Title: Harwood v. Ardagh Group
Citation: 2022 OK 51
Docket Number: 
State: Oklahoma
Issuer: Oklahoma Supreme Court
Date: June 1, 2022

Harwood v. Ardagh Group Annotate this Case Justia Opinion Summary An automobile driven by defendant Patrick McLaughlan, struck plaintiff Jerry Harwood while Harwood was leaving his work shift and crossing the street to an employer provided parking lot. After an unsuccessful attempt to recover workers compensation benefits for his injuries, Harwood filed a lawsuit against the driver and his employer. The trial court dismissed the lawsuit against the employer for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Harwood appealed, and the Court of Civil Appeals affirmed. After review, the Oklahoma Supreme Court held that because an employer may have assumed the duty to provide a safer crosswalk for access to an employer designated parking lot, the employee pled a claim for relief which is legally possible. The trial court's dismissal was premature. Read more Want to stay in the know about new opinions from the Oklahoma Supreme Court? Sign up for free summaries delivered directly to your inbox. Learn More › You already receive new opinion summaries from Oklahoma Supreme Court. Did you know we offer summary newsletters for even more practice areas and jurisdictions? Explore them here . HARWOOD v. ARDAGH GROUP 2022 OK 51 Case Number: 118947 Decided: 06/01/2022 THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA NOTICE: THIS OPINION HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION. UNTIL RELEASED, IT IS SUBJECT TO REVISION OR WITHDRAWAL. JERRY NEAL HARWOOD, Plaintiff/Appellant, v. ARDAGH GROUP, ARDAGH GLASS, INC., Defendant/Appellee, and PATRICK THOM MCLAUGHLAN, Defendant. ON CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS, DIVISION I Honorable Douglas W. Golden, Trial Judge ¶0 An automobile driven by the defendant, Patrick McLaughlan, struck Jerry Harwood while Harwood was leaving his work shift and crossing the street to an employer provided parking lot. After an unsuccessful attempt to recover workers compensation benefits for his injuries, Harwood filed a lawsuit against the driver and his employer. The trial court dismissed the lawsuit against the employer for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Harwood appealed, and the Court of Civil Appeals affirmed. We hold that because an employer may have assumed the duty to provide a safer crosswalk for access to an employer designated parking lot, the employee has pled a claim for relief which is legally possible. The trial court's dismissal was premature. CERTIORARI PREVIOUSLY GRANTED; COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OPINION VACATED; TRIAL COURT REVERSED AND CAUSE REMANDED. John L. Harlan, Sapulpa, Oklahoma, for Plaintiff/Appellant. Drew A. Lagow, Rhiannon K. Baker, Edmond, Oklahoma, for Defendant/Appellee. KAUGER, J.: ¶1 We granted certiorari to address the dispositive issue of whether the employee pled a claim for relief because the employer may owe a duty to provide a safer crosswalk for employees parking in the employer designated parking lot and accessing the place of employment by using the crosswalk. We hold that because the employer may have assumed the duty to provide a safer crosswalk for access to an employer designated parking lot, the employee has pled a claim for relief which is legally possible.1 The trial court's dismissal was premature. ALLEGED FACTS ¶2 The defendant, Ardagh (Ardagh/employer), employed the plaintiff, Jerry Neal Harwood, (Harwood/employee) at its glass plant in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.2 Ardagh provided hourly employees, such as Harwood, two parking lots across the street (a/k/a Oklahoma State Highway 66) from the glass plant to park their vehicles while at work. Ardagh directed employees to use the marked crosswalk between the plant and the parking lots when crossing the street. ¶3 The crosswalk was covered by overhead stop lights which were activated by the employees from either end of the crosswalk. At night, street lights also lined both sides of the street at and near the marked crosswalk. Although the employer did not own, operate, or control the crosswalks, according to the employee, Ardagh knew that: 1) the stop lights and street lights were inoperable 2 or 3 times a year; 2) on the afternoon of July 14, 2016, the lights were inoperable until July 17, 2016; 3) following a power outage on July 14, 2016, the City of Sapulpa placed a four-way metal stop sign in the center of the intersection adjacent to the marked crosswalk; 4) local City of Sapulpa police were occasionally, but not always, present during shift changes when employees were crossing in the crosswalk; and 5) some motor vehicles did not stop for the crosswalk and/or metal four way stop sign. ¶4 On the night of July 16, 2016, while the stop lights and street lights were not working, a motor vehicle, driven by the defendant, Patrick Thom McLaughlan (McLaughlan), hit Harwood while he was leaving his 11:00 p.m. shift. The employee suffered severe injuries, rendering him permanently and totally disabled for the rest of his life, and unable to work again. ¶5 The employee first sought workers compensation benefits from the employer which were denied because the accident occurred after the employee had "clocked out" and left work. Consequently, the injuries did not arise out of the course of employment and thus were not covered by workers' compensation benefits. The denial of workers compensation benefits is not before us in this cause, and the matter has been concluded. 