Opinion ID: 4027017
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Safety Measures

Text: At the time of the Barnes incident, there was a safety gate on the mezzanine level that could be opened by a pull-cord on the warehouse level and left open while forklift drivers transferred bags of press cake to and from the mezzanine. Employee Ray Collins (Collins) testified on deposition that although Sun Chemical installed the gate sometime after 1999—after he was hit in the leg by a falling bag of press cake—the gate did not work properly, and thus was -4- No. 15-2022 Gloria Barnes v. Sun Chemical Corporation always left open. However, according to Pontius, although the gate failed to work “a couple times,” someone usually inspected it if it was broken. (See Pontius Dep., PID 590, pp. 82-84.) The warehouse also had a “bright blue strobe light” to notify employees when the gate was open. (Id., PID 588-89, pp.76-77.) Although Sun Chemical contends it installed the light after the Collins incident in 1999, Collins testified at his deposition that there was a warning light in place at the time of his incident, but he had never seen it work. The record contains conflicting testimony about whether the light was working immediately after the bag of press cake fell on Barnes. Scott Foster, a Muskegon County deputy sheriff who responded to the scene, stated that Pontius and another man told him the light was not working, but when he checked the light, it was working “sporadic[ally].” (Foster Dep., PID 627, p.6; 629, p. 16; 63233, pp. 28-29; 633-34, pp.32-33). Pontius, however, testified at his deposition that the light always worked, and that he saw it working on the day of the incident, before the accident. Morano—the MIOSHA safety officer who investigated the incident three days later—testified at his deposition that he inspected the light and it was working. Similarly, Vander Berg and Hendryx remembered the light working immediately after the incident. Finally, according to Sun Chemical, the company has long provided a designated pedestrian pathway, or “manway,” on the warehouse floor, because employees are not supposed to walk through the designated forklift area. Although there was a grind-and-mix and storage area under the mezzanine, employees could access it via the manway without walking through the forklift area. Pontius testified during his deposition that about five years before the Barnes incident, employees received training to walk on the manway, not in the forklift area; however, he also explained that it was commonly known that employees walked in other areas on occasion. -5- No. 15-2022 Gloria Barnes v. Sun Chemical Corporation Similarly, Brown testified that employees did not always use the manway, and that they walked in the area under the mezzanine “pretty much all the time.” (Brown Dep., PID 612-13, pp. 4850; PID 617, p. 65.) Three management-level employees—Vander Berg, Hendryx, and James Andrew Nuttall—testified during their depositions that they knew that employees walked through the restricted area, or had heard about it, but Vander Berg asserted employees had received oral warnings from supervisors for doing so, and Hendryx stated he asked employees not to do so. The parties dispute whether the pedestrian walkway was marked at the time of the incident. According to Collins, it was not marked. But other employees and supervisors testified on deposition that the walkway was designated with a yellow line. Vander Berg testified that at the time, the line “may have been faded” or had objects stacked on top of it. (Vander Berg Dep., PID 692, p. 48; see also id. at PID 698, p. 69.) Nonetheless, Pontius testified that although the walkway was not marked with a sign, it was common knowledge that it existed and that employees were supposed to use it.