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Robles v. Shoreside Petroleum8/31/2001
No. 5457
FABE, Justice, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I. INTRODUCTION
Gary Robles, the operator of a Seward gas station, was seriously injured when a propane tank he was filling for a customer exploded. Robles sued Shoreside Petroleum, Inc., his propane supplier, and Petrolane Incorporated, the wholesale propane distributor, claiming (1) Petrolane and Shoreside negligently trained him in the safe handling of propane; (2) Shoreside negligently circulated dangerously old propane tanks in Seward, including the tank that exploded in this case; and (3) Shoreside negligently failed to warn him of the dangers associated with filling these old tanks. The superior court allowed the jury to consider Robles's claim of negligent training but not his other two claims. We reverse, finding that it was error to exclude evidence that Shoreside knew that unsafe propane tanks were circulating in Seward, since this evidence supported a potentially viable claim against Shoreside for failing to warn Robles of this danger.
II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
On October 6, 1993, a 100-pound propane tank exploded at the Tesoro station in Seward, injuring Robles, who leased the station, and Robert Gannaway, his customer. While Robles was filling the tank, the corroded bottom gave way under pressure. The last known inspection of this tank was in 1964, despite federal regulations requiring that propane tanks periodically be recertified.
Robles sued Shoreside, his propane supplier, and Petrolane, Shoreside's wholesale distributor, for negligently training him in the safe handling of propane. At his deposition and at trial, Robles claimed that he received only ten minutes of training on dispensing propane from Petrolane's employee Del Hoagland; according to Robles, this training included no discussion of inspection and certification requirements and only a general warning not to fill excessively rusty and dented cylinders. Hoagland, on the other hand, testified that he had extensively trained Robles on the need to inspect used cylinders and to reject them if the certifications were out of date. Shoreside maintained that it relied on Petrolane to perform dealer training, since Petrolane installed the dealers' dispenser tanks and, in the past, voluntarily trained dealers how to use them.
Robles also claimed that Shoreside was negligent for filling uncertified tanks and failing to warn Robles that these uncertified tanks were circulating in the Seward community. Federal regulations require that propane tanks be inspected and recertified twelve years after manufacture and every five to seven years thereafter. Shoreside had the capacity to recertify tanks. Nevertheless, Robles offered evidence that Shoreside's employees regularly filled outdated tanks for the company's retail customers. The superior court excluded the evidence as irrelevant, confusing, and unfairly prejudicial. The court acknowledged that its ruling left Robles with only his negligent training claim and effectively barred him from arguing his two alternative theories of negligence: (1) that Shoreside had previously filled and recirculated the outdated tank that caused his injury and (2) that it had failed to warn Seward suppliers, including Robles, that it was refilling outdated tanks and circulating them back into the community. But the court reasoned that these alternative theories were not legally viable.
The jury found that Petrolane and Robles were equally negligent. While the jury also found that Shoreside was negligent in relying on Petrolane to provide Robles with adequate training, it concluded that this negligence was not a legal cause of the explosion. T
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