Kivell v. Union Carbide Corp. ( 2017 )


Menu:
  • IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE
    IN RE: ASBESTOS LITIGATION
    SANDRA KIVELL, individually and as )
    Personal Representative of the Estate of )
    MILTON J. KIVELL, deceased,              )
    )
    Plaintiff,                         )
    )    C.A. No. N15C-07-093 ASB
    v.                          )
    )
    UNION CARBIDE CORP. et al.,              )
    )
    Defendants.                        )
    )
    August 30, 2017
    Upon Defendant Union Carbide’s
    Motion for Summary Judgment
    GRANTED.
    ORDER
    Plaintiff Sandra Kivell (“Plaintiff”) cannot satisfy the summary judgment
    criteria.1
    Plaintiff alleges that her husband, Milton Kivell (“Mr. Kivell”) contracted
    mesothelioma which ultimately caused his death. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant
    Union Carbide (“Defendant”) was the premises owner of a petrochemical facility in
    Taft, Louisiana where Mr. Kivell worked. Between January 1967 and October 1969
    1
    Super. Ct. Civ. R. 56; Smith v. Advanced Auto Parts, Inc., 
    2013 WL 6920864
    , at
    *3 (Del. Super. Dec. 30, 2013); see Moore v. Sizemore, 
    405 A.2d 679
    , 680 (Del.
    1979); Nutt v. A.C. & S., Inc., 
    517 A.2d 690
    , 692 (Del. Super. Ct. 1986); In re
    Asbestos Litigation (Helm), 
    2012 WL 3264925
     (Del. Aug. 13, 2012).
    Mr. Kivell worked as a union pipefitter and welder. Defendant’s Taft facility was a
    large industrial plant, and Mr. Kivell was involved in initial construction. Mr. Kivell
    did not work for Union Carbide directly, and he had no interaction with, and received
    no direction from Union Carbide personnel while at the Taft facility. Rather, he was
    employed by different third-party contractors, including Kiewitt Corporation and
    Stearns Roger Corporation. Union Carbide hired these third-party contractors to
    design and construct various process units. Mr. Kivell’s duties included running
    pipe, and he stated that he worked “side-by-side” with insulators.
    Defendants contend that Union Carbide never employed Mr. Kivell directly,
    and instead, he was employed by several different third-party engineering and
    construction firms. Defendant contends that these firms exercised exclusive control
    over Mr. Kivell’s work area, and Mr. Kivell had no interaction with, and received
    no direction from Union Carbide personnel. Additionally, Defendant contends that
    these employers supplied their own tools and materials, and Union Carbide was not
    in custody or control of asbestos that Mr. Kivell was allegedly exposed to. Plaintiff
    argues that Mr. Kivel needed permission from Union Carbide staff before
    performing a “tie in” to an existing system,2 and Mr. Kivell “performed a fair bit of
    maintenance at Union Carbide.”
    2
    Plaintiff did not offer a citation to the record for this proposition.
    Plaintiff cites to Thomas v. A.P. Green Indus., Inc., a Louisiana case that dealt
    with a similar scenario to the case at bar.3 In Thomas, the plaintiff’s employer signed
    a contract with a company, ELI, to “design, engineer, and construct” two power
    generation facilities.4 The plaintiff “never worked directly for ELI; rather, he worked
    for three other companies involved in the construction of the [generation] facilities.”5
    Thus, ELI raised the independent contractor defense to plaintiff’s claim. The court
    stated:
    In resolving this issue, it is necessary to distinguish between the two
    ways in which a premises owner can be liable to employees of
    contractors who are injured while working on its premises: “(1)
    directly, for its own negligence; (2) vicariously, for the negligence of
    the independent contractor.”6
    Here, Plaintiff concedes that Defendant is not vicariously liable for the negligence
    of Mr. Kivell’s employer. “Although the independent contractor defense is a bar to
    a vicarious liability claim, it is not a bar to direct liability claim arising out of a
    premises-owner’s own negligence.”7 Generally, “a premises owner has a duty of
    exercising reasonable care for the safety of persons on its premises and a duty of not
    exposing such persons to unreasonable risks of injury or harm,” and “[t]his duty
    3
    
