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Employer's Insurance of Wausau2/26/2003
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.
Plaintiff Employer's Insurance of Wausau seeks reimbursement of workers' compensation benefits it paid to an injured worker . Plaintiff contends that defendants Lisa Motor Lines, Inc., and William Henderson, an employee of Lisa Motor Lines, negligently caused the injury. The trial court granted defendants' summary judgment motion and entered judgment in their favor. On appeal, plaintiff contends that there are triable issues of fact and that the court failed to rule on evidentiary objections and erred with respect to its cost award. We reject these contentions and shall affirm the judgment.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
The accident that gave rise to this litigation occurred at a warehouse and distribution facility located in Tracy, California, and owned by the Safeway grocery chain. Summit Logistics, Inc. (Summit) leases the facility and operates it on behalf of Summit's clients, including Safeway and Pak'n Save stores. The facility has a warehouse, refrigerated area, and loading docks for shipping and receiving merchandise.
Summit maintains rigid control over the facility. When a shipment of merchandise arrives by motor transport, the driver must gain entry to the yard through a gatehouse. Once admitted, the driver reports to a receiving office. The receiving office assigns a loading dock. The driver then backs his trailer into the assigned loading dock. For trailers equipped with doors that open outward, the doors must be opened before the trailer is backed up against the dock and cannot be closed until the trailer is pulled away from the dock. While the trailer is against the dock, the opened doors flare away from the trailer and at least partially block a view of the loading dock and warehouse.
Summit does not unload trailers into the warehouse; rather, that is the responsibility of the shipper. When a shipment arrives, the driver can unload the merchandise or hire the services of a "lumper." When a driver desires to hire a lumper, Summit contacts World Super Services (WSS), an independent company that provides such services. WSS sends a lumper to the loading dock, and the driver and lumper negotiate for the service. When a lumper is hired, he will unload the merchandise into the warehouse by using an electric-powered pallet jack, which is similar to a forklift. Merchandise is not removed from shipping pallets at that time; instead, the shipper's pallets are replaced with empty pallets.
When unloading is complete, the driver meets with a receiver employed by Summit. Together, they verify that the correct merchandise has been received and that the correct number of empty pallets has been placed into the trailer. The driver reports back to the receiving office and then to his tractor to await clearance to leave. When the receiving office is satisfied, the driver is advised that he is cleared to depart.
On December 5, 1997, defendant Henderson, a driver for defendant Lisa Motor Lines, delivered merchandise to the Tracy facility. When he arrived, he was directed to loading dock number 46, which serves a refrigerated portion of the warehouse. After hiring a WSS lumper to unload the trailer, he waited in the cab of his tractor. When the job was finished, Henderson met with a Summit employee to verify the delivery and complete the paperwork, reported to the receiving office, and then returned to his tra
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