Rice v. United Parcel Service General Services Co.

43 F. Supp. 2d 1134, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3523, 1999 WL 166181
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedMarch 19, 1999
DocketNo. Civ. 96-6328-FR
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 43 F. Supp. 2d 1134 (Rice v. United Parcel Service General Services Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rice v. United Parcel Service General Services Co., 43 F. Supp. 2d 1134, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3523, 1999 WL 166181 (D. Or. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

FRYE, District Judge.

The matters before the court are the motions for summary judgment against plaintiff Norma Jean Ferguson (# 50) and plaintiff Randy Rice (# 55) filed by defendants United Parcel Service General Services Co. and II Morrow, Inc. pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56, and the joinder in the co-defendants’ motions for summary judgment against the plaintiffs filed by defendant Motorola, Inc. (# 64), which will be treated as a motion for summary judgment.

UNDISPUTED FACTS

On December 19, 1996, plaintiff Randy Rice, a resident of the State of Wisconsin, and plaintiff Norma Jean Ferguson, a resident of the State of Alabama, both of whom are package car drivers employed by United Parcel Service, filed this action. They allege that they suffered repetitive stress injuries from using hand-held computers known as delivery information acquisition devices (DIADs) in the performance of their jobs.

1. UPS Corporate Structure

The package delivery business that is commonly called “UPS” is a family of corporations. UPS America, Inc. (UPS America) is the parent corporation of numerous wholly-owned subsidiaries, including defendant United Parcel eral Services Co. (UPSGSC), a Delaware corporation; defendant II Morrow, Inc. (II Morrow), an Oregon corporation; United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS, Inc.), an Ohio corporation; and United Parcel Service, Inc., a New York corporation (UPS New York). The plaintiffs are package car drivers employed by UPS, Inc., the entity which is responsible for the ground delivery of packages in the central and western parts of the United States. UPS New York employs package car drivers who service other parts of the country. UPSGSC and UPS, Inc. share the same corporate chairman, secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer, assistant treasurer, and directors, and they share fifteen of the same vice presidents. UPS America files a consolidated federal income tax return for itself and its subsidiaries located in the United States, including II Morrow, UPS, Inc., and UPSGSC.

Effective January 1, 1958, defendant UPSGSC entered into a contract with UPS America, whereby UPSGSC agreed to provide administrative and management services for numerous operating companies, including UPS, Inc. (the Service Agreement). One of the services specified in the Service Agreement for UPSGSC to perform is “[t]o assist each of said operating companies in accident prevention and safety work.” UPSGSC also agreed to supervise “the purchase of insurance of every kind and character.” The Service Agreement provides that “[y]our company [UPSGSC] will be required to perform the services described above as items (1) to (5) [including the two noted above by the court].” The Service Agreement was modified in 1970 to provide that “the fee shall be equal to five (5%) per cent of your [UPSGSC’s] actual disbursements for labor, materials and expenses required or incurred by you [UPSGSC] in the performance of said agreement.” UPSGSC also purchases material and equipment, including trucks, uniforms, and hand held equipment, on behalf of the operating companies, including UPS, Inc. These purchases [1138]*1138are transferred to the operating companies at cost through an inter-company clearing account.

As stated above, the Service Agreement requires UPSGSC to purchase insurance of every kind and character for the operating companies, including UPS, Inc. James Felty of UPSGSC testified as follows:

Q. And how about workers’ compensation coverage, who’s the carrier for that?
A. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.
Q. And who pays for the premium on that?
A. General Services Company.
Q. And do the operating companies have workers’ compensation coverage?
A. Yes, they do.
Q. And who’s the carrier for that?
A. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.
Q. Who pays the premium on that?
A. General Services Company.
Q. [by a different attorney] Does General Services Company have its own workers’ compensation policy?
A. General Services is covered I believe under a blanket policy that covers all the companies. I can’t speak to that specifically, though.
Q. So you don’t know whether or not General Services workers’ comp policy for its own employees is different or the same as the policy that the operating companies have for its [sic] own employees?
A. I have no intimate knowledge of independent individual insurance policies. That’s not what I do.

Deposition of James Felty, pp. 112-13. The plaintiffs obtained a declaration from Donna Knepper, an employee of the State of Wisconsin. She states that no entity called United Parcel Service General Services Company is identified as an “employer” or is listed as having workers’ compensation insurance coverage in the State of Wisconsin. Knepper included several pages of printouts from the information that the State of Wisconsin has concerning entities related to UPS. Most pages of the printouts list UPS of America as the insured; UPS, Inc. is mentioned in only one place.

UPSGSC and UPS, Inc. keep separate books. The general tariff1 is issued by UPS, Inc. and UPS New York. The National Master United Parcel Service Agreement is a collective bargaining agreement between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and UPS, Inc. and UPS New York.

The service territory is divided into regions. UPSGSC employs people working at the regional level. Regions are divided into districts. Operating companies, including UPS, Inc., employ people working at the district level. District managers report to regional managers. At the district level, supervisors of UPS, Inc. hire the package car drivers, train them, evaluate them, and manage their daily concerns, such as the assignment of their routes and any grievances that they have.

2. The Engineering Projects

In 1984, Clay Lafferty, the head of research and development for UPSGSC, sent a Request for Proposal to several companies asking for proposals regarding prototypes of a hand-held delivery information acquisition device (DIAD). In February of 1986, UPSGSC contracted with defendant Inforite Corp. (Inforite) to design, build and test the prototype DIADs.

Defendant Inforite did not have a technical design engineering group; therefore, the engineering work necessary for the DIAD was to be performed by employees of the parent company of Inforite, defendant Toppan Moore Co. (Toppan Moore). Inforite is located in the United States; Toppan Moore is located in Japan.

Defendant Toppan Moore built 50 prototype DIADs and sent them to UPSGSC in late 1987 and early 1988. UPSGSC’s engi[1139]*1139neers tested the prototypes, rewrote the software, and began field testing the prototypes in the State of New York. Changes were made to the DIADs after the field tests.

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Bluebook (online)
43 F. Supp. 2d 1134, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3523, 1999 WL 166181, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rice-v-united-parcel-service-general-services-co-ord-1999.