Anthony Newton v. Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation
Anthony Newton v. Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation
Opinion
Petitioner Anthony Newton seeks review of
Newton v. Caterpillar Financial Services Corp.
,
FACTS
C & J Bobcat and Hauling, LLC, hired Anthony Newton as an independent contractor to assist its agent, Charles Cram, in clearing debris from a private lot in a residential area.
Newton
,
While trying to move a tree stump into the disposal trailer, Cram asked Newton to climb inside and pack down the debris.
*1056
As Newton attempted to climb out of the disposal trailer, the stump rolled over his hand.
Newton filed suit against Caterpillar, alleging that Caterpillar was liable for the injuries he sustained from Cram's negligent operation of the loader because the loader was a dangerous instrumentality.
ANALYSIS
Whether loaders are dangerous instrumentalities is a pure question of law and is reviewed de novo.
See
Rippy
, 80 So.3d at 306 (citing
D'Angelo v. Fitzmaurice
,
Florida courts consider a variety of factors in applying the dangerous instrumentality doctrine.
Id.
at 308. One of the most important factors is whether the instrumentality is a motor vehicle.
Id.
Courts also consider whether the instrumentality is frequently operated near the public, but the incident under review need not have occurred on public property for the instrumentality to be dangerous.
Id.
at 308-09. Another factor is the instrumentality's peculiar dangers relative to other objects that courts have found to be dangerous instrumentalities.
See
Meister
, 462 So.2d at 1073. Courts also consider how extensively the legislature has regulated the instrumentality.
See
id.
at 1072-73. Evaluations of each factor may be based on "common knowledge and common experience" and should not be at odds with "the common opinion among many."
S. Cotton Oil Co.
,
First, we examine whether loaders are motor vehicles. Because " the 'various definitions of "motor vehicle" within the Florida Statutes are not dispositive,' "
Newton
,
Much like the farm tractors considered in Rippy , loaders are often operated in construction settings and on public rights-of-way and are "vehicles of such size and speed that wherever they are operated, they can be dangerous to those persons who come into contact with them." Rippy , 80 So.3d at 309. The undisputed facts of this case confirm that loaders are frequently used to clear private lots near public streets. This Court is persuaded that, while multi-terrain loaders may operate in public less often than their counterparts, loaders operate near the public frequently. Further, as we noted in Rippy , "the dangerous instrumentality doctrine is not limited to motor vehicles being operated on a public highway and may apply to a motor vehicle operated on private property." Rippy , 80 So.3d at 307 (citing Meister , 462 So.2d at 1073 ).
Loaders are heavy pieces of construction equipment weighing thousands of pounds. Loaders can move heavy loads across streets and unimproved surfaces. Multi-terrain loaders have tank-style treads designed for use on unimproved surfaces, while skid steer loaders have large tires designed for improved surfaces. Some loaders, like the one in this case, can be converted from treads to tires. Attached to their front ends, loaders have buckets in which heavy items can be lifted above the height of the average person. The bucket can obstruct operator visibility because loaders are operated from within cages in their centers.
The loader in this case weighed 8000 pounds and had treads at the time of the accident, though it could be modified to operate on tires.
Newton
,
Finally, we hold that Newton's status as an independent contractor does not exclude him from protection under the dangerous instrumentality doctrine. The doctrine has not treated construction workers as separate from the general public when injured in a public place.
See
N. Trust Bank of Fla., N.A. v. Constr. Equip. Int'l
,
CONCLUSION
Based on the foregoing, we determine that a loader is a dangerous instrumentality as a matter of law. Accordingly, we quash the decision below and remand to the district court with instructions that this case be further remanded to the trial court for an order granting summary judgment in favor of Newton.
It is so ordered.
PARIENTE, LEWIS, and LABARGA, JJ., concur.
LAWSON, J., dissents with an opinion, in which CANADY, C.J., and POLSTON, J., concur.
*1058
I respectfully dissent because this Court does not have jurisdiction to decide this case. To confer jurisdiction on this Court on the basis of a conflict, a decision of a district court must "expressly and directly conflict[ ] with a decision of another district court of appeal or of [this Court] on the same question of law." Art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. To meet this standard, the cases alleged to be in conflict must not be distinguishable from one another,
cf.
Fla. Dep't of Children & Families v. Davis Family Day Care Home
,
The majority has accepted this case on the basis of alleged conflict between
Newton v. Caterpillar Financial Services Corp
.,
It appears that the majority has found jurisdiction by noting the devices deemed dangerous instrumentalities in the five listed cases, considering the loader at issue in this case, and concluding instinctively that if these other five devices are dangerous instrumentalities, a loader surely is as well.
