 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Medina v. Harold J. Becker Co.10/14/2005
DECISION.
{ } This author, at least, in ten years on this court, has not voted to reverse a summary judgment entered in favor of an employer in an intentional-tort case. But there is a first time for everything.
{ } Plaintiff-appellant Guillermo Medina fell over 30 feet to the ground while working as a roofer. Medina was working under the supervision of defendant-appellee Harold J. Becker Company, Inc., and had been leased to Becker by defendant-appellee Garcia Labor Company. Medina sued both Becker and Garcia for an employer's intentional tort. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of both Becker and Garcia, and Medina now appeals. We affirm the summary judgment for Garcia, but reverse the entry of summary judgment in favor of Becker.
I. Fall From the Roof
{ } Medina is a Mexican citizen who has worked in the United States since 1999. Medina was employed through Garcia, a temporary agency that provided low-skilled laborers to its clients. Through Garcia, Medina began working for Becker in July 2000.
{ } In July 2002, Becker began work under a roofing contract at the University of Cincinnati Genome Research Institute on Reading Road in Cincinnati. During the first week of work, Medina and other Becker workers removed the stone tile roof from one of the buildings. They then began installing insulation for a new roof. To install the insulation, a crane would lift bundles of insulation onto the roof, and Medina and another worker would catch the bundles. The two men would then unhook each bundle from the crane and roll the insulation to the area of the roof where it would be installed.
{ } On the morning of his fall, Medina and another worker received a bundle of insulation, with Medina on the side of the bundle nearest the edge of the roof. No workers saw what happened, and Medina has no memory of the incident, but apparently Medina fell between 30 and 35 feet from the roof to the ground below. He suffered permanent disabling injuries.
{ } Both Medina and Tom Bailey, the Becker foreman, testified that there was a warning line on the roof. The warning line, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), should have been six feet from the edge of the roof.
{ } Bailey testified in his deposition that he set up the warning line on the first day of the project. According to Bailey, every workday after that, he rechecked the line, using a tape measure to insure that it was the appropriate distance from the edge. He testified that the warning line was six feet from the edge at the time that Medina fell.
{ } In his deposition, Medina was asked if he remembered that the yellow warning line was six feet from the edge of the roof. Medina answered, "I remember the yellow line, but I don't know exactly that it was exactly six feet away."
{ } In his affidavit, Medina stated that he had helped Bailey install the warning line on the first day of the project. He claimed that they did not measure the distance from the edge, but simply placed the line by view. He also stated that, in the days before he fell when they were removing the old roof, the warning line was moved closer to the edge of the roof to accommodate a large metal box into which the workers placed the old roof's stone tiles. Medina stated that the warning line was sometimes only "a few centimeters" from the edge. Other parts of the warning line were then less than one to two feet from the edge of the roof.
{ } Medina further stated in his affidavit that while removing the stone tiles, he and other workers worked beyond the warning line. At one point, when Medina and the others were wo
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ohio Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|