{ "id": 11241701, "name": "KATHY SAULS LANE, as the Administrator of the Estate of SIMON CRAIG LANE, Deceased, Plaintiff v. R.N. ROUSE & COMPANY, Defendant", "name_abbreviation": "Lane v. R.N. Rouse & Co.", "decision_date": "1999-11-02", "docket_number": "No. COA98-1402", "first_page": "494", "last_page": "499", "citations": [ { "type": "official", "cite": "135 N.C. App. 494" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "N.C. Ct. App.", "id": 14983, "name": "North Carolina Court of Appeals" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 5, "name_long": "North Carolina", "name": "N.C." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "29 C.F.R. \u00a7 1926.500", "category": "laws:admin_compilation", "reporter": "C.F.R.", "opinion_index": -1 }, { "cite": "471 S.E.2d 72", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "weight": 2, "year": 1996, "pin_cites": [ { "parenthetical": "citations omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "343 N.C. 307", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 798849, 798818, 798955, 798861, 798933 ], "year": 1996, "pin_cites": [ { "parenthetical": "citations omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/343/0307-04", "/nc/343/0307-02", "/nc/343/0307-05", "/nc/343/0307-01", "/nc/343/0307-03" ] }, { "cite": "466 S.E.2d 324", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "year": 1996, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "333", "parenthetical": "citations omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "121 N.C. App. 400", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C. App.", "case_ids": [ 11917552 ], "year": 1996, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "413-14", "parenthetical": "citations omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc-app/121/0400-01" ] }, { "cite": "493 S.E.2d 460", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "year": 1997, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "465", "parenthetical": "citation omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "128 N.C. App. 37", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C. App.", "case_ids": [ 11651936 ], "year": 1997, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "45", "parenthetical": "citation omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc-app/128/0037-01" ] }, { "cite": "382 S.E.2d 781", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "year": 1989, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "785", "parenthetical": "citation omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "95 N.C. App. 243", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C. App.", "case_ids": [ 8520328 ], "year": 1989, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "248", "parenthetical": "citation omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc-app/95/0243-01" ] }, { "cite": "407 S.E.2d 222", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "weight": 3, "year": 1991, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "234-35", "parenthetical": "citations omitted" }, { "page": "234", "parenthetical": "citation omitted" } ], "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "329 N.C. 330", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 2553288 ], "weight": 3, "year": 1991, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "351-53" }, { "page": "351" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/329/0330-01" ] }, { "cite": "29 C.F.R. \u00a7 1926.500", "category": "laws:admin_compilation", "reporter": "C.F.R.", "opinion_index": 0 } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 580, "char_count": 11834, "ocr_confidence": 0.747, "pagerank": { "raw": 2.7419614911809197e-07, "percentile": 0.8320112485322503 }, "sha256": "982752c9d90f7e140f0930ea2651756aa7cc94f04d0b6dbc4b59c9d39acb7204", "simhash": "1:8f26b5add60f7c7a", "word_count": 1867 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T18:51:33.981101+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [ "Judges LEWIS and MARTIN concur." ], "parties": [ "KATHY SAULS LANE, as the Administrator of the Estate of SIMON CRAIG LANE, Deceased, Plaintiff v. R.N. ROUSE & COMPANY, Defendant" ], "opinions": [ { "text": "HUNTER, Judge.\nThis case arises from the death of Simon Craig Lane (\u201cdecedent\u201d) in a construction accident occurring on 21 June 1993 in Cumberland County. Defendant, R.N. Rouse & Co., Inc. (\u201cRouse\u201d) appeals from the judgment based on the jury verdict in favor of decedent\u2019s estate, finding negligence by the defendant but no contributory negligence by decedent. We find no error by the trial court.\nRouse was the general contractor on the Wellman building construction project on N.C. Highway 53 East near Fayetteville, North Carolina. Bill Howell and Sons Construction, Inc., (\u201cHowell\u201d) was one of many subcontractors working at the construction site. Decedent was a foreman with Howell.\nHowell had been hired to do concrete finishing work at the Wellman site. At the time of the accident on 21 June 1993, decedent was working on the second floor, smoothing out and finishing the concrete that had just been poured. As he walked backwards, decedent stepped into an opening in the floor, fell to the first floor, and sustained fatal head injuries.\nThe opening through which decedent fell was more than eleven feet long and nearly three feet wide. The second floor had eighteen openings of these dimensions which were created to accommodate machinery.