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Arrigo-Klacik v. Singing8/30/2001
(REGULAR CALENDAR)
APPEAL from the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.
Sherry Arrigo-Klacik, plaintiff-appellant, appeals a decision of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas granting a motion for summary judgment in favor of Germania Singing and Sports Society, defendant-appellee.
Appellee is an Ohio non-profit corporation incorporated to promote German song and cultural heritage. Appellant was employed by appellee as a cook from July 1996 to November 1997. Appellee operates a kitchen facility generally used for Friday and Saturday evening meals and special occasions. Appellee's kitchen facility has two ovens with six burners, one oven with a grill, and a large broiler oven, all fueled by natural gas.
On November 8, 1997, appellant sustained injuries while working around one of the ovens in appellee's kitchen. Appellant claimed that the oven exploded, causing severe burns to her face, arms, and upper torso. She testified that when she "went to open up the oven door * all I saw was a flame that was crawling up. I went to shut the door. I kicked the door shut and flames came up and all over me." Appellant stated that she sustained first and second degree burns and now has an ongoing fear of gas appliances.
Appellant filed a complaint against appellee on November 6, 1998, alleging that her employment with appellee involved the use of "dangerous instrumentalities with full knowledge [by appellee] of the hazards and/or defects with the ovens constitut a deliberate and intentional action that made the injuries to [appellant] certain or substantially certain to occur." In her answer to appellee's interrogatories, appellant stated that appellee's management was aware of previous problems with flames coming out of the ovens.
On November 1, 1999, appellee filed a motion for summary judgment arguing no genuine issue of material fact exists concerning whether appellee intentionally injured appellant. In support of its motion, appellee presented affidavits from Gerhard Wolff, Joseph Motika, Rolf Digel, John Smith, and Joseph Fenner. The affidavits addressed the question whether appellee was aware of any problems with the ovens prior to appellant's accident.
Wolff, president of appellee, stated that he had "no recollection of ever having been informed prior to the accident * that any of the ovens produced a flashback or flames, or created any other dangerous condition." Motika, vice-president of appellee, stated that he had "no personal knowledge of any report * about any flame-out incidents in either July or September 1997, but he does have knowledge that from time to time the pilot lights on the top burners would go out because of drafts in the kitchen." He also stated that after appellant's accident, he inspected the oven she was using at the time of the accident and found that everything appeared normal. Digel, a member of appellee's since 1958, stated that to his knowledge, "from the time of the reconditioning of these appliances in 1978 to the time of [appellant's] alleged incident on November 8, 1997 * there have been no other incidents or injuries, arising from the use of the first oven on the far left."
Smith, a service technician for the Wasserstrom Company, stated in his affidavit that he inspected the oven in question after the accident, stating:
f there in fact had been a fire or "flame-out," it most likely was caused by the burner intake orifice connection to the gas supply piping being slightly ajar, allowing some of the gas, instead of flowing into and throughout the burner, to flow freely into the burner compartment and perhaps into the oven, where the gas could have been ignite
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