Milwaukee truck driver injured in accident sues general contractor

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Feb 24, 2006 by Joe Grundle

A truck driver who had 2,400 pounds of tile fall on him while making a delivery has sued The Bentley Company, alleging the company was responsible for the accident.

Borivoj Karan, of Milwaukee, was delivering a pallet of tile in January 2002 to Holy Angels Catholic Church in West Bend for Lippert Tile Co. Inc. of Menomonee Falls when it fell from the back of the truck onto him.

At the time of the incident, Holy Angels was undergoing a renovation project in which The Bentley Company, Milwaukee, was the general contractor and Lippert Tile was a subcontractor.

As soon as I noticed it moving, I put my hands up against it, said Karan in the suit, filed in Milwaukee Circuit Court. The lift gate normally bends a little bit when the weight shifts. I was trying to hold the pallet, and it was pushing me. That's when I slipped. I fell only a split second before the weight came down.

Bentley motioned for summary judgment in the case in December, and Karan's attorney, Gonzalez, Saggio & Harlan LLP, filed a brief opposing summary judgment on Feb. 1. The court has yet to rule, and responsibility for both the cause of injury and the safety conditions at the accident site are in dispute.

Snowy parking lot

According to the suit, Karan says he and Lippert co-worker Tony Ford were trying to move the pallet of tile from the back of the truck to the truck's lift gate when the pallet started to fall. Karan took a step or two to get out of the way but slipped in the snow- covered parking lot and fell to the ground. The materials then landed on Karan.

According to Ford, who assisted Karan with the delivery, he was told where to place the tile under an overhang by the Bentley job superintendent. Ford then directed Karan to park the truck close to that overhang. Ford said he and Karan were trying to get the pallet all the way onto the lift gate so it could be lowered when the pallet started sliding off the gate. He yelled to Karan to move, but Karan slipped and the tile fell on him.

Karan said that he had seen pallets fall before but always had time to get out of the way. This time, however, he slipped on the wet pavement.

In the suit, Bentley Job Superintendent Richard Awve denied talking to either Karan or Ford before they made their delivery and instructing Ford to deliver near the overhang.

Karan's attorneys contend that as the general contractor in control of the project, it was Bentley's responsibility to make sure the area was safe for deliveries.

In asking for a summary judgment, Bentley denied responsibility for the accident, arguing that Holy Angels was responsible for clearing the parking lot, that Karan and Ford chose to park and unload the truck in an unsafe place, and that Karan disregarded the safety training he received from Lippert by standing behind the lift gate instead of to the side of it.

Lippert Tile warehouse manager and Karan's supervisor, Michael Scartino, testified that Karan and Ford should have broken down the pallet before trying to move it and that Karan should not have been standing behind the lift gate. He also said that Lippert employees are responsible for their own safety when it comes to where to unload and that Bentley had no right to control how Karan and Ford did their jobs.

Karan claimed he was not told by Lippert it was safer to break the pallet down than move the whole thing.

According to The Bentley Company's response, it said it could not be held responsible because the parking lot in which the fall took place was not a place of employment for Bentley, Bentley exercised no supervision or control over Karan and Ford, and that the conditions were not unsafe enough to impose a duty upon Bentley to maintain the lot. Therefore, Bentley claimed, the responsibility of the accident did not lie with the company.