Morris v. Vaagen Bros. Lumber, Inc.

125 P.3d 141
Court of Appeals of Washington·Decided November 17, 2005·No. 23201-8-III·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

125 P.3d 141 (2005)
130 Wash.App. 243

Ted MORRIS, Widower of the Deceased and Personal Representative for the Estate of Mavis Morris, Individually, and on behalf of Justin Morris, Toby Morris, and Trina (Morris) Cox, Adult Children of the Deceased, Appellants,
v.
VAAGEN BROS. LUMBER, INC., a Washington Corporation, Maynards Industries (1991) Inc., a Delaware Corporation, Ondo & Co., a Washington Corporation, Dalian Global Wood Products, Co., Ltd., a People's Republic of China Company, and John and Jane Does 1-25, Defendants,
Global International PTE Ltd., a Singapore Company, Respondent.

No. 23201-8-III.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division Three, Panel Nine.

September 27, 2005.
Publication Ordered November 17, 2005.

*143 Teresa Ann Sherman, Paukert & Sherman PLLC, Spokane, WA, for Appellants.

Sharon Jean Bitcon, Law Offices of Sharon J. Bitcon, Seattle, WA, for Respondents.

KURTZ, J.

¶ 1 Global International PTE, Ltd. (Global), purchased the components of a sawmill from Vaagen Bros. Lumber, Inc. (Vaagen). The sawmill was located in Ione, Washington, and Global's intent was to ship the components to China for reassembly. Global hired E.P. Johnson Construction and Environmental, Inc. (E.P. Johnson) to disassemble and load the components for shipping. Mavis Morris, an employee of E.P. Johnson, was killed when a sawmill building collapsed while the equipment inside the building was being disassembled. Ted Morris filed a wrongful death action on behalf of himself and the couple's adult children. The trial court granted summary judgment dismissing the claims against Global. On appeal, Mr. Morris contends there are material issues of fact as to whether: (1) Global had a duty to protect Ms. Morris as an invitee on its premises; (2) Global had a nondelegable statutory duty to provide a safe workplace and to comply with Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act (WISHA) regulations; and (3) Global had a common law duty to provide a safe workplace for E.P. Johnson's employees based on the theory of retained control.

¶ 2 We affirm the summary judgment order dismissing Mr. Morris's claims against Global.

FACTS

¶ 3 In November 1995, Global purchased the components of a sawmill from Vaagen. The sawmill was located in Ione, Washington, and Global's intent was to ship the components to China for reassembly. Global retained E.P. Johnson to disassemble and load the components for shipping.

¶ 4 When disassembling equipment in the stacker building, employees of E.P. Johnson cut the equipment from work platforms that were attached to the walls of the building. No attempt was made to secure the walls of the stacker building during the disassembly of the equipment. On June 4, 1996, Mavis Morris was killed when the stacker building collapsed while equipment inside the building was being disassembled and removed.

¶ 5 This wrongful death action was filed on behalf of Ms. Morris's family and estate.

¶ 6 Contract between Global and E.P. Johnson. The Disassembly Contract (the "Contract") was entered into in May 1996 between Global as the owner of the equipment to be disassembled and E.P. Johnson as the contractor. The Contract defined the scope of work as follows:

*144 Dismantle all machinery and buildings, that are shipping overseas. Tag, pack and load into containers provided by owner. Price includes a complete manifest for all material that is to be shipped. Machinery is to be properly braced inside container so as to not shift in transit. Project is to be complete, with the site restored as per the owners agreement with Vaagen Bros., within the deadlines set out.

Clerk's Papers (CP) at 43.

¶ 7 Under the Contract, E.P. Johnson was responsible for supervising and directing the disassembly work. Significantly, E.P. Johnson was "solely responsible for all construction means, methods, techniques, sequences and procedures and for coordinating all portions of the work." CP at 44. Moreover, E.P. Johnson was responsible for "initiating, maintaining, and supervising all safety precautions and programs" related to the disassembly work. CP at 48.

¶ 8 E.P. Johnson's general manager, Michael Schaub, testified E.P. Johnson was responsible for complying with all WISHA requirements.

¶ 9 Involvement of David Shih. Global planned to reassemble the sawmill equipment so that each piece held the same position it had in Ione. To achieve this goal, Global sent an employee, David Shih, from China to Ione, to oversee the packing and shipping of the sawmill components. Mr. Shih drew a layout of the equipment before disassembly and arranged for numbers to be placed on each piece of equipment to facilitate reassembly in China. The numbers assigned to each piece of equipment did not impact the order in which the equipment was disassembled.

¶ 10 Mr. Shih hired Ken Brooke to reassemble the equipment in China. Mr. Shih also hired Marshall Hitt to inspect the equipment in Ione so that arrangements could be made to obtain spare parts. When these men were on the Ione site, they observed how the equipment was disassembled, but they did not make suggestions as to how the disassembly should be performed.

¶ 11 Disassembly and Collapse of the Stacker Building. E.P. Johnson employees Jim Reed, Jeff Dewey, Roger Rice, and Larry Taylor all worked to disassemble the equipment in the stacker building and all four men were present when the building collapsed, killing Ms. Morris. These men testified that they were directed by an E.P. Johnson employee.

¶ 12 In particular, Mr. Schaub and Mr. Shih testified that no one from Global directed how the stacker building equipment should be dismantled or removed. E.P. Johnson employees also stated that they were not told how to dismantle the stacker by any of the Asian men who walked through the job site.

¶ 13 The stacker building had elevated work platforms attached to the walls that anchored to the equipment. E.P. Johnson did not use cables to secure the walls when the equipment was removed. When the collapse of the stacker building occurred, Mr. Dewey and Mr. Reed were in the process of removing the south catwalk and Mr. Rice was cutting stairs away from the landing and the building. A big gust of wind came up just before the building collapsed.

¶ 14 Citation for Code Violation. After Ms. Morris's death, the Department of Labor and Industries issued E.P. Johnson a citation and notice of assessment report for a code violation, stating:

Major changes were made to the Stacker building without due regard to maintaining a safety factor of 4 in that elevated work platforms that were attached to the walls and anchored to the Stacker machine were removed lending to an unplanned collapse of the structure.

CP at 85.

¶ 15 Summary Judgment. On summary judgment, the court dismissed Mr. Morris's claims based on premises liability, a statutory duty under RCW 49.17.060(2), and a common law duty based on retained control, joint venture, and outrage.

¶ 16 Appeal. On appeal, Mr. Morris contends there are material issues of fact as to whether: (1) Global had a duty to protect Ms. Morris as an invitee on its premises; (2) Global had a nondelegable statutory duty to provide a safe workplace and to comply with WISHA regulations; and (3) Global had *145

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Morris v. Vaagen Bros. Lumber, Inc., 125 P.3d 141 (Wash. Ct. App. 2005).

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