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Keller v. Northwest Conduit Corporation9/26/2000
material fact; (2) the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; and (3) reasonable minds can come to but one conclusion and that conclusion is adverse to the nonmoving party, said party being entitled to have the evidence construed most strongly in his favor. Zivich v. Mentor Soccer Club, Inc. (1998), 82 Ohio St.3d 367, 369-370; Rodgers v. Custom Coach Corp. (June 22, 2000), Franklin App. No. 99AP-1167, unreported.
Trial courts should award summary judgment with caution, being careful to resolve doubts and construe evidence in favor of the nonmoving party. Welco Industries, Inc. v. Applied Cos. (1993), 67 Ohio St.3d 344, 346. "Even the inferences to be drawn from the underlying facts contained in the evidentiary materials, such as affidavits and depositions, must be construed in a light most favorable to the party opposing the motion." Hannah v. Dayton Power & Light Co. (1998), 82 Ohio St.3d 482, 485. "When reviewing a trial court's ruling on summary judgment, the court of appeals conducts an independent review of the record and stands in the shoes of the trial court." Baker v. The Buschman Co. (1998), 127 Ohio App.3d 561, 566.
Ohio's workers' compensation system is based on the premise that an employer is protected from a suit for negligence in exchange for compliance with the Workers' Compensation Act which:
* operates as a balance of mutual compromise between the interests of the employer and the employee whereby employees relinquish their common law remedy and accept lower benefit levels coupled with the greater assurance of recovery and employers give up their common law defenses and are protected from unlimited liability. Blankenship v. Cincinnati Milacron Chemicals (1982), 69 Ohio St.2d 608, 614.
However, an employer is not immune from civil liability for employee injuries, disease, or death caused by the employer's intentional tortious conduct in the workplace, since such conduct necessarily occurs outside the employment relationship. Conley v. Brown Corp. of Waverly, Inc. (1998), 82 Ohio St.3d 470, 479. Therefore, workers who have been injured as a result of intentional torts by employers are not required to seek redress from the workers' compensation system. Bunger v. Lawson Co. (1998), 82 Ohio St.3d 463, 466.
The Ohio Supreme Court has stated:
n an action by an employee against his employer alleging an intentional tort, upon motion for summary judgment by the defendant employer, the plaintiff employee must set forth specific facts which show that there is a genuine issue of whether the employer had committed an intentional tort against his employee. Van Fossen v. Babcock & Wilcox Co. (1988), 36 Ohio St.3d 100, paragraph seven of the syllabus.
One of the common law elements of intentional tort is "intent," which has been defined in Fyffe v. Jeno's, Inc. (1991), 59 Ohio St.3d 115, paragraph one of the syllabus:
n order to establish "intent" for the purpose of proving the existence of an intentional tort committed by an employer against his employee, the following must be demonstrated: (1) knowledge by the employer of the existence of a dangerous process, procedure, instrumentality or condition within its business operation; (2) knowledge by the employer that if the employee is subjected by his employment to such dangerous process, procedure, instrumentality or condition, then harm to the employee will be a substantial certainty; and (3) that the employer, under such circumstances, and with such knowledge, did act to require the employee to continue to perform the dangerous task.
Since a plaintiff must satisfy all three prongs, a failure of proof with respect to
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