St. Julian v. Owens-Illinois, Inc.

394 N.E.2d 359, 59 Ohio Misc. 66, 11 Ohio Op. 3d 59, 1978 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 93
CourtLucas County Court of Common Pleas
DecidedSeptember 29, 1978
DocketNo. 76-2009
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 394 N.E.2d 359 (St. Julian v. Owens-Illinois, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Lucas County Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Julian v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 394 N.E.2d 359, 59 Ohio Misc. 66, 11 Ohio Op. 3d 59, 1978 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 93 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1978).

Opinion

Glasses, J.

The motion of the defendant Owens-Illinois, Inc. (hereinafter cited as O-I) for summary judgment was submitted to the court on the pleadings, memoranda and ■affidavits. Oral arguments were waived.

This cause originated as an action for personal injuries brought by plaintiff on the claim that he contracted and became infected with lead poisoning as a result of unlawful and negligent conduct by the defendant. Specifically, plaintiff alleges that he sustained injuries from exposure to solder glass dust while disassembling and moving equipment owned by defendant. At the time of the alleged incident, plaintiff was an employee of Auburndale Trucking Company (hereinafter cited as Auburndale), which had been employed as a subcontractor to disassemble and to move the equipment.

[68]*68Defendant, in moving for summary judgment, maintains that, as the owner of the premises where the injury allegedly occurred, it owned no duty to protect the safety of plaintiff St. Julian; rather, defendant claims, this duty was upon the subcontractor Auburndale because the subcontractor was aware of the dangers or hazards involved in the work which it contracted to perform. Thus, defendant argues that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that, as a matter of law, judgment must be rendered in its favor. In opposition, plaintiff claims that the facts of this case support three alternative bases of liability: “abnormally or unreasonably dangerous activities or product”; “the defendant’s own negligence”; and “violation of statute or safety regulations.”

In determining whether defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, this court must, of course, construe all evidence presented in the light most favorable to plaintiff. At the outset, a few significant and undisputed facts must be noted. First, the hazard giving rise to this controversy is solder glass dust. Second, regardless of the source or origin of this dust, the parties concede that exposure to solder glass dust was a possible hazard in the performance of the contract, namely the disassembling and moving of defendant’s equipment. Third, there is no question that plaintiff’s employer knew of the hazard involved in the work it contracted to perform. Not only did Auburndale perform this identical work in the past but, in addition, it informed its employees that various safety measures must be followed to avoid exposure to this hazard. While plaintiff denies that he was aware of the severe health hazard inherent in solder glass dust, he does not dispute defendant’s claim that plaintiff’s employer knew of the hazard and that plaintiff, as an employee of Auburndale, was advised to follow safety precautions. To the contrary, plaintiff states in his affidavit that he “requested on numerous occasions, through (his) representative, that Owens-Illinois allow him to wash down the equipment prior to commencing the (required work). Owens-Illinois refused to allow us to wash down the equipment before [working].” Fourth, plaintiff’s [69]*69employer was contractually bound to assume the responsibility for the safety and welfare of its employees.1

Plaintiff’s first theory by which he seeks to impose liability on defendant is based on “strict liability for extra hazardous or ultra-hazardous activities.” Under this approach, plaintiff relies on the Restatement of Torts 2d, Section 427A, to impose upon defendant a “non-delegable responsibility for harm” to an independent contractor caused by work “involving] an abnormally dangerous activity.” In particular, plaintiff cites the following section:

“One who employs an independent contractor to do work which the employer knows or has reason to know to involve an abormally dangerous activity, is subject to liability to the same extent as the contractor for physical harm to others caused by the activity.”

By its very language, this section imposes liability upon an owner for injury to others, i. e., to third persons, where that injury in caused by an independent contractor; plaintiff, however, endeavors to interpret this section as imposing liability on the owner for injury to employees of an independent contractor.

As further authority for its proposition, plaintiff relies on the products liability case of Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corp. (C. A. 5, 1973), 394 F. 2d 1076, certiorari denied, 419 U. S. 869, 95 S. Ct. 127, 42 L. Ed. 2d 107 (1974).2 There, however, the plaintiff was able to show [70]*70its status as a user or consumer of manufactured goods'. Plaintiff’s reliance on Borel, therefore, ignores this essential relationship between the parties — user or consumer versus manufacturer — and plaintiff has failed to present facts which would support his attempt to characterize the case at bar as one involving products liability.

Within his argument for strict liability, plaintiff also claims that the defendant is liable because it failed to provide plaintiff with adequate warnings of foreseeable dangers. Plaintiff does not consider this “duty to warn” under a negligence theory of “duty and alleged breach of duty,” but states instead that only “an adequate warning to the plaintiff himself of the specific gravity of harm” would relieve defendant of liability under the products liability theory followed in Bor&L Once again, the court finds unavailing plaintiff’s efforts to characterize the ease at hand as one involving products liability.

Plaintiff also urges this court to find that the defendant had a non-delegable duty to take special precautions to protect plaintiff, since the work to be performed allegedly involved a peculiar risk of physical harm to others. Restatement of Torts 2d, Section 416; Van Arsdale v. Hollinger (1968), 68 Cal. 2d 245, 437 P. 2d 508, 66 Cal. Rptr. 20 (En Banc); Covington & Cincinnati Bridge Co. v. Steinbrock (1898), 61 Ohio St. 215, 55 N. E. 618; Hawver v. Whalen (1892), 49 Ohio St. 69, 29 N. E. 1049. Though it Is true that the Supreme Court of California in Van Arsdale found this rule applicable to employees of independent contractors, the Ohio cases cited above do not extend liability this far.

[71]*71The defendant lays great emphasis on the Ohio decisions wherein the courts focus upon the nature of the work to he performed and inquire whether that work involved “inherent hazards.” In response to defendant’s reliance on Ohio’s “inherent hazard” doctrine, plaintiff distinguishes the doctrine and those cases following it on the ground that his own case involves strict liability for abnormally dangerous activity. Because this court has found plaintiff’s claims for strict liability to be without merit, a discussion of relevant Ohio law — including the inherent hazard doctrine — is necessary.

This portion of the court’s opinion involves application of traditional negligence principles and analysis, specifically the determination of an individual’s duty based on his relationship to another individual and the determination of whether that duty has been breached. For purposes of clarity, it is noted here that plaintiff’s second theory by which he seeks to impose liability on defendant is characterized as “defendant’s own negligence”; this contention, however, will be addressed separately.

The specific issue in this case is whether defendant O-I is liable to plaintiff St.

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Bluebook (online)
394 N.E.2d 359, 59 Ohio Misc. 66, 11 Ohio Op. 3d 59, 1978 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 93, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-julian-v-owens-illinois-inc-ohctcompllucas-1978.