part. We now reverse and remand.

On August 23, 1983, plaintiff was employed as a boilermaker by Steel Tank Construction Company (Steel Tank) and was working at Tenneco Oil Company’s Chal-mette Refinery. At the time of his alleged injury plaintiff was directing the unloading of a flatbed truck carrying three pieces of heavy industrial equipment — two “cyclones” and one “dipleg” — which had been loaded by GEESI personnel at the yard of Magnolia Transportation Company, Inc. (Magnolia). The flatbed truck was leased to Magnolia and was driven by Magnolia’s employee, Don Domingue. Domingue chained down the loaded equipment on his truck and transported it to Tenneco’s refinery in Chalmette.

As plaintiff was directing the off-loading of the truck at the refinery, one of the cyclones, which was being lifted by a crane, struck the dipleg, causing it to roll off the truck and injure his foot. He also suffered trauma to his neck.

Plaintiff filed suit against GEESI, its insurer, EMLIC, Magnolia and its insurer, Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania (ICSP), and a number of other parties. Steel Tank and its worker’s compensation insurer, American Motorists Insurance Company, Kemper Group (AMIC), intervened seeking reimbursement of worker’s compensation benefits it had paid or would be obligated to pay in the future. Plaintiff settled his claims against most of the defendants before trial and settled with Magnolia and ICSP on the first day of trial. Over the objection of counsel for GEESI, the trial court sent the case to the jury without an interrogatory as to the fault of plaintiff’s employer, Steel Tank, despite, arguably, some evidence of such fault. The jury returned a verdict and assigned fault at 20% to plaintiff, 20% to Magnolia, and 60% to GEESI. Total damages were assessed at $1,011,500.00.

On appeal GEESI (reference to GEESI will include it and its insurer EMLIC) cites five specifications of error by the trial court. We need only address one.

GEESI claims the trial court erred by not submitting an interrogatory to the jury regarding the fault of plaintiff’s employer, Steel Tank, despite evidence of negligence on its part. Plaintiff, on the other hand, argues that the fault of his employer is irrelevant because it is immune from liability in tort, and in any case, there is no evidence of negligence on its part alone.

The record evidence furnishes some evidence from which a jury could have found Steel Tank at fault in causing the accident. There appears to be some question about the procedures used in unloading the truck — this was the apparent basis for the jury’s finding of fault on the part of plaintiff individually. Although it appears that plaintiff was directing the unloading opera[100]*100tion, there were other Steel Tank supervisors on the site. We cannot say what the jury would have found had it been presented with an interrogatory directing it to determine whether Steel Tank was at fault, and if so, its proportion of fault. If the trial court should have included such an interrogatory, its failure to do so cannot be considered a harmless error simply on the ground that there was no evidence on which the jury could base a finding of fault on the part of Steel Tank — there was.

Steel Tank was plaintiff’s employer, and under La.R.S. 23:1032, was immune from suit in tort by plaintiff. Under the Louisiana Worker’s Compensation Law, La.R.S. 23:1021 et seq., an employee gives up the right to sue his employer in tort and recover from it the full measure of his damages for job-related injuries. In turn, the employer, regardless of its fault in causing or contributing to the accident and injury, agrees to provide medical treatment for the employee’s job-related injuries, and payments for loss of the employee’s earning capacity.

If the employee’s injuries have been caused by any fault of a third-party not immune from suit in tort under La.R.S. 23:1032, the employee may claim worker’s compensation benefits and bring an action in tort against the third-party. The immune employer may also bring an action against the third-party to recover compensation benefits it has paid to or on behalf of its employee. La.R.S. 23:1101.

It is not disputed that Steel Tank, as plaintiff’s employer, could not be held directly liable to plaintiff in tort. GEESI argues, however, that using comparative fault principles, its liability to plaintiff could have been reduced by the share of fault apportioned by the jury to Steel Tank.

Louisiana adopted a comparative fault system in 1979, when it amended La.C.C. arts. 2323 and 2324, by Acts 1979, No. 431. La.C.C. art. 2323 was amended to provide:

“When contributory negligence is applicable to a claim for damages, its effect shall be as follows: If a person suffers injury, death or loss as the result partly of his own negligence and partly as a result of the fault of another person or persons, the claim for damages shall not thereby be defeated, but the amount of damages recoverable shall be reduced in proportion to the degree or percentage of negligence attributable to the person suffering the injury, death or loss.”

La.C.C. art. 2324 was amended to provide:

“He who causes another person to do an unlawful act, or assists or encourages in the commission of it, is answerable, in solido, with that person, for the damage caused by such act.
“Persons whose concurring fault has caused injury, death or loss to another are also answerable, in solido; provided, however, when the amount of recovery has been reduced in accordance with the preceding article, a judgment debtor shall not be liable for more that the degree of his fault to a judgment creditor to whom a greater degree of negligence has been attributed, reserving to all parties their respective rights of indemnity and contribution.”

Both of these codal articles were in this form at the time of plaintiff’s accident.1 In the instant case the jury found GEESI to be 60% at fault in causing the accident, Magnolia, 20%, and plaintiff, 20%. For any portion of fault assessed against Steel Tank to have legally affected GEESI’s liability, under La.C.C. art. 2324, GEESI’s share of fault would have had to have been less than that assessed to plaintiff.

GEESI cites the court to La.C.C.P. art. 1812, which provides for special verdicts and was amended in 1983, and states in part:

C. “In cases to recover damages for injury, death, or loss, the court may submit to the jury special written questions inquiring as to:
* * * * * *
[101]*101(2) If appropriate, whether another person, whether party or not, other than the person suffering injury, death, or loss, was at fault, and if so:
(a) Whether such fault was a legal cause of the damages, and, if so:

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Related

Melton v. General Elec. Co., Inc.
625 So. 2d 265 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1993)
Melton v. General Elec. Co., Inc.
579 So. 2d 448 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1991)
Melton v. General Electric Co.
572 So. 2d 79 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1991)
Guidry v. Frank J. Guidry Oil Co.
572 So. 2d 607 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
566 So. 2d 98, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 1573, 1990 WL 79926, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/melton-v-general-electric-co-lactapp-1990.