Title: State ex rel. Angelo Benedetti, Inc. v. Indus. Comm.

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 
State ex rel. Angelo Benedetti, Inc. v. Indus. Comm., Slip Opinion No. 2011-Ohio-4131.] 
 
 
NOTICE 
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in 
an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports.  Readers are requested 
to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 
65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or 
other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be 
made before the opinion is published. 
 
SLIP OPINION NO. 2011-OHIO-4131 
THE STATE EX REL. ANGELO BENEDETTI, INC., APPELLANT, v. INDUSTRIAL 
COMMISSION OF OHIO ET AL., APPELLEES. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as State ex rel. Angelo Benedetti, Inc. v. Indus. Comm.,  
Slip Opinion No. 2011-Ohio-4131.] 
Workers’ compensation — Ohio Adm.Code 4121-3-20(C) — Amendment of 
application for additional award of compensation — Enumeration of 
safety-code sections. 
(No. 2007-0619 — Submitted April 5, 2011 — Decided August 24, 2011.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Franklin County, No. 06AP-165. 
__________________ 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} Appellee Industrial Commission of Ohio found that appellant, 
Angelo Benedetti, Inc. (“ABI”), violated two specific safety requirements that 
resulted in injury to an ABI employee.  ABI challenges that determination. 
{¶ 2} ABI is an asphalt-recycling company that uses old asphalt to 
repave roads.  To accomplish this, existing asphalt is first preheated and scraped 
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off the roadway.  The liquid asphalt must then be reconditioned by adding to it 
both gravel and a chemical agent. 
{¶ 3} Reconditioning is done on site in a drum-mixer recycling machine 
that ABI designed.  The gravel needed for this procedure is kept in a large hopper 
at the front of the machine and is distributed by two internal augers.  The hopper 
must be emptied at the completion of every job in order to move the recycling 
machine to the next assignment.  One of the ways to do this, according to 
testimony, was to have a worker climb into the hopper and shovel out the stone.  
This method was apparently necessary if the level of gravel dropped below a 
certain point or became wet, or an auger jammed. 
{¶ 4} On August 5, 1998, appellee Heath Jessop was told to clean out the 
hopper.  When Jessop entered the hopper, the augers were moving slowly.  
Jessop’s foreman, Amos S. Hostetter, told him “to slow the auger way down.  I 
told him to watch his feet, be careful in there.  With the augers moving real 
slow[ly], he shouldn’t have no [sic] problems.” 
{¶ 5} Unfortunately, there was a problem.  Years earlier, a screen grating 
above the augers had been removed to prevent gravel from getting clogged.  This 
exposed the augers to contact, and when Jessop slipped, his left leg became 
entangled.  Among other serious injuries, Jessop’s left leg was amputated above 
the knee. 
{¶ 6} In August 2000, Jessop filed with the commission an application 
for additional compensation, claiming that his injury was the result of numerous 
specific safety requirement violations (“VSSRs”) committed by ABI.  The 
application form asked for both a description of the accident and an enumeration 
of the specific safety-code sections allegedly breached.  Jessop answered the 
former as follows: “I was cleaning out gravel tank and I slipped and fell into [an] 
Auger * * *.”  He then listed the safety violations as “[Ohio Adm.Code] 4121:1-
3-06 all sections; 4121:1-3-03(E) all sections; 4121:1-3-03(J) all sections; 4121:1-
January Term, 2011 
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3-03(K) all sections.  The claimant cites herein any code section the employer has 
reasonable notice of.  The claimant cites any previously existing code section.” 
{¶ 7} After years of delay attributable to other litigation arising from the 
accident, Jessop’s application was heard by a commission staff hearing officer on 
August 15, 2005.  A few days prior to the hearing, Jessop moved to amend his 
application to allege a violation of former Ohio Adm.Code 4121:1-3-05(D)(1)(b), 
1979-1980 Ohio Monthly Record 4-34 to 4-35, effective November 1, 1979 (“The 
auger of screw conveyors shall be operated with the covers secured in place”), 
and 4121:1-3-05(G)(1), 1979-1980 Ohio Monthly Record 4-35, effective 
November 1, 1979 (“A stopping device shall be provided * * * within easy reach 
of the operator * * *”).  ABI objected to the request to amend as untimely. 
{¶ 8} The staff hearing officer conceded in her order that the amendment 
was “well outside the time guidelines for amending an application under [Ohio 
Adm.Code] 4121-3-20[C](1)(a) [and] (b).”  She nevertheless allowed the 
amendment after finding that it did not raise new claims but merely clarified those 
raised in Jessop’s initial VSSR application. 
{¶ 9} Turning to the merits of the newly alleged violations, the staff 
hearing officer found that the auger was not covered as Ohio Adm.Code 4121:1-
3-05(D)(1)(b) required.  She also concluded that Ohio Adm.Code 4121:1-3-
05(G)(1) required an emergency shutoff accessible to Jessop from his position 
inside the hopper and that one was not there.  Violations of both sections were 
found and an award was made in Jessop’s favor.  Further rehearing was denied. 
{¶ 10} ABI filed a complaint in mandamus in the Court of Appeals for 
Franklin County, alleging that the commission abused its discretion in both 
permitting Jessop to amend his VSSR application and in finding violations of the 
two newly added specific safety requirements.  The court of appeals upheld the 
commission’s order and denied the writ, prompting ABI’s appeal as of right to 
this court. 
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{¶ 11} Upon review, we agree with the reasoning provided by the court of 
appeals.  For the reasons given in that opinion, we hereby affirm its judgment. 
Judgment affirmed. 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, O’DONNELL, CUPP, 
and MCGEE BROWN, JJ., concur. 
LANZINGER, J., concurs in judgment only. 
__________________ 
Leonard F. Carr and L. Bryan Carr, for appellant. 
Philip J. Fulton Law Office and David B. Barnhart, for appellee Heath 
Jessop. 
Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Kevin J. Reis, Assistant Attorney 
General, for appellee Industrial Commission of Ohio. 
______________________