3 ¶6 On February 8, 2019, the employee filed a lawsuit against Ardagh and the driver who hit him in the District Court of Creek County, Oklahoma. The employee alleged that the driver caused the employee's injuries when he negligently failed to stop at the crosswalk. He also alleged that the employer was a cause of his injuries because the employer negligently failed to ensure adequate lighting and protection for employees crossing the crosswalk. ¶7 On March 5, 2019, the employer filed a Motion to Dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. It argued that because it did not own, operate or control the crosswalk, and the employee was not within the course and scope of employment at the time of the accident, Ardagh did not have a duty to make the crosswalk safer. Accordingly, because no duty existed, the employer could not be determined to have been negligent as matter of law, and the employee failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. ¶8 On April 8, 2019, the trial court agreed with the employer, and granted the employer's Motion to Dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. However, the trial court also allowed the employee the opportunity to file an amended petition, which the employee did on April 29, 2019. ¶9 In the amended petition, the employee added additional allegations that the employer: 1) instead of providing parking for hourly employees adjacent to the plant, like they did with management, the employer provided hourly employees with two parking lots across a four lane street which it either leased or owned and were surrounded by a chain link fence; 2) the employer instructed the hourly employees to park in the lots and they were forbidden from parking adjacent to the plant; 3) the four lane street was also a four lane state highway and was the most direct route from Sapulpa to Tulsa, thereby making it heavily traveled and a hazard; 4) the transit between the plant and the parking lots was the marked crosswalk; 5) employees were told using the crosswalk was "part of your job" and that it was "the most dangerous part of your job" even if the employees were not "on the clock yet." 6) employees were issued reprimands if they did not use the crosswalk; 7) only plant employees used the crosswalk, as there were no other businesses or homes near it; 8) the employer created a walkway, "cattle chute," in the chainlink fence to the marked crosswalk and another walkway with railings leading from the crosswalk to the plant; 9) even if the street was a public street, the employer's use of the crosswalk was de facto part of its property and constituted a constructive use or occupancy of it; 10) the night before the employee was injured a supervisor placed a set of strobe lights on the four way, temporary, metal stop sign, but took it off at the shift change; 11) the plant manager assisted, and approved of, employees placing another set of strobe lights on the four way stop within two and a half hours after the employee's accident; and 12) the employer represented to employees that it would make the passage across the crosswalk as safe as possible. ¶10 On June 7, 2019, the employer filed a second Motion to Dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. On September 9, 2019, the employer filed a additional Motion to Dismiss, arguing that because the employee's negligence claims arose out of an employment relationship between the employee and the employer, the employee's remedy was limited to the workers' compensation commission. ¶11 On June 29, 2020, the trial court filed an order dismissing the employer from the lawsuit because the employee failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The court also found that there was no just reason to delay the entry of a final judgment as to the employer.4 The employee appealed, and on April 23, 2021, the Court of Civil Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed the trial court. The employee petitioned for certiorari in this Court, and we granted certiorari on January 25, 2022, to address the employer's duty under the facts and circumstances alleged in this cause. BECAUSE THE EMPLOYER MAY HAVE ASSUMED THE DUTY TO PROVIDE A SAFER CROSSWALK FOR ACCESS TO AN EMPLOYER DESIGNATED PARKING LOT, THE EMPLOYEE PLED A CLAIM FOR WHICH RELIEF IS