\nFollowing trial, the jury found: (1) that decedent was killed by the negligence of Rouse; (2) that decedent did not by his own negligence contribute to his death; and, (3) that Rouse\u2019s conduct was willful or wanton. The jury awarded $735,000.00 in compensatory damages and $2,000,000.00 in punitive damages. Compensatory damages were to be reduced by the amount of workers\u2019 compensation benefits paid to decedent\u2019s estate on behalf of his employer. Rouse appeals.\nRouse first assigns error to the .trial court\u2019s refusal to find as a matter of law that concrete finishing is not \u201cinherently dangerous\u201d and that, therefore, Rouse had no duty to the deceased.\nOur Supreme Court has distinguished between \u201cultrahazardous activities,\u201d such as blasting, and \u201cinherently dangerous activities.\u201d See Woodson v. Rowland, 329 N.C. 330, 407 S.E.2d 222 (1991).\nUnlike ultrahazardous activities, inherently dangerous activities are susceptible to effective risk control through the use of adequate safety precautions. The mere fact that an activity can be done safely upon compliance with such procedures does not, for purposes of establishing liability, alter its fundamental characteristic of being inherently dangerous. . . .\n\u201cThe courts have found no universal rule of application by which they may abstractly draw a line of classification in every case between work which is inherently dangerous and that which is not. ...\u201d\n\u201cThere is an obvious difference between committing work to a contractor to be executed, from which if properly done, no injurious consequences can arise, and handing over to him work to be done from which mischievous consequences will arise unless preventive measures are adopted.\u201d\nOne who employs an independent contractor to perform an inherently dangerous activity may not delegate to the independent contractor the duty to provide for the safety of others:\n\u201cThe liability of the employer rests upon the ground that mis-chievious [sic] consequences will arise from the work to be done unless precautionary measures are adopted, and the duty to see that these precautionary measures are adopted rests upon the employer, and he cannot escape liability by entrusting this duty to another as an \u2018independent contractor\u2019 to perform.\u201d\nThe party that employs the independent contractor has a continuing responsibility to ensure that adequate safety precautions are taken.\nThe rule imposing liability on one who employs an independent contractor applies \u201cwhether [the activity] involves an appreciable and foreseeable danger to the workers employed or to the public generally.\u201d The employer\u2019s liability for breach of this duty \u201cis direct and not derivative since public policy fixes him with a nondelegable duty to see that the precautions are taken.\u201d\nImposition of this nondelegable duty of safety reflects \u201cthe policy judgment that certain obligations are of such importance that employers should not be able to escape liability merely by hiring others to perform them.\u201d By holding both an employer and its independent contractor responsible for injuries that may result from inherently dangerous activities, there is a greater likelihood that the safety precautions necessary to substantially eliminate the danger will be followed.\nWoodson, 329 N.C. at 351-53, 407 S.E.2d at 234-35 (citations omitted).\nOn the facts of this case, the trial court was correct in declining to conclude as a matter of law that concrete finishing was not inherently dangerous. The record before us shows that the nature of the concrete finishing work required decedent to walk backwards while performing a task requiring intense attention. The record also reflects that Rouse was aware of the floor openings and of the need to cover them for the safety of workers. A job requiring a worker to walk backwards while paying close attention to the work in front of him might well be construed to be inherently dangerous, and the jury in this case so found. It was work \u201csusceptible to effective risk control through the use of adequate safety precautions.\u201d Woodson, 329 N.C. at 351, 407 S.E.2d at 234 (citation omitted). This assignment of error is without merit.\nRouse also assigns error to the trial court\u2019s admission of evidence of OSHA citations against Rouse that the company received after the accident and that Rouse contends were unrelated to decedent\u2019s fall. The OSHA citations in question arose from the inspection prompted by decedent\u2019s death and all involved failure to comply with 29 C.F.R. \u00a7 1926.500, which addresses holes and openings in floors. The inspection took place a few days after decedent\u2019s death.\n\u201cOur court has held that, \u2018[w]hen substantial identity of circumstances and reasonable proximity in time is shown, evidence of similar occurrences or conditions may, in negligence actions, be admitted as relevant to the issue of negligence.\u2019 \u201d Smith v. Pass, 95 N.C. App. 243, 248, 382 S.E.2d 781, 785 (1989) (citation omitted). Admission of evidence is \u201caddressed to the sound discretion of the trial court and may be disturbed on appeal only where an abuse of such discretion is clearly shown.\u201d Sloan v. Miller Building Corp., 128 N.C. App. 37, 45, 493 S.E.2d 460, 465 (1997) (citation omitted).\nThe decision whether to exclude evidence due to the potential for unfair prejudice, confusion, or misleading the jury is within the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be disturbed absent a showing that the ruling was so arbitrary it could not have been the result of a reasoned decision.\nMcNamara v. Wilmington Mall Realty Corp., 121 N.C. App. 400, 413-14, 466 S.E.2d 324, 333, disc. review denied, 343 N.C. 307, 471 S.E.2d 72 (1996) (citations omitted).