Roethke v. Sanger

68 S.W.3d 352, 2001 Ky. LEXIS 220, 2001 WL 1636797
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 20, 2001
Docket2000-SC-0202-DG
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 68 S.W.3d 352 (Roethke v. Sanger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roethke v. Sanger, 68 S.W.3d 352, 2001 Ky. LEXIS 220, 2001 WL 1636797 (Ky. 2001).

Opinions

COOPER, Justice.

A Jefferson Circuit Court jury awarded Appellants Stephan F. Roethke, Karen M. Roethke, Kaela Roethke and Stephanie Roethke judgments against Appellee Larry Sanger in the total sum of $2,659,560.40. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the trial judge erred in overruling Sanger’s motion for a directed verdict. We granted discretionary review and now affirm the Court of Appeals. In doing so, we will address the three theories of agency advanced in support of vicarious liability in this case: (1) partnership; (2) ostensible agency; and (3) joint enterprise. But first, the facts.

I. FACTS.

Appellant Stephan Roethke was the owner and president of D & B Roofing Corporation. His wife, Appellant Karen Roethke, was the secretary/treasurer. D & B was engaged in the business of repairing and installing roofs on commercial buildings. In addition to the Roethkes, D & B employed a sales representative, an operations manager, a construction foreman, and 14 — 15 union roofers. Although its corporate headquarters was in Louisville, D & B bid, accepted and performed roofing jobs throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In the fall of 1992, Stephan Roethke negotiated a contract for D & B to remove a 16,000 square foot roof from an industrial plant building owned by Gamble Brothers/Masonite Corporation in Monticello, Kentucky, and replace it with a standing seam metal roof.. The contract price was $46,784.00. D & B’s construction foreman, Jack Taylor, was supervising another job in Radcliff, Kentucky, so Roethke hired Chris Sanger, then age twenty-three, to supervise D & B’s em[355]*355ployees in the performance of the Gamble Brothers’ job.

Chris Sanger was not in the roofing business and had no employees. He owned a 10-ton RO Stinger hydraulic crane mounted on a 1975 Ford L-9000 tractor truck that he used in an unincorporated crane service business known as “Sanger Crane Service.” He charged $55.00 per hour to operate his crane on lifting jobs for construction contractors who did not own cranes of their own. Although Sanger had helped build some metal garages when he lived in Pennsylvania, he had never participated in the installation of a roof of this size or type. Roethke knew that, so he gave Sanger a booklet published by the roof supplier, Metal Sales Company, that described the proper method of installation of a standing seam metal roof. D & B paid Chris Sanger a salary of $250.00 per day to supervise D & B’s employees and $100.00 per day for the use of his crane, and reimbursed all of his travel and living expenses related to the Gamble Brothers job. The crane was used only about twenty minutes per day to lower old roof panels off the roof and hoist new panels up to the roof. Roethke testified that he agreed to the $100.00 per day payment because Sanger needed the money to make his payments on the crane. All payments of salary, crane work, and expenses were made by checks issued by D & B payable to “Chris Sanger.” No checks were issued payable to “Sanger Crane Service.” The work on the Gamble Brothers job commenced on December 17, 1992, and concluded in mid-January 1993.

At some point prior to the commencement of the Gamble Brothers job, Roethke, on behalf of D & B, offered Sanger a full-time job as a construction supervisor at a salary of $50,000.00 per year, plus expenses. Sanger testified that he accepted the offer during a telephone conversation with Roethke on December 27, 1992, and that Roethke said he would visit the Monticello job site the next day to finalize the agreement. Roethke admitted he offered the position of permanent employment to Sanger and that Sanger accepted the offer. Roethke, however, maintained that the agreement was never finalized because the two could not agree on what to do with Sanger’s crane. On December 28, 1992, Roethke and his Lexington sales representative, Mike Wheeler, visited the Gamble Brothers job site. Chris Sanger was working on the roof with other D <& B employees. Roethke and Wheeler climbed a ladder to the roof, and Sanger testified at trial that Roethke said to Wheeler: “Meet Chris Sanger, the new addition to ora* company.”

Both the old and the new roof consisted of metal panels. The panels of the old roof were fastened together by metal screws bored through the top of the panels. The panels of the new standing seam roof were fastened together by clips attached underneath the panels. So as not to leave the building completely uncovered, the technique used for the removal and installation was to start at one end of the building and work to the other end, removing the old panels and replacing them with the new panels as the work progressed. There would always be a narrow open space where old panels had been removed, but new panels had not yet been installed, and where the roof insulation was, thus, exposed.

Wheeler had a camera and began taking photographs of the work in progress. Plaintiffs trial exhibit No. 1 is a photograph that shows Stephan Roethke standing on the old section of the roof within a few feet of the exposed insulation, apparently talking to Macy Williamson, a D & B employee, who was on his knees on the other side of the exposed section, clipping [356]*356a new panel to the new section of the roof. The narrow section of exposed insulation is clearly visible between Roethke and Williamson. The photograph also shows Chris Sanger working on the new section behind Williamson with his back to Roethke. As Roethke walked forward toward Williamson, he stepped off the existing portion of the roof onto the exposed insulation and fell through the insulation forty feet to the floor of the building, suffering catastrophic injuries resulting in quadriplegia.

In December 1993, Stephan Roethke and Karen Roethke filed this action for damages (Stephan for his personal injuries, Karen for her loss of consortium) against their own corporation/employer, D & B Roofing, claiming that Stephan’s injuries were caused by D & B’s negligent installation of the roof. (The Roethkes had rejected coverage under the Workers’ Compensation Act. KRS 342.395.) They also sued Chris Sanger, claiming that he negligently supervised the installation of the roof, and “Sanger Crane Service,” claiming that it, as Chris Sanger’s employer, was vicariously liable for Sanger’s negligence. In July 1997, the Roethkes’ two minor children, Appellants Kaela and Stephanie Roethke, intervened to also assert claims for loss of consortium. Giuliani v. Guiler, Ky., 951 S.W.2d 318 (1997). Judgments were ultimately entered in favor of Stephan Roethke in the sum of $1,869,560.47, in favor of Karen Roethke in the sum of $780,000.00, and in favor of the Roethke children in the sum of $10,000.00. Those judgments, however, were not entered against D & B Roofing, Chris Sanger, or “Sanger Crane Service,” all of whom had been released prior to trial in unsuccessful attempts by the Roethkes to recover by assignment the proceeds of various insurance policies. Instead, the judgments were entered against Chris Sanger’s father, Appellee Larry Sanger, who had never discussed the details of the Monticello job with either Roethke or Chris Sanger, had never visited the Monticello job site, and had never received any payment for work performed on that job.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
68 S.W.3d 352, 2001 Ky. LEXIS 220, 2001 WL 1636797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roethke-v-sanger-ky-2001.