LEGALLY POSSIBLE. THE TRIAL COURT'S DISMISSAL WAS PREMATURE. ¶12 The employer argues that because it does not own or control the crosswalk, it had no duty as a matter of law to make the crosswalk any safer. It insists that the employee's only remedy against the employer is through workers' compensation proceedings which have already been pursued. The employee contends that, irrespective of whether the employee was entitled to workers' compensation benefits, the employer assumed the duty to make the crosswalk safer on the day of the accident, but that duty was breached and a cause of the accident. A. Standard of Review/Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim. ¶13 The trial court dismissed the cause pursuant to the employer's motion to dismiss for the employee's failure to state a claim for negligence against it.5 The trial court determined that no claim existed against the employer because any action of the employer toward making the crosswalk safer would be purely gratuitous, and not a "duty." Consequently, at this juncture, the facts have not been determined and are mere allegations. ¶14 An order dismissing a case for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted is subject to de novo review.6 When reviewing a motion to dismiss, the Court must take as true all of the challenged pleading's allegations together with all reasonable inferences which may be drawn from them.7 The purpose of a motion to dismiss is to test the law that governs the claim in litigation, not the underlying facts.8 ¶15 A pleading must not be dismissed for failure to state a legally cognizable claim unless the allegations indicate beyond any doubt that the litigant can prove no set of facts which would entitle the plaintiff to relief.9 Therefore, the precise issue presented on appeal is whether the facts pled may support a claim for relief.10 The burden to show the legal insufficiency of the petition is on the party moving for dismissal.11 Motions to dismiss are usually viewed with disfavor under this standard, and the burden of demonstrating a petition's insufficiency is not a light one.12 B. The Employer/Employee Relationship Status as it Relates to Premises Liability and/or Workers' Compensation Benefits. ¶16 This cause does not concern the award or denial of Workers' Compensation Benefits. The Workers' Compensation coverage issue has already been decided, and the court determined that because the employee had "clocked out" when he was injured in the crosswalk while crossing the highway, he was not injured "in the course of employment" it must deny coverage.13 Nevertheless, a discussion of Workers' Compensation is critical to resolving this cause. Until recently, due to legislative changes, all of our previous decisions regarding employer premises liability for employee accidents were always decided in the context of whether the employee was injured on premises owned or controlled by an employer and whether the injury incurred "in the course of employment." ¶17 However, the most current Workers' Compensation regime, 85 O.S. Supp. 2021 §2(13), draws a line for the employer and employee that essentially the "clock" begins and ends the employer's liability under Workers' Compensation. Unless, the employer owns or maintains exclusive control over the area,14 the statute provides that a compensable injury suffered in the "course of employment" does not include any injury occurring in a parking lot or other common area adjacent to an employer's place of business before the employee clock in or after the employee clocks out This statute was enacted in 2013, when the legislature overhauled all of the Workers' Compensation statutes.15 ¶18 Although the statute was subsequently amended in 2018, 2019, and 2021, the only change made by the legislature, pertinent to our discussion of this cause, was the addition of the clarification language of "unless the employer owns or maintains exclusive control over the area" added in 2021. Prior to this 2021 change, cases generally involved questions such as whether the alleged injury occurred in a parking lot on the employer premises, or close or nearby the employer's premises under the employer's control, coupled with the question of whether the employee was engaged in activity in the furtherance of the employer's business while arriving or leaving the workplace, or on a break.16 ¶19 One such example of that analysis, with a fact pattern very similar to this cause, is Swanson v. General Paint Co., 1961 OK 70, 361 P.2d 842 . The employee in Swanson, supra, had parked his car in a employer provided parking lot and, while walking across the Sand Springs Highway, he was struck by an automobile and killed. ¶20 The parking lot was not owned by the employer. Rather the building and grounds of the employer's plant were rented. The landlord furnished the parking lot for the convenience of several tenants and their employees for joint use. The employee, with the