Opinion ID: 2070593
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Genuine Issues of Material Facts

Text: Although appellant offers a number of contentions to support his view that the trial court improperly granted summary judgment to appellee, we need not address all of them, primarily because the disposition of the negligence claim is pivotal to the resolution of this appeal. With regard to genuine issues of material facts, we observe that the present record of deposition testimony reveals conflicting descriptions of the manner in which the incident occurred. Appellant testified that he believed that Morris attempted to refuel the forklift after it had earlier stopped functioning. According to appellant, Morris did this outside appellant's presence because appellant had gone inside to receive a telephone call. Appellant further claims that Morris, soon after refueling the forklift, witnessed appellant's fall because Morris was helping to push the forklift. Directly contrary, Morris testified in his deposition that he was not pushing the forklift nor was he even in the general area of the forklift when appellant fell. Rather, Morris testified that he first heard of Klock's injury when he returned to the ground from the top of a building and appellant told him that he had fallen. Morris also did not remember whether he refueled the forklift earlier that day. In the context of a ruling granting summary judgment, it is evident that there are factual disagreements between the parties with respect to a nexus between appellant's fall and the forklift. While Morris' purported negligence  failure to properly refuel the forklift, failure to detect the gas spill, and failure to warn of the spill  could be construed to be related to the forklift, the major thrust of the negligence claim is that appellant fell on a gasoline puddle created by Morris. If appellant's allegations only indirectly implicate the piece of equipment involved here, there is a critical question whether the provisions of the Release are indeed applicable to this litigation. Unless the Release, or some other legal principle controls the outcome of this case, we cannot agree that there are no disputed questions of material fact.