\nThe evidence of the OSHA violations following a death could well be viewed as relevant to plaintiff\u2019s claims of negligence and, for the purpose of punitive damages, gross negligence. Plaintiff argues persuasively that a death caused by unprotected floor openings placed defendant on notice and that evidence of continuing violations several days after the death is relevant to the questions of negligence and gross negligence. Defendant has failed to show that the trial court\u2019s decision to admit the evidence was \u201cso arbitrary it could not have been the result of a reasoned decision.\u201d Id.\nFinally, Rouse assigns error to the trial court\u2019s admission of measures taken by Rouse, immediately following decedent\u2019s death, to cover the floor openings with plywood.\nWhen, after an event, measures are taken which, if taken previously, would have made the event less likely to occur, evidence of the subsequent measures is not admissible to prove negligence or culpable conduct in connection, with the event. This rule does not require the exclusion of evidence of subsequent measures when offered for another purpose, such as proving ownership, control, or feasibility of precautionary measures, if those issues are controverted, or impeachment.\nN.C.R. Evid. 407. Here, Rouse argued repeatedly that it had no control of the construction site on the day of the accident. Rouse\u2019s witnesses also questioned the feasibility of covering the floor openings. However, we agree with the trial court that evidence of Rouse\u2019s actions in placing covers over the openings immediately after decedent\u2019s fall was admissible as evidence of Rouse\u2019s control of the work site on the day of the accident and of the feasibility of taking that precautionary measure.\nWe have reviewed defendant\u2019s remaining assignments of error and find them to be without merit.\nNo error.\nJudges LEWIS and MARTIN concur.", "type": "majority", "author": "HUNTER, Judge." } ], "attorneys": [ "Patterson, Harkavy & Lawrence, L.L.P., by Martha A. Geer, and Taft Taft & Haigler, PA., by Thomas F. Taft, Sr., for plaintiff - appellee.", "Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, P.L.L.C., by Allan R. Gitter and Alison R. Bost, for defendant-appellant." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "KATHY SAULS LANE, as the Administrator of the Estate of SIMON CRAIG LANE, Deceased, Plaintiff v. R.N. ROUSE & COMPANY, Defendant\nNo. COA98-1402\n(Filed 2 November 1999)\n1. Employer and Employee\u2014 inherently dangerous activity\u2014 concrete finishing work \u2014 general contractor\u2019s duty to subcontractor\u2019s employee\nIn a negligence case where a subcontractor\u2019s construction foreman was doing concrete finishing work when he sustained fatal head injuries as a result of walking backwards and falling from an opening in the second floor to the first floor, the trial court did not err in refusing to find as a matter of law that concrete finishing is not inherently dangerous and that defendant-general contractor thus had no duty to decedent because: (1) the jury determined the nature of the work required a worker to walk backwards while paying close attention to the work in front of him; and (2) this work was susceptible to effective risk control through the use of adequate safety precautions.\n2. Evidence\u2014 OSHA citations after accident \u2014 relevancy\u2014 negligence, gross negligence, punitive damages\nIn a negligence case where decedent-construction foreman was doing concrete finishing work when he sustained fatal head injuries as a result of walking backwards and falling from an opening in the second floor to the first floor, the trial court did not err in admitting evidence of OSHA citations against defendant-company after the accident because: (1) the citations arose from the inspection prompted by decedent\u2019s death and involved failure to comply with 29 C.F.R. \u00a7 1926.500, which addresses holes and openings in floors; (2) the evidence of the violations could be viewed as relevant to plaintiff\u2019s claims of negligence and punitive damages; and (3) a death caused by unprotected floor openings placed defendant on notice that evidence of continuing violations several days after the death is relevant to the questions of negligence and gross negligence.\n3. Evidence\u2014 corrective measures after accident \u2014 control of work site \u2014 feasibility of precautionary measures\nIn a negligence case where decedent-construction foreman was doing concrete finishing work when he sustained fatal head injuries as a result of walking backwards and falling from an opening in the second floor to the first floor, the trial court did not err in admitting measures taken by defendant immediately following decedent\u2019s death to cover the floor openings with plywood because it was evidence of defendant\u2019s control of the work site on the day of the accident and the feasibility of taking that precautionary measure under N.C. R. Evid. 407.\nAppeal by defendant from judgment entered 20. November 1997 by Judge Ernest B. Fullwood in Wayne County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 25 August 1999.\nPatterson, Harkavy & Lawrence, L.L.P., by Martha A. Geer, and Taft Taft & Haigler, PA., by Thomas F. Taft, Sr., for plaintiff - appellee.\nWomble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, P.L.L.C., by Allan R. Gitter and Alison R. Bost, for defendant-appellant." }, "file_name": "0494-01", "first_page_order": 528, "last_page_order": 533 }