consent and acquiescence of the officials of the paint company, parked in the lot and, at one time, the employee even had a marked space with his name on it. The accident occurred at approximately 7:53 a.m. on November 19, 1958, and the employee's hours were from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. ¶21 To decide whether the employee was covered by Workers' Compensation death benefits, the Court looked at whether the employee was killed on the employer's premises because the rule at the time was that where a parking lot constituted a part of an employer's premises, an injury incurred in passing from such area to his working place was considered incurring out of and in the course of employment. ¶22 The Swanson Court , supra, held that the fact that the accident happened on a public road is not conclusive against the existence of a causal relationship, if the danger be one which the employee by reason of employment is subjected.17 Several cases after Swanson, supra, involved questions of whether the employer owned or controlled the premises, and whether there was a causal connection between the injury and employment or that the precipitating risk of harm was created or maintained by the employer.18 In one such cause, Bober v. Oklahoma State University, 2016 OK 78, 378 P.3d 562, a cause concerning an employee who was injured when she slipped on an icy curb going into work after parking on an on-premises, employer designated parking lot, Justice Winchester, in his dissent, foreshadowed the circumstances we are faced with in this cause. ¶23 The dissent in Bober, supra, pointed out that the statutory changes reflect a clear line policy decision by the legislature to draw a line for employer liability under Workers' Compensation law that begins and ends with an employee clocking into and out of work, unless directed otherwise by the employer. It went on to say that: ¶3 Workers' Compensation is not an exclusive remedy if the statutes specifically eliminate parking lot injuries as coming within the "course and scope of employment." If there is actionable negligence for a parking lot injury, it is still covered by tort law. The Court's opinion holds that "A parking lot owned or controlled by the employer alone clearly constitutes the 'premises' of such employer, and is part of the 'employer's place of business." However, if the legislature has intentionally excluded the parking lot from the jurisdiction of Workers' Compensation law, the "premises" doctrine is no longer valid. The legislature has the authority and power to make such an exception. I conclude that it "clearly" made such an exception. After Bober, was decided, the legislature, in 2021, clarified that injuries occurring before or after clocking out would be covered only when the premises were under the exclusive control of the employer.19 ¶24 Nevertheless, the dissent also noted that Workers' Compensation is not an exclusive remedy if the statutes specifically eliminate parking lot injuries as coming within the "course and scope of employment." If there is actionable negligence for a parking lot injury, or in this case a crosswalk injury, it is still covered by tort law. We agree that if there is an actionable claim for negligence in this cause, it is covered by tort law and may be brought in the district court and that denial of Workers' Compensation benefits because an employee was not "in the course" of employment does not preclude such a negligence action. This is the policy decision expressly chosen by the Legislature when it eliminated parking lot, and other similar, injuries from coming within the "course and scope of employment." C. A Duty May be Assumed, Supporting an Actionable Negligence Claim. ¶25 Review of dismissals of alleged negligence claims for the failure to maintain a safe crosswalk, or duty to provide a safe crosswalk, ordinarily come before us in the context of a Governmental Torts Claim,20 because, most often, it is a municipality which owns and controls the crosswalk. However, recently, in Teeter v. City of Edmond, 2004 OK 5, 85 P.3d 817 , we addressed such a claim against a university. In Teeter, supra, a student was struck by a motor vehicle and seriously injured while crossing a four-lane street maintained by the City of Edmond and which bordered the university. ¶26 Regarding university's alleged duty to maintain or make a crosswalk safer, we explained that the duty can arise when one voluntarily assumes a duty to provide a safer crosswalk. We said: ¶20 Teeter also contends that UCO assumed a duty to provide a safe crosswalk independent of the City's police power. Elements to a claim based upon negligence include (1) a duty to the plaintiff, (2) a violation of that duty, and (3) and injury resulting from that violation. Hesser v. Central National Bank & Trust Company of Enid, 1998 OK 15, ¶ 12, 956 P.2d 864 , 867. This Court has previously noted the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 