Sprigler v. Osnabrucker Mettallwerke

761 F. Supp. 86, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5044, 1991 WL 57303
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedApril 16, 1991
DocketNo. NA 90-19-C
StatusPublished

This text of 761 F. Supp. 86 (Sprigler v. Osnabrucker Mettallwerke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sprigler v. Osnabrucker Mettallwerke, 761 F. Supp. 86, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5044, 1991 WL 57303 (S.D. Ind. 1991).

Opinion

ENTRY

DILLIN, District Judge.

This cause comes before the Court on the motion of Koetter Woodworking, Inc. for summary judgment. For the following reasons, the motion is granted.

Background

The plaintiff, David Sprigler (Sprigler) was injured while working as a woodworker for Koetter Woodworking, Inc. (Koet-ter). On February 12, 1988, Sprigler climbed inside a large woodgrinder manufactured by defendant Osnabrucker Met-tallwerke. While Mr. Sprigler was inside the machine it was turned on by another Koetter employee. Sprigler sustained severe and permanent injuries. He has been paid worker’s compensation benefits and statutory medical expenses pursuant to the provisions of the Indiana Worker’s Compensation Act, Ind.Code § 22-3-1-1 et seq.

Sprigler brought this action on February 7, 1990, against Osnabrucker (the manufacturer), Northfab Systems, Inc. (the United States distributor of the grinder) and Ken-ner & Schaick (the regional distributor through which the grinder was purchased), alleging failure to warn.

Kenner & Schaick and Northfab filed a third-party complaint seeking indemnification from Koetter to the extent that they are ultimately found liable to the plaintiff. In its brief in response to the present motion, Kenner & Schaick states codefend-ants’ position that it would be fundamentally unfair to require remaining potentially non-negligent codefendants to be responsible for the portion of fault attributable to Koetter’s negligence. Northfab joins in Kenner & Schaick’s response.

Discussion

Koetter seeks summary judgment on the grounds that the exclusive remedy provision of the Worker’s Compensation Act, Ind.Code § 22-3-2-6, should be read to bar all common law indemnity claims by third parties against employers, that indemnification actions by a manufacturer against purchasers of the manufacturer’s [88]*88product are not allowed under Indiana law in the absence of an express indemnification agreement, and that Indiana’s Comparative Fault Act, Ind.Code § 34-4-33-1 et seq., has not changed the basic principles of common law indemnification.

The exclusive remedy provision of the Worker’s Compensation Act, Ind.Code § 22-3-2-6, provides the following:

The rights and remedies granted to an employee subject to I.C. 22-3-2 through I.C. 22-3-6 on account of personal injury or death by accident shall exclude all other rights and remedies of such employee, his personal representatives, dependents or next-of-kin, at common law or otherwise, on account of such injury or death....

The Worker’s Compensation Act is thus the exclusive remedy against an employer for an employee who sustains injuries arising out of and in the course of his employment.1 See Indiana State Highway Dept. v. Robertson, 482 N.E.2d 495 (Ind.App.1985). Koetter argues that the legislative history of the Act, and the public policies underlying its implementation, direct a construction of the statute as barring all common law indemnity actions against employers. To compel indemnification, he argues, would be equivalent to causing the employer, Koetter, to pay civil damages directly to Sprigler, a remedy which is impermissible under the statute. See Indiana University Hospitals, v. Carter, 456 N.E.2d 1051, 1054 (Ind.App.1983).

The third-party plaintiffs argue that Indiana’s Worker’s Compensation Act, in contrast to certain other states’ acts, lacks language which explicitly bars third-party actions against employers, and that public policy would be furthered by allowing innocent defendants to apportion against a negligent employer. The third-party plaintiffs’ basic argument is that the law at present is unfair because defendants such as themselves might bear the burden of an employer’s fault. Despite the potential unfairness of such a result, there is at present no basis in the law for applying a proportionate burden against the employer, except where there is an express contract for indemnification. We therefore find that the third-party plaintiffs in this action cannot proceed in common law indemnity because of the lack of an express indemnification contract. Nor can they maintain an action for contribution, since contribution among joint tortfeasors is disallowed under Indiana’s Comparative Fault Act, Ind.Code § 34-4-33-7, which reads as follows:

Contribution among tortfeasors — Indemnity. — In an action under this chapter, there is no right of contribution among tortfeasors. However, this section does not affect any rights of indemnity.

The right of a third party to sue an employer for indemnification was analyzed by this Court in McClish v. Niagara Machine & Tool Works, 266 F.Supp. 987 (S.D.Ind.1967). In McClish, an employee who was injured while using a machine recovered benefits under the Indiana Worker’s Compensation Act and then sued Niagara, the manufacturer of the machine. Niagara in turn sued the employer for indemnification in a third-party complaint, alleging that the employer had been negligent. This Court dismissed the third-party complaint for failure to state a claim, beginning its discussion with the following proposition:

The right to indemnity and the corresponding obligation to indemnify generally spring from contract, express or implied, and in the absence of an express or implied contract a right to indemnity does not exist.

McClish, 266 F.Supp. at 989. The court then noted that parties may lawfully bind themselves by voluntarily entering contracts for indemnification. Id. It is undisputed in this case that there was no such contract between Koetter and either of the codefendants.

The recognized exceptions to the general rule barring indemnification in the absence [89]*89of express contract are derivative liability-under the theory of respondeat superior, and constructive liability by operation of a statute or rule imposing on a third party a non-delegable duty. McClish, 266 F.Supp. at 989-990. There is no such derivative or constructive liability here. As in McClish, there is no rule of law here which would place a non-delegable duty of care on Ken-ner & Schaick and Northfab by which they could be subjected to liability by reason of independent negligent acts of Koetter. The argument for sales-contract-based indemnity liability was advanced and rejected in McClish, 266 F.Supp. at 991:

[I]t is obvious that when the sole contractual relationship between the parties is merely that arising out of a fully executed sales contract, the warranties run from the manufacturer to the purchaser and ultimate users, and not the reverse.

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McClish v. Niagara MacHine & Tool Works
266 F. Supp. 987 (S.D. Indiana, 1967)
Indiana State Highway Department v. Robertson
482 N.E.2d 495 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1985)
Indiana University Hospitals v. Carter
456 N.E.2d 1051 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1983)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
761 F. Supp. 86, 1991 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5044, 1991 WL 57303, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sprigler-v-osnabrucker-mettallwerke-insd-1991.