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Walls v. Jacob North Printing Co.3/15/2000
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Jasper County, Jerrold W. Jordan, Judge.
Plaintiffs appeal from the district court's ruling granting summary judgment in favor of both defendants on plaintiffs' negligence claim. REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Plaintiffs Michel L. Walls and Carol A. Walls appeal from a summary judgment granted to defendants Jacob North Printing Co., Inc. ("Jacob North"), and Unisource Worldwide, Inc. ("Unisource"), in this personal injury action. We reverse the summary judgment and remand this case to the district court for trial.
I. Factual Background.
Substantial evidence in the record would support findings of fact consistent with the following. Michel L. Walls ("Walls") and two Metalfab co-employees, Ratcliff and Dawson, came to the Jacob North business premises located in the Jewell Building in Newton, Iowa, on May 26, 1995, to install gutters and drain spouts. They placed a fiberglass ladder against the building in the alley and extended it approximately twenty-five feet to the roof. They tied the top of the ladder to a chimney with an extension cord. The three men used the ladder without incident to carry their equipment and materials to the roof. Later Dawson and Ratcliff again used it to climb back down to street level to move their vehicles from the alley when requested by Jacob North representatives to do so. They used the ladder again without difficulty to ascend to the roof to resume their work.
An employee of Unisource drove a large red truck to the Jacob North business premises to make a delivery. At the time the truck arrived, Walls, Ratcliff, and Dawson were working on the roof. Dawson noted a skylight on the top of the vehicle and engaged the Unisource driver in a brief conversation about it. From the roof, Dawson also spoke to two representatives of Jacob North who were in the alley below.
The ladder was situated in the alley in a location that obstructed access to the door through which the Unisource driver was to make his delivery to Jacob North. While working on the roof, Dawson observed a forklift exit from the Jacob North premises to unload the truck and heard conversation below in the alley suggesting the need to move the ladder out of the way because it was blocking the doorway. From his vantage point on the roof, Dawson then saw the top of the ladder "slant" as though the people below had kicked the bottom off to the side.
Other evidence tends to prove the Unisource vehicle, a tractor and trailer twenty-seven feet in length, was too large to access the alley without moving the ladder. Randy Vanderleest, Jacob North's production manager at the time of the incident, testified the ladder would have to have been moved in order for the large Unisource truck to access the alley.
Later, Walls approached the ladder intending to return to the ground to cut a piece of downspout. He was not aware the ladder had been moved in order to facilitate the delivery after he last used it to climb to the roof. When he stepped onto the ladder, it leaned or tipped to the side and Walls fell to the ground. Though Walls did not provide a detailed explanation of exactly how the ladder moved at the time of the traumatic incident, his co-employee, Ratcliff, observed it to be "leaning over to the side . . . at like an angle" when he observed it from the roof immediately after the fall. Dawson, who also observed the ladder after Walls fell, testified the bottom of the ladder looked like it had "kicked out."
II. Standard of Review.
The principles governing the appeal from a summary judgment are well established:
We review a summary judgment ruling for er
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