323 (1965), and its standards for attaching liability based upon one who voluntarily assumes a duty. Jackson v. Mercy Health Center, Inc., 1993 OK 155, n. 9, 864 P.2d 839 , 842-843. See also, Seavey, Reliance on Gratuitous Promises or Other Conduct, 64 Harv.L.Rev. 913, 928 (1951), ("Where a person represents by word or act that he has done or will do something upon the performance of which he should realize that others will rely, he is liable for expectable harm caused by the reliance of others and his failure of performance, if his representation was negligently or intentionally false, or if without excuse he fails to perform."). Nevertheless, the Court concluded that even if the university undertook a duty to provide a crosswalk, the student's negligence claims were barred by the Governmental Tort Claims Act because the university was the "State" for purposes of the Act, and the Act provided that no negligence-based liability could arise from the failure to initially place road signs or warning signs to make a crosswalk safer.21 ¶27 In this cause, the employer is not an entity protected by the Governmental Tort Claims Act. The standards for attaching liability based upon one who voluntarily assumes a duty squarely apply. Among the traditional elements of the tort of negligence are that there must be: 1) a duty owed by one person to another; and 2) a breach of that duty.22 The threshold question in any suit based on negligence is whether the defendant had a duty to the particular plaintiff alleged to have been harmed.23 ¶28 Here, we are not talking about a duty owed to the general public by the employer. The word "duty' is used throughout the Restatement (Second) of Torts to denote the fact that an actor is required to conduct himself or herself in a particular manner at the risk that if he or she does not do so, liability may extend to another to whom the duty is owed for an injury sustained of which the actor's conduct is a legal cause.24 In this cause, there is the established relationship of employer/employee. Even though the employer may not own or control the street, it owns or controls both premises on each side of the crosswalk. An area of liability in this relationship may arises out of the principles discussed in Teeter, supra, and that of the Restatement (Second) of Torts §323 (1965) which provides: One who undertakes, gratuitously or for consideration, to render services to another which he (or she) should recognize as necessary for the protection of the other's person or things, is subject to liability to the other for physical harm resulting from his (or her) failure to exercise reasonable care to perform the undertaking if: (a) his (or her) failure to exercise such care increases the risk of such harm, or (b) the harm is suffered because of the other's reliance upon the undertaking. ¶29 The allegations are that the employer provided parking for employees and instructed them to park across a busy highway. The employer represented to employees that it would make the passage across the highway as safe as possible, and it recognized the necessity for the protection of the employees crossing to the parking lot by creating a walkway with railings, and placed strobe lights on the four-way stop when the crosswalk lights were out. The allegations in this cause are beyond those of merely promising an undertaking to make crossing safer. The allegations are that the employer previously had taken steps to make the crossing safer, the employees relied on the employer to make the crossing safe, and the employer failed to do so on this occasion which increased the risk of harm to the employee. ¶30 Taken in a light most favorable to the employee, and with all reasonable inferences in his favor, the employee's petition does state an extant duty on the employer to make the crosswalk safer.25 Accordingly, the trial court's dismissal for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted was premature. This is not to say that the employer is liable as a matter of law. The fact finder will have to make a determination as to whether the duty was breached, and whether the breach was a sufficient cause of the employee's injuries to award damages.26 CONCLUSION ¶31 Because we have held that the employer may have assumed the duty to provide a safer crosswalk for access to an employer designated parking lot, the employee has pled a case for relief which is legally possible. The courthouse doors are open to the employee. Whether or not the actions of the employer were the proximate cause of the injury to the appellant is one for the jury to decide. CERTIORARI PREVIOUSLY GRANTED; COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OPINION VACATED; TRIAL COURT REVERSED AND CAUSE REMANDED. CONCUR: Darby, C.J., Kauger, Edmondson, Combs and Gurich, JJ. DISSENT: Kane, V.C.J. (by separate writing), Winchester (by separate writing) Rowe and Kuehn, (by separate writing), JJ. FOOT