See
majority op. at 1055 note1 (explaining jurisdiction by reference to a list of items held to be dangerous instrumentalities in other cases). Problems with this approach include that each case addresses a different device with its own distinct characteristics, some of which are simply incomparable to the characteristics of the construction equipment at issue in this case, and that not all the cases even describe the characteristics of the devices being addressed.
Compare
Rippy
,
To further explain these points, I will first discuss the contradiction between this Court's opinion in Rippy and the general approach to finding conflict that the majority has taken in this case, and then I will address each of the five cases specifically to show that there is no express and direct conflict, as required for this Court to exercise jurisdiction in this case.
In
Rippy
, this Court explained that a device fits within the dangerous instrumentality doctrine when it is an " 'instrumentality of known qualities [that] is so peculiarly dangerous in its operation' as to justify" making the owner of the device liable for damage caused when it is operated negligently by someone the owner has entrusted with the device.
In setting forth this loose, factor-based approach, the
Rippy
Court made a special point to say that "no one test is determinative of whether an instrumentality is dangerous."
Thus, in light of this Court's analysis and express disclaimers in Rippy , I disagree with the general suggestion in the majority opinion that express-and-direct-conflict jurisdiction is established by the bare fact that each of the listed devices, none of which is a loader, has been determined by either this Court or another district court of appeal to be a dangerous instrumentality. Below, I more closely examine the five cases cited as grounds for this Court to exercise jurisdiction to show that the decisions themselves do not contain *1060 any other basis for finding express and direct conflict.
The first two cases,
Rippy
and
Meister
, set out the very broad rule, already noted above, that a device is a dangerous instrumentality if its characteristics and uses justify holding its owner liable for damages caused by another person to whom the device has been entrusted.
Rippy
,
In the decision on review, the
Newton
court recognized the factor approach exemplified in
Rippy
and
Meister.
Newton
,
Whether the loader in this case is a dangerous instrumentality presents a pure question of law that this court reviews de novo. See Rippy v. Shepard ,80 So.3d 305 , 306 (Fla. 2012). The doctrine imposes vicarious liability on the owner of an " 'instrumentality of known qualities [that] is so peculiarly dangerous in its operation' as to justify application" of the doctrine.Id. (quoting S. Cotton Oil Co. v. Anderson ,80 Fla. 441 ,86 So. 629 , 638 (Fla. 1920) (on petition for rehearing) ). In deciding whether something is a dangerous instrumentality, courts consider a number of factors. "A primary factor in determining whether an object is a dangerous instrumentality is whether the object at issue is a motor vehicle." Id. at 308. Courts also evaluate the extent to which an object is regulated because legislative regulation is a recognition of the danger posed by the use of the evaluated instrumentality. See S. Cotton Oil Co. ,86 So. at 634 ("It is idle to say that the Legislature imposed all these restraints, regulations, and restrictions upon the use of automobiles, if they were not dangerous agencies which the Legislature felt it was its duty to regulate and restrain for the protection of the public."). Another factor is the relative danger posed by the instrumentality. Seeid. at 633 ; Festival Fun Parks, LLC v. Gooch ,904 So.2d 542 , 546 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005) (noting that accidents involving go-karts causing serious injury were "pretty rare"). The physical characteristics of the object are also pertinent to the dangerous instrumentality inquiry. See Rippy ,80 So.3d at 309 ; Harding v. Allen-Laux, Inc. ,559 So.2d 107 , 108 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990) (describing a forklift as a "large[ ], four-wheel vehicle with protruding steel tusks"). Courts *1061 also consider whether the instrumentality at issue is operated in close proximity to the public. Compare Harding ,559 So.2d at 108 (considering forklift involved in accident with a motor vehicle on public highway), with Canull v. Hodges ,584 So.2d 1095 , 1097 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991) ("The road grader we are asked to classify as a dangerous instrumentality was not licensed or regulated and was operating on an airport construction site and its operator was apparently a fellow employee of the plaintiff. " (emphasis added) ).
