Pozzi v. McGee Associates, Inc.

602 N.E.2d 1302, 236 Ill. App. 3d 390, 177 Ill. Dec. 130, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1625
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedOctober 2, 1992
Docket1-91-0522
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 602 N.E.2d 1302 (Pozzi v. McGee Associates, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pozzi v. McGee Associates, Inc., 602 N.E.2d 1302, 236 Ill. App. 3d 390, 177 Ill. Dec. 130, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1625 (Ill. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

JUSTICE RAKOWSKI

delivered the opinion of the court:

The subject of this appeal is a cause of action filed under the Illinois Structural Work Act (Act) (Ill. Rev. Stat: 1983, ch. 48, par. 60 et seq.) by the plaintiff, Stephan Pozzi, against the defendants, McDonald’s Corporation, McDonald’s Restaurants of Hlinois (McDonald’s) and Peter Schwabe, Inc. (Schwabe), after plaintiff was injured falling from a roof. Defendants filed a third-party action against the plaintiff’s employer, Knorr & Meyers Roofing Co. (Knorr & Meyers). Following a jury trial, a verdict was returned in favor of the plaintiff in the amount of $700,804.33 and in favor of the third-party plaintiffs, apportioning fault as 35% for McDonald’s, 37.7% for Schwabe, and 27.3% for Knorr & Meyers. Defendants filed a post-trial motion seeking a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, a new trial. The trial court denied defendants’ motion, and defendants filed this appeal. The issues on appeal are: (1) whether the Structural Work Act was applicable to plaintiff’s injury; (2) whether it was error for the trial court to exclude evidence that plaintiff had received a warning regarding the slippery condition of the metal flashing; (3) whether the trial court erred in allowing plaintiff’s expert to offer an opinion not provided during discovery; and (4) whether the trial court improperly denied defendants the opportunity to cross-examine plaintiff’s expert concerning OSHA regulations.

In 1983, McDonald’s decided to build a new restaurant in Rockford, Hlinois. The successful bidder for the construction contract was Schwabe, a general contractor who had built several other McDonald’s restaurants. Schwabe was responsible for hiring the subcontractors, one of which was Knorr & Meyers. According to the testimony of McDonald’s construction project manager, Mark Goetzinger, specifications on general safety conditions were included in the contract as was a provision that Schwabe insure that all work conform to OSHA standards. Goetzinger also stated that Schwabe was required to follow McDonald’s plans and specifications. Earl Barrette, Schwabe’s chairman of the board, and Goetzinger testified that one of these specifications was that the roofers were to be careful not to drip tar on the finished section of the roof. Raymond Riska, the construction engineer for McDonald’s, confirmed the concern for the finished roof.

The restaurant was designed to have a “double mansard” roof which was described as a shingled roof which had a lower 30 degree slope and an upper 60 degree slope. The upper portion of the mansard, while resembling a roof, was actually a mansard wall with a flat inside vertical surface. It surrounded a flat surface roof which held heating ventilation and air conditioning equipment. The flat vertical surface extended about 3V2 feet above the flat surface roof and surrounded it on the north, west, and east side of the building, leaving the south side open for access to the flat surface roof. After the wooden framework of the mansard roof was constructed, a 36-inch-wide metal valley or flashing was installed in order to provide a waterproof membrane at the mansard junctures. However, because the surface was flat sheet metal it was slippery.

Knorr & Meyers was responsible for applying hot tar on the flat surface roof, and a separate contractor was hired to shingle the mansard roof. The first two days that Knorr & Meyers worked on the project, the roofers accessed the flat roof from the south side of the building, which had no upper mansard. The plaintiff was one of its roofers. On July 8, 1983, plaintiff and his immediate supervisor, Louis Redler, who was the superintendent and owner of the company, sought access to the flat surface roof from the east side of the building. Redler had positioned the tar kettle and ladder on the east side. The tar kettle contained 500 gallons of tar which had been heated to a temperature of 600 degrees. Redler and Harold West, Schwabe’s superintendent, had previously discussed McDonald’s concern about spilled tar on the finished roof. Redler had moved the tar kettle and ladder to the east side of the building in order to avoid this problem. The plaintiff testified that he remembered Redler informing him that he could not use the south end of the building to get to the flat roof because the general contractor did not want tar tracked on the finished roof.

Plaintiff made his first trip up the ladder with some tools, which he carried in a five-gallon bucket. When he reached the lower mansard, he got off the ladder on the right side and angled his way up and to the left to get to the upper mansard because the lower mansard was too steep to climb straight up. When the plaintiff reached the point where the two mansards met, the top of the upper mansard was level with the plaintiff’s chest. To climb over the upper portion, he mounted it by swinging his left foot over the crest, straddling the mansard and then descending to the flat roof 3V2 feet below. He then dropped off the tools and climbed down in the same manner that he had gone up. On the second trip up, plaintiff carried a mop with a six-foot handle which was covered with tar. In order to keep the tar from dripping, plaintiff carried the mop in a five-gallon bucket. The plaintiff proceeded up the wooden ladder, but when he reached the upper mansard, he was unable to lower the mop and pail because the mansard was too high. He placed the mop and bucket on top of the upper mansard and positioned himself to hold it. He then placed his left hand on top of the mansard wall and began to swing his left side over the wall. However, at that point his left heel caught the corner edge of the metal valley, and he slipped and lost his balance. In order to avoid the hot tar from the mop, the plaintiff pushed the mop over the edge and slid down the plywood mansard. He fell into the ladder, which served as a buffer between himself and the hot tar kettle as he fell to the ground below.

Goetzinger testified that there was no reason why the metal flashing which caused plaintiff to lose his balance had to be installed before the hot roof was put on. Riska stated that McDonald’s could have required that the flat roof be completed before the metal flashing was installed on the mansard roof and also could have had the flashing covered. Goetzinger further testified that he believed it to be hazardous for a construction worker to gain access to the flat roof by climbing over the mansard roof, particularly if he was trying to balance a bucket with a six-foot mop handle on the six-inch ledge of the upper mansard. Riska, who replaced Goetzinger as project manager, gave a similar opinion. Barrette and West stated that the means of access would be safe if there was someone on the roof to accept the equipment.

The witnesses questioned regarding the OSHA standards acknowledged that the provision regarding ladders and scaffolds required an additional ladder for safe access to the upper mansard. West conceded that he could have ordered the carpenters on the project to make a ladder. However, Goetzinger testified that he had never seen the type of ladder required by OSHA on this jobsite and that, even though McDonald’s insisted that its contractors adhere to the safety codes and regulations, Schwabe was never required to supply such a ladder.

Goetzinger described a ladder which was part of McDonald’s specifications and design.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
602 N.E.2d 1302, 236 Ill. App. 3d 390, 177 Ill. Dec. 130, 1992 Ill. App. LEXIS 1625, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pozzi-v-mcgee-associates-inc-illappct-1992.