Rangel v. Denton Plastics, Inc.

939 P.2d 644, 148 Or. App. 328, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 767
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJune 11, 1997
DocketC9402-00949; CA A85718
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 939 P.2d 644 (Rangel v. Denton Plastics, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rangel v. Denton Plastics, Inc., 939 P.2d 644, 148 Or. App. 328, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 767 (Or. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

*330 EDMONDS, J.

Plaintiffs are the parents of Everado Rangel-Jasso and the personal representatives of his estate. Everado was killed at the age of 17 when a forklift that he was operating in his employment with Denton Plastics, Inc., (Denton) overturned. Plaintiffs assert several claims against Denton and two of its officers arising from Everado’s death. The trial court granted summary judgment to defendants on the ground that the Workers’ Compensation Act (the Act) provides plaintiffs’ sole remedy. ORCP 47. We originally affirmed without opinion. Rangel v. Denton Plastics, Inc., 135 Or App 385, 898 P2d 817 (1995). The Supreme Court vacated our decision and remanded for reconsideration in light of Kilminster v. Day Management Corp., 323 Or 618, 929 P2d 474 (1996). On reconsideration, we again affirm.

Plaintiffs’ complaint alleges five claims, including three claims based on the Oregon Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (ORICO), a claim entitled “Deliberate Intention to Injure,” and a claim entitled “Violation of Child Labor Law In Absence of Good Faith.” In their motion for summary judgment, defendants did not contest that plaintiffs could prove the factual allegations in their complaint. Rather, they submitted evidence that Denton Plastics had complied with the requirements of the Act and that plaintiffs have received the benefits to which they are entitled. In response, plaintiffs did not challenge the evidence of Denton’s compliance with the Act or of the payment of workers’ compensation benefits. Rather, they contended that the Act did not provide their only remedy and that their claims were based on exceptions to the exclusivity provisions of the Act.

ORS 656.018(l)(a) provides that the liability of every employer who complies with the Act is “exclusive and in place of all other liability.” ORS 656.156(2) creates an exception to ORS 656.018. It provides, in part:

“If injury or death results to a worker from the deliberate intention of the employer of the worker to produce such injury or death, the worker * * * may take under this chapter, and also have cause for action against the employer, as *331 if such statutes had not been passed, for damages over the amount payable under [the Workers’ Compensation Act]

Plaintiffs argue, in part, that their claim for “Deliberate Intention to Injure” falls within the exception created by ORS 656.156(2). They rely on allegations that defendants directed decedent and others to operate hazardous equipment without providing safety training and instructions on how to operate the equipment “in a language they could understand.” They also allege that their decedent’s work-related death

“23.
“* * * Was caused by the deliberate intention of defendants to injure in one or more of the following particulars:
* * * *
“(c) In intentionally removing, overriding, bypassing or failing to purchase, repair or replace safety equipment and other mechanisms for the forklift on which [decedent] was killed and for other hazardous equipment used by their employees.
“The specific nature of the acts evidencing defendants deliberate intention to injure plaintiffs’ decedent are described with more particularity in a citation issued to Denton Plastics, Inc. on or about March 12, 1992, by the State of Oregon Occupational and Safety and Health Administration Division (OROSHA), which is attached as Exhibit 1.” (Emphasis supplied.)

Regarding the removal of safety equipment from fork lifts, exhibit 1 says, in part,

«5 * * *
“(a) All employees were not properly trained and supervised, as evidenced by:
^ *
“(6) Although seat belts were provided on the forklifts, management did not enforce their use.
‡ %
«g * *
*332 “(a) Operators of forklifts were not required to use the seat belts installed on the forklifts.” (Emphasis supplied.)

For purposes of summary judgment, defendants admit the above allegations but argue that those facts do not give rise to a reasonable inference of a deliberate intention to injure. Thus, the initial issue is whether such an inference can be drawn from the above evidence. There are three cases that are instructive on the issue. In Lusk v. Monaco Motor Homes, Inc., 97 Or App 182, 775 P2d 891 (1989), we held that such an inference could be drawn from the defendant’s failure to provide a respirator in a paint booth, knowing that the paint was highly toxic, that the plaintiffs resulting injury was continuing, that the paint manufacturer had warned against such a practice and that the cost of the equipment to protect the worker was not prohibitive. We said:

“A specific intent to produce injury is not the only permissible inference to be drawn from defendant’s apparent obstinacy, but it is one that a jury should be permitted to consider.” Id. at 189.

The second case is Kilminster v. Day Management Corp., 323 Or 618, 929 P2d 474 (1996). In that case, the plaintiffs decedent fell from a tower after the employer had deliberately not supplied him with safety equipment. The court interpreted the phrase “deliberate intent to injure” in ORS 656.156(2) to mean that the worker must prove that the employer “acted as it did because it wished to injure or kill decedent.” Id. at 633. The court, in agreeing that the plaintiffs complaint stated sufficient facts to raise a reasonable inference that the employer had acted on a wish to injure the worker, reasoned:

“Plaintiff alleges that [employer] knew that decedent or someone who did the same work as decedent would be injured from a fall from the tower; that [employer] decided to forego safety procedures, knowing that, by so doing, serious injury or death would result; and that [employer] told decedent to climb the tower or lose his job.” Id. at 632. (Emphasis in original.)

Finally, in Davis v. United States Employers Council, Inc., 147 Or App 164, 934 P2d 1142, rev den 325 Or 368 (1997), we applied the “wish to injure” description of the test *333

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
939 P.2d 644, 148 Or. App. 328, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 767, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rangel-v-denton-plastics-inc-orctapp-1997.