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Wischer v. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America9/30/2003
In order to understand the events of July 14, 1999, it is important to know who the relevant parties and non-parties are and how they came to work together that fateful day.
The Parties
. The construction of Miller Park stadium was a joint effort involving many individuals and business organizations. The general contractor for the construction project was a joint venture of three companies: Hunzinger Construction Company, Clark Construction Builders, Inc., and Huber, Hunt & Nichols, Inc. ("general-contractor joint venture"). The general-contractor joint venture hired eighty contractors and those contractors hired approximately two hundred subcontractors.
. One of the contractors hired by the general-contractor joint venture was Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. Mitsubishi was hired to build the stadium roof according to an architectural design, to erect the roof, and to design, build, and install the drive system that moved the roof panels. Victor Grotlisch was Mitsubishi's site manager, and Wayne Noel was Mitsubishi's safety superintendent.
. Mitsubishi hired Lampson International Ltd., an industry leader in performing heavy lifts, to help install the roof of the stadium. Lampson International leased a crane known as "Big Blue" to Mitsubishi. On April 22, 1998, Mitsubishi and Lampson International entered into an agreement for the lease of a crane to assist in the lift of the Miller Park roof. The lease agreement stated that Lampson International would provide a TransiLift 1200 Series IIA crane; however, Lampson International actually provided a TransiLift 1500 Series IIIA crane.
. A transi-lift crane is a crane that is not stationary; it can pick up and transport extremely heavy loads. Big Blue is a TransiLift crane that stands forty-five stories high and rests on a base only ten yards wide. The crane sits on two crawlers, the means by which it moves. A car body sits on each crawler, and on each body are a table and a plastic bearing. The boom is the long lattice arm extending from the plastic bearing. At the end of the boom is a joint, and extending beyond the joint is a shorter lattice called the jib. Any load carried by the crane hangs from the jib.
. Lampson International also supplied a crew to assemble Big Blue on site, and provided a crew to operate the crane. Fred Flowers was the crane operator; Alan Watts was the flagger and supervisor for the Lampson crew.
. Neil F. Lampson was the principal designer and manufacturer of the TransiLift crane known as Big Blue. As designer, Neil F. made changes to the design of Big Blue and a last minute addition to the assembly of the crane. Both changes and the possibility of a negligent design of the crane were raised as issues in this case.
. Danny's Construction Company, Inc. (DCCI) was hired to bolt the stadium roof into place. The deceased ironworkers employed by DCCI included Jeffrey Wischer, William DeGrave and Jerome Starr. Red Lewis was DCCI's superintendent and Joe Edwards was the operator of the crane that lifted the ironworkers.
Insurance
. The stadium's owner, Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, purchased an Owners Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP) to provide commercial general liability insurance coverage for the Miller Park construction project. The coverage was "layered" in that each insurer's coverage attached when the underlying policy was exhausted. Thus, one insurer provided coverage up to a certain amount and, when that amount was exhausted, another insurer provided coverage up to a certain amount, and so on. The priority for coverage under the OCIP was as follows:
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