Id. at 614. The Newton court then concluded, correctly, that "[n]o single factor is determinative of the inquiry, and this list of factors is not exhaustive," but "[r]ather, these factors exist to assist courts in determining whether an application of the dangerous instrumentality doctrine is justified." Id. The Newton court applied each of the factors it identified, with an analysis specific to the loader at issue in this case. Id. at 615-18. Because the Newton court applied a list of factors consistent with the factors this Court relied on in Rippy and Meister and was considering a different device from those analyzed in Rippy and Meister , there is no express and direct conflict with either Rippy or Meister. 3
After citing Rippy and Meister as decisions in conflict with Newton , the majority cites three district court cases: Lewis , Sherrill , and Thomas.
As for
Lewis
, the determination of conflict could not have been based on anything but a conclusory comparison of devices. The
Lewis
court's conclusion that the device at issue, a "construction hoist, or elevator,"
The conclusion that the
Sherrill
decision expressly and directly conflicts with
Newton
suffers the same failing and more. It appears that the majority has decided that a bare assertion in
Sherrill
that a crane is a dangerous instrumentality conflicts with the
Newton
court's factor-based conclusion that a loader is not a dangerous instrumentality.
See
majority op. at 1055 note 1. Not only is this analysis invalid because
Rippy
establishes that a simple comparison is an illegitimate basis for a decision on the merits-and,
a fortiori
, for a finding of conflict-,
The sole issue decided by the
Sherrill
court was whether the trial court erred in determining that a "crane operator was, as a matter of law, a borrowed servant" of a general contractor under workers' compensation law.
The impression that the Sherrill court concluded that a crane is a dangerous instrumentality seems to arise from this language:
[H]ad [the crane owner] simply leased the crane to [the general contractor], it would clearly be immune from liability under the worker's compensation statutes since its purported liability under these circumstances would be based solely on the 'dangerous instrumentality' doctrine. Florida has long recognized that a worker injured by a leased dangerous instrumentality operated by a fellow worker is limited to no more recovery than that permitted by the worker's compensation statutes.
Finally, Thomas does not expressly and directly conflict with Newton. The Thomas decision's entire discussion of the dangerous instrumentality issue consists of the following:
Appellee, plaintiff below, while standing near a lunch truck in a street end or extension located in a harbor dock area, was struck and injured by a small motor operated vehicle referred to as a 'tow-motor.' The vehicle was owned by the corporate defendant and operated by the individual defendant with the former's knowledge and consent.... On appeal, it is contended that the dangerous instrumentality doctrine as referable to motor vehicles was not applicable because the vehicle involved was not licensed and because the accident did not occur on a publicly maintained street or thoroughfare....
On the evidence, the jury was entitled to find that the injury occurred on a public street or highway maintained by the city for vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and that the 'tow-motor' was a motor vehicle. On those facts the dangerous instrumentality doctrine properly applied. An owner or driver may not escape liability for negligent operation of a motor vehicle on a public street or highway because the required licensing of the vehicle has been omitted.
The
Newton
decision involves a much more complicated question: whether, based on facts concerning the loader and its operation and a variety of factors developed in case law generated after
Thomas
, the loader meets the general test for being considered a dangerous instrumentality.
See
Newton
,
Further, unlike
Thomas
, the
Newton
opinion indicates that there was no dispute that the device in question was being operated on a private lot at the time of the injury.
See
Newton
,
For the foregoing reasons, none of the decisions the majority relies on as the grounds for jurisdiction over this case satisfy the constitutional requirements for the cited jurisdictional basis, express and direct conflict on the same question of law. See art. V, § 3(b)(3). Therefore, I dissent.
CANADY, C.J., and POLSTON, J., concur.
The decision below conflicts with decisions of this Court and other district courts holding that different kinds of motorized equipment comparable to loaders are dangerous instrumentalities.
See
,
e.g.
,
Rippy v. Shepard
,
The first application of the dangerous instrumentality doctrine by this Court was to automobiles being operated on public highways.
Rippy
,
In his jurisdictional brief, Newton argued conflict with
Rippy
and
Meister
because, among other reasons, the
Newton
court considered it significant that this particular loader was being operated on a private lot at the time of the injury and that Newton, the injured party, was not a "member of the unsuspecting public,"
Newton
,
The majority notes that Newton's "accident occurred on a public street" because that is where the disposal trailer was parked. Majority op. at 1055-56, 1057-58. This observation is a conclusion derived from the record, rather than the
Newton
opinion. Therefore, it does not affect the jurisdictional analysis.
See
Reaves
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Anthony NEWTON, Petitioner, v. CATERPILLAR FINANCIAL SERVICES CORPORATION, Et Al., Respondents.
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published