    933 So.2d 843
     (La.Ct.App. 2006).
    4
    
    Id. at 848
    .
    5
    
    Id.
    6
    
    Id. at 852
    .
    7
    
    Id.
    extends to employees of independent contractors for whose benefit the owner must
    take reasonable steps to ensure a safe working environment.”8 Plaintiff argues that
    because the Thomas court relied heavily on the development of the evidence at trial
    regarding ELI’s breach of duty, summary judgment is inappropriate in Mr. Kivell’s
    case. Additionally, Plaintiff cites to Smith v. Union Carbide Corp., a 2014 decision
    from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.9 In Smith,
    Union Carbide argued that it was “entitled to summary judgment on [p]laintiff’s
    survival and wrongful death claims because Union Carbide owed no duty to Mr.
    Smith . . . under Louisiana law, ‘no legal duty exists between a premises owner and
    the employee of a contractor, unless the premises owner exercised control over the
    work of the contractor’.”10 Citing Thomas, the court stated that the duty of reasonable
    care extends to employees of independent contractors, thus, it was clear that Union
    Carbide owed a duty to the plaintiff, and the “question then becomes whether
    [d]efendants are correct in arguing that there is insufficient evidence to prove any
    breach of duty.”11 The Smith court cited Jefferson v. Cooper/T Smith Corp.,
    demonstrating that the Jefferson trial court was reversed where it granted summary
    judgment in favor of the premise owner when the “plaintiff presented a genuine
    8
    
    Id.
    9
    
    2014 WL 4930457
     (E.D. La. Oct. 1, 2014).
    10
    Id. at *2.
    11
    Id. at *4.
    issues of material fact as to whether the premises owner breached its independent
    duty to its contractor’s workers on its premises.”12 In Jefferson, the plaintiff was a
    longshoreman along a river, and he loaded, unloaded, transported, and handled
    asbestos cargo on the owner’s premises for independent companies on the
    premises.13 The Smith court analyzed Jefferson and stated:
    [T]he plaintiff presented no evidence showing that the premises owner
    ever handled, stored, or controlled the asbestos. Instead, the plaintiff
    provided evidence revealing that the workers on defendant’s property
    were exposed to asbestos during their work, suggesting that the
    premises owner was aware of the risks that asbestos posed, and
    indicating that the premises owner defendant had the authority to
    prevent asbestos-containing products from entering the premises. The
    court concluded that although it was clear that the defendant’s
    contractors maintained control and custody of the asbestos at all times,
    plaintiff had presented a genuine issue of material fact precluding
    summary judgment as to “whether [defendant] knew or should have
    known of the dangers posed by asbestos at the time [the deceased
    worked on defendant’s premises], whether [defendant] knew or should
    have known that its facilities were inadequate for the handling and
    storage of asbestos on or in its premises, and whether it could have
    refused such hazardous cargo.”14
    In light of the Thomas, Smith, and Jefferson cases, it seems that a key issue the court
    looks at in negligence actions against the premises owner under Louisiana law is
    whether genuine issues of material fact exist as to defendant’s knowledge of the
    12
    Id. at *5
    13
    See Jefferson v. Cooper/T. Smith Corp., 
    858 So.2d 691
    , 695 (La.Ct.App. 2003).
    
