John M. Jansen v. Long Painting, et al.
Published: Sep. 5, 1998 | Result Date: Feb. 9, 1998 | Filing Date: Jan. 1, 1900 |Case number: 962238601SEA Bench Verdict – $0
Judge
Court
King Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Experts
Plaintiff
Kathryn Reid
(technical)
Phillip G. Lindsay
(medical)
William Burkhart
(medical)
Herbert Clark
(medical)
Lowell Bassett
(technical)
Sam Windsor
(technical)
Ken Yonemura
(medical)
Defendant
David Krasnow
(technical)
Gordon Mulder
(medical)
David R. Knowles
(technical)
David M. Chaplin
(medical)
Mark Lawless
(technical)
Gerald Rosenberg
(medical)
Douglas Robinson
(medical)
Stanley Owings
(technical)
Facts
On Nov. 16, 1994, plaintiff John Jansen, a 27-year-old journeyman carpenter, was injured when the wire rope support system of a trash chute being used to remove debris from the roof of the Kingdome failed. The plaintiff contended that defendant Long Painting's employees clogged, then filled, a plastic debris chute they were using to drop old roofing material from the top of the Kingdome to a dumpster sitting on a ramp at the 100 level. The plaintiff was sent to unclog the chute. The plaintiff contended that while trying to unclog the chute, he was injured when the chute broke apart, dragging him off the 300 level of the Kingdome and dangling him at the end of his safety line 100 feet above the street. The entire weight of the debris-filled chute (over a ton) was being held up by plaintiff's safety line, with him on it also, before workers were able to rescue him. At the time of accident, the defendant general contractor at the site rented the trash chute manufactured by the defendant from the defendant rental company who had bought the trash chute from the defendant manufacturer manufactured and sold the chute to AA Rentals and Long Painting was the subcontractor who was removing the debris which clogged the Superchute. The plaintiff initially brought suit against defendant Long for negligently clogging and filling the chute all the way to the top of the Kingdome before stopping work; against defendant Mortenson, the general contractor, for breach of non-delegable duty to enforce work place safety regulations at the Kingdome; against AA Rentals alleging failure to provide Mortenson with the chute's installation and operation manual; and against Superchute Ltd., the Canadian manufacturer of the chute, alleging that Superchute was strictly liable for designing a defective product insofar as the chute was not capable to handling reasonably foreseeable loads.
Settlement Discussions
The plaintiff made a settlement demand for $1.8 million total; $175,000 to defendant Long Painting. The defendants made no offer of settlement.
Specials in Evidence
$53,847 $161,301 $687,752 $45,596
Injuries
The plaintiff alleged disc herniation at C5-7, requiring a discectomy at C5-6 with fusion, left shoulder dislocation requiring surgery and post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and fear of heights.
Other Information
A mediation was held before John Cooper. Per defendant Long Painting, at mediation, the four defendants agreed to make equal offers in an effort to resolve the case, and in an agreement among themselves, agreed to arbitrate their respective contributions. Defendants offered a total of $600,000 and plaintiffs countered for a total of $800,000. Defendant Long Painting declined to offer more than $175,000 as its share and was removed from further negotiations by mediator John Cooler. Defendants general contractor, trash chute manufacturer and rental company then settled for $200,000 each with an agreement to arbitrate their percentage of liability on a later date. The plaintiff settled with the other defendants with the agreement that the settling defendants would not make their expert witnesses available for defendant Long Painting's use (Long had retained no liability experts of its own). Defendant Long brought a motion before Judge Philip Hubbard to compel all parties, including plaintiff, to allow Long to subpoena their experts for defendant Long's use at trial. Judge Hubbard granted the motion. The plaintiff then offered to accept defendant Long's previous offer of $175,000. Defendant Long ultimately agreed to pay $50,000 to plaintiff, pending an appeal.
Length
two weeks
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