Slager v. Commonwealth Edison Co., Inc.

595 N.E.2d 1097, 230 Ill. App. 3d 894, 172 Ill. Dec. 427
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 7, 1992
Docket1-90-3606
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 595 N.E.2d 1097 (Slager v. Commonwealth Edison Co., 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
Slager v. Commonwealth Edison Co., Inc., 595 N.E.2d 1097, 230 Ill. App. 3d 894, 172 Ill. Dec. 427 (Ill. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

JUSTICE LINN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, Annie Slager, brought an action against Commonwealth Edison Company, Frank L. Brass, and Farmer’s Grain Service, Inc., on behalf of the estate of her deceased husband, David Harold Slager. The decedent was killed on February 8, 1982, as he left the premises of Commonwealth Edison (Edison) in his car. Striking workers were surrounding the cars of exiting nonstrikers and pelting the cars with rocks. Slager, trying to escape the situation, exited quickly and turned left onto a public highway into the path of a semitrailer track operated by Brass, who was employed by Farmer’s Grain Service, Inc.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of defendants Brass and Farmer’s Grain Service, Inc., but also returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff and against Edison. The total sum awarded to Slager’s estate, after being reduced by 40% for Slager’s own negligence, was $900,000.

Commonwealth Edison appeals, arguing that as a landowner it was not liable to a person who had left the property at the time of the accident, which occurred on an adjacent highway. Alternatively, Edison contends that it owed no duty to Slager under principles of ordinary negligence and that there was no proximate causal connection between Edison’s conduct and Slager’s accident. Finally, Edison challenges certain jury instructions and an evidentiary ruling.

We affirm.

Background

David Slager, a member of the pipefitters union, worked as a quality control inspector for Morrison Construction Company. On February 8, 1982, he and other Morrison employees were working at Edison’s nuclear power plant in Brookfield Township, which was then under construction. A few days before, two unions, the pipefitters and the laborers, had argued over who had the rights to salvage scrap pipe or plate metal on the premises. This jurisdictional dispute was not resolved and the laborers launched a wildcat strike. They erected a picket line adjacent to Edison’s main gate and property line, next to the county highway, Grand Ridge Road. This main gate led to three parking lots: one for Edison’s own construction workers, one for its production workers, and one for the subcontractors’ construction workers. There were also exits to the northeast and northwest, but at the time of the incident they remained closed to the independent contractors and were to be used only by Edison employees.

According to trial testimony, Edison’s policy was to notify local unions through the contractors that the strike was illegal and that the workers would be expected to cross the picket line. Edison employed a private security force and, in addition, worked with State and county police to keep order during strike situations. In connection with the wildcat strike activities, Edison arranged for police to be present during both shift changes, which is the time when the picket line is crossed by those workers not on strike.

The union steward for the pipefitters came to work the morning of February 8 and told the pipefitters to cross the picket line. He met with Edison’s project manager for construction, Leo Burke, who assured him that the workers would have police protection when they left. Burke said he had already called the police and would do so again to make certain of their presence during the shift changes.

Before noon on the day of Slager’s death, some of the picketers were drinking beer. Edison’s safety coordinator for the construction site, Wayne Elens, reported this fact to Edison’s construction superintendent, Dick Cosaro. Elens, who was responsible for the safety of the contractors as they entered and left the premises, testified that he felt uneasy about the strike. He asked Cosaro about opening up the east gate of the premises so that the contractors could exit the premises there instead of crossing the picket line at the main gate. Elens also discussed the possibility of letting the pipefitters off early, but Cosaro and Burke decided against it.

Two squad cars of county police were at the site most of the day, parked on the access road. Within a half hour of the afternoon shift change, however, the police told Elens that the picketers were not causing any problems and the police had decided to leave. Although Elens and Burke asked the police to stay, they left anyway. State Police arrived shortly after and Elens told them he was afraid there might be a problem at the shift change, but as long as police were there the picketers would behave. The State Police, however, declined to stay because the county police had already left.

Edison’s security company, Bums, provided 50 to 60 guards on the premises for any given shift. The guards’ duties included controlling traffic. They were stationed in a watch tower in the construction lot and in a gate house by the gate that controlled access to the production parking lot.

Pursuant to an agreement between Edison and the local unions, all trade workers who were not Edison employees were required to use the main exit during labor disputes. Under the agreement, if any union employee involved in a labor dispute used one of the alternative exits, the strikers were entitled to picket those exits as well, so as to frustrate the ability of the union employees to avoid the picketers. Edison employees, however, were encouraged to use the alternative exits and thus avoid running the gauntlet of picketers.

Daniel Shamblin, an Edison employee, explained plant policy during wildcat strikes. According to him, there had been 15 prior unauthorized strikes at the plant since 1973 and, to his knowledge, no acts of violence had occurred. There is no formal written document of Edison’s wildcat strike policy, but Shamblin stated that Edison expects local and county police to control the picket line. The traffic builds up around the main entrance and the police are there to facilitate “safe entrance and exit from the plant.”

Written notice was posted in the service building, directing the Edison workers to leave the plant via the Marseilles Road exit. Neither the pipefitters nor other tradesmen were to leave by that exit, however. The Burns guards were instructed to tell the non-Edison employees not to use the production road, which branches off the main access road and leads to the production parking lot and alternative exit used by Edison employees.

On February 8, 1982, just before 4 p.m., Edison blew a whistle to announce quitting time. The pipefitters lined up in their cars in the construction parking lot. Because the other exits were not available for their use, they were funneled straight down the main access road leading to Grand Ridge Road, an east-west county highway perpendicular to the main access road. A stop sign was located at the edge of the main access road.

According to two pipefitters who testified at trial, there were at least 100 people in the picket line, standing across the entrance of the main access road. Vehicles were parked along the road and some of the picketers had signs or sticks in their hands. A few cars passed through. Then the picketers started throwing snowballs mixed with rocks at the cars. Earl Warren, a pipefitter, testified that as he tried to pass, some laborers started hitting his car with sticks and clubs.

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Bluebook (online)
595 N.E.2d 1097, 230 Ill. App. 3d 894, 172 Ill. Dec. 427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slager-v-commonwealth-edison-co-inc-illappct-1992.