    14 Smith, 2014
     WL 4930457, at *5 (citing Jefferson v. Cooper/T Smith Corp., 
    858 So.2d 691
     (La.Ct.App. 2003)).
    dangers posed by asbestos at the time plaintiff was employed on the premises.
    Plaintiff’s case is distinguishable from Thomas, Smith, and Jefferson. First, Roach
    v.Air Liquide America, a United States District Court for the Western District of
    Louisiana held that the Smtih court expanded the general land owner duty to include
    that a land owner “had a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure a safe working
    environment for the employees of an independent contractor.”15 In Roach, the court
    held that Smtih was an “improper expansion of Louisiana law,” and “there is a
    distinction between hazards that are inherent in a defendant’s premises (for which a
    premises owner owes a duty) and hazards inherent in an independent contractor’s
    job (for which a premises owner does not owe a duty).”16 The Roach court pointed
    out that the hazard to the plaintiff in that case, silica, was “not inherent in defendant’s
    premises; the airborne silica which was temporary in nature and transported to the
    facility by the plaintiff’s employer and/or supplier. The hazard was inherent in the
    performance of the sandblasting.”17 Thus, the court found that the it was “employer’s
    duty to ensure plaintiff’s safety with respect to the specific hazards created by the
    performance of [plaintiff’s] work.”18 Likewise, Plaintiff claims that her husband
    was exposed to asbestos from products used while employed by an independent
    15
    Roach v. Air Liquide America, 
    2016 WL 1453074
    , at *4 (W.D. La. Apr. 11, 2016).
    16
    
    Id.
    17
    
    Id.
    18
    
    Id.
    contractor at Defendant’s facility. Following the Roach decision, there is nothing in
    the facts for a jury to infer that asbestos was inherent in Defendant’s premises.
    However, assuming that the Defendant owed Plaintiff a duty pursuant to
    Smith, Plaintiff has not presented evidence that Defendant in this case knew of the
    risks of asbestos, specified the use of asbestos in the construction, or that Mr. Kivell
    used asbestos products in the construction of the building. For example, in Thomas,
    the employer’s “construction manager, testified that in early 1970s [the company]
    was constructing and engineering power plants on a world-wide basis and knew of
    the hazards of asbestos exposure,” and there was evidence of contracts for asbestos
    containing products to be used on the premises.19 Similarly, in Jefferson, the plaintiff
    unloaded, handled, and transported asbestos on the defendant’s premises.
    Additionally, in Smith, the plaintiff presented evidence that he was exposed to
    asbestos while working on the defendant’s premises.           Here, Plaintiff has not
    presented any evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact that Defendant
    breached a duty owed to Mr. Kivell under Louisiana law. Therefore, Defendant
    Union Carbide’s Motion for Summary Judgment on Plaintiff’s negligence claim is
    granted.
    Likewise, summary judgment on Plaintiff’s strict liability claim is also
    granted. In Louisiana, to hold a defendant strictly liable, “the plaintiff must prove:
    19
    Thomas, 933 So.2d at 853.
    (1) the thing which caused the damage was in the care, custody and control of the
    defendant; (2) the thing had a vice or defect which created an unreasonable risk of
    harm; and (3) the injuries were caused by the defect.”20 Additionally, custody, “for
    the purposes of strict liability, does not depend upon ownership, but involves the
    right of supervision, direction, and control as well as the right to benefit from the
    thing controlled.”21 The “[m]ere physical presence of the thing on one’s premises
    does not constitute custody.”22 Defendant is entitled to summary judgment on the
    strict liability claim as well because there is nothing in the record indicating that
    Defendant had any type of direction, control, or ownership of an asbestos product
    used by Plaintiff.   Therefore, Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment is
    GRANTED.
    IT IS SO ORDERED.
    /s/ Calvin L. Scott
    The Honorable Calvin L. Scott, Jr.
    20
    Migliori v. Willows Apartments, 
    727 So.2d 1258
    , 1260 (La.Ct.App. 1999)(citing
    Sistler v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 
    558 So.2d 1106
    , 1112 (La. 1990)).
    21
    Haydel v. Hercules Transport, Inc., 
    654 So.2d 408
    , 414 (La.Ct.App. 1995).
    22
    
    Id.