Shepherd v. Fort Sherwood Apartments

270 So. 2d 298, 1972 La. App. LEXIS 6276
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 13, 1972
DocketNo. 9051
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 270 So. 2d 298 (Shepherd v. Fort Sherwood Apartments) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shepherd v. Fort Sherwood Apartments, 270 So. 2d 298, 1972 La. App. LEXIS 6276 (La. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

LOTTINGER, Judge.

This is a suit ex delicto filed by Clara Mae Shepherd and Willie Shepherd against Fort Sherwood Apartments, a commercial partnership composed of C. C. Rushing, J. L. Tucker, Jr., et al. The petition was amended to plead coverage under Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act alternatively. From a judgment finding workmen’s compensation coverage, the defendants have appealed.

[299]*299Mrs. Shepherd was employed as a maid by the defendants, and her primary duties consisted of general cleaning duties. She cleaned out the apartments that were vacant as well as the laundry room located within the apartment complex. In doing so, she used an electric vacuum cleaner and a rug shampooer. She also cleaned out the electric refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, clothes dryers as well as changing the lint filters on the clothes dryers. Further, she used the electric clothes dryers periodically when it was necessary for her to have drapes tumbled in the dryer so as to fluff them.

She was injured when she fell from a ladder, while cleaning an electric light fixture located in front of an apartment. Mrs. Delaney, one of the apartment managers on day of the accident, told Mrs. Shepherd to clean the light fixtures on the second floor apartments. Mrs. Shepherd misunderstood her employer’s instructions and cleaned both the first and second floor light fixtures. While using a ladder to clean one of the fixtures on the first floor, she fell injuring herself.

The Trial Court found that the plaintiff failed to prove negligence on the part of the defendants, and therefore could not recover in tort. The Trial Judge found that the plaintiff simply misunderstood the instructions given to her as to which floor of the apartments to clean the light fixtures on, therefore finding that Mrs. Shepherd was not instructed to use a ladder which was too short for the job she was to do. The Trial Court then found that Mrs. Shepherd was entitled to coverage under the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act. The Lower Court found that the accident without question occurred during the course of the plaintiff’s employment by the defendant, as well as within the scope of her employment.

In finding that the plaintiff was within the scope of her employment when the accident happened, the Lower Court relied heavily on the recent case of Fontenot v. J. Weingarten, Inc., 259 La. 217, 249 So.2d 886 (1971). The Trial Judge interpreted the Fontenot v. J. Weingarten, Inc. case to hold that “the operation of any apparatus charged with electrical current rendered an employment hazardous without regard to the size or extent of danger inherent from the electrical apparatus.” Thus finding that the plaintiff’s use of a vacuum cleaner, a rug shampooer, and being required to clean an electric refrigerator, stove, washing machine, and clothes dryer rendered her employment hazardous, and thus covered by the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation Act. The Trial Judge said, “In the instant case, Mrs. Shepherd’s daily use of the electrically charged vacuum cleaner and shampooer, and her day to day contact with other electrically charged appliances such as the washers and dryers, rendered her employment hazardous under the terms of R.S. 23:1035.”

Since the Trial Judge based his decision entirely on the case of Fontenot v. J. Weingarten, Inc., supra, and because the case expresses a complete departure from what the appellate courts of this state have held in the past, we find it imperative to make a close evaluation and analysis of this opinion.

In the Fontenot case, supra, Chief Justice McCaleb wrote the majority opinion. In that case, the defendant was a stockman in a supermarket. While preparing a display of canned goods, a non-hazardous feature of defendant’s business, he sustained a straining-type injury to his back. Even though the principal duty of the plaintiff was to move goods from a storeroom, mark prices on them, and then place them on the store shelves, he was also required to serve as a cashier or checker in the front of the store, in the course of which he operated an electric cash register and conveyor-counter.

The Supreme Court in its majority opinion felt compelled to make mention of the fact that the defendant had “similar stores in the locality, and, in connection with [300]*300these, it uses a number of van-type trucks necessary for the delivery of merchandise to these grocery outlets.”

The Court went further when it discussed the overall character of chain type supermarkets operations, as follows:

“Plaintiff recognizes that the operation of a retail grocery store is not listed as a hazardous business in R.S. 23:1035 of the compensation act, and our jurisprudence holds that the operation of such a store is not hazardous per se. Nevertheless, we feel impelled to note, at the outset, that during oral argument of the case, it was suggested that the nature of this defendant’s business renders it hazardous, per se. We think that perhaps there is some merit in the contention, although it was not urged here by plaintiff. As indicated above, there is jurisprudence to the effect that a grocery store is not a hazardous business, per se. But we are not so certain that that jurisprudence is any longer applicable to the expanded ‘supermarket’ chain-store type of operation. The overall nature of the employer’s business must be considered —not merely the work carried in one particular store of the enterprise. Some of the everyday observable operation of such stores is common knowledge. Certain facts brought out in this record concerning the less well known phases of the business also tend to fortify the conclusion that, given the proper suit, it might well be that the over-all operation would be held to be hazardous, per se. Thus it is well known, and compensation suits before this Court and the Courts of Appeal show, that such stores employ any number of hazardous electrical devices: meat cutting machines, coffee grinders, et cetera. The employer also operates large central warehouses to supply the individual member stores — the employees therein being subjected to the same hazards as those in commercial warehouses. Large fleets of trucks are employed, garaged and maintained. ‘Bagboys’ or porters deliver packages to the customer’s automobiles, on expansive parking lots and are then exposed to moving vehicles. There may well be other operations of a hazardous nature carried on. Although the presence of one or two of these operations might not of itself be sufficient to characterize the entire business as hazardous, a consideration of the conglomerate might lead to a different result.”

The Court then stated that it was inappropriate for it to decide this question in this case.

In reaching its decision Chief Justice McCaleb in the majority opinion stated:

“The more serious question presented is whether, under the language of R.S. 23:1035, plaintiff’s substantial exposure to those electrical devices rendered his employment amenable to the other provisions of the compensation law, even though it might be found that such devices were not particularly dangerous.
“In dismissing plaintiff’s claim the Court of Appeal adopted the reasoning of defendant and ruled that the substantial use of such electrical devices does not, of itself, render the employment hazardous, and therefore subject to the provisions of the workmen’s compensation statute. Rather, it held that:

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324 So. 2d 884 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1975)
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Shepherd v. Fort Sherwood Apartments
272 So. 2d 375 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
270 So. 2d 298, 1972 La. App. LEXIS 6276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shepherd-v-fort-sherwood-apartments-lactapp-1972.