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    This document is an unpublished appellate court decision from 1987 regarding a worker's injury claim against his employer. The court affirms the lower court's grant of summary judgment for the employer. The worker was injured when a forklift accidentally backed into tables in the employee lunch area where he was sitting, causing a table to hit him. The court found that the facts did not show the lunch area location next to the work area presented a high degree of risk and strong probability of serious injury as required to maintain a suit under the state's deliberate intent exception to immunity from common law tort claims granted to employers by the workers compensation statute.

    Original Description:

    Filed: 1987-12-28 Precedential Status: Non-Precedential Citations: 836 F.2d 545 Docket: 87-2552

    Original Title

    Arthur J. Bell, Pauline Bell v. Volkswagen of America, Incorporated, a Corporation, Clark Equipment Company, a Corporation, 836 F.2d 545, 4th Cir. (1987)

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    This document is an unpublished appellate court decision from 1987 regarding a worker's injury claim against his employer. The court affirms the lower court's grant of summary judgment for the employer. The worker was injured when a forklift accidentally backed into tables in the employee lunch area where he was sitting, causing a table to hit him. The court found that the facts did not show the lunch area location next to the work area presented a high degree of risk and strong probability of serious injury as required to maintain a suit under the state's deliberate intent exception to immunity from common law tort claims granted to employers by the workers compensation statute.

    Copyright:

    Public Domain
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    5 views2 pages

    United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit

    Uploaded by

    Scribd Government Docs
    This document is an unpublished appellate court decision from 1987 regarding a worker's injury claim against his employer. The court affirms the lower court's grant of summary judgment for the employer. The worker was injured when a forklift accidentally backed into tables in the employee lunch area where he was sitting, causing a table to hit him. The court found that the facts did not show the lunch area location next to the work area presented a high degree of risk and strong probability of serious injury as required to maintain a suit under the state's deliberate intent exception to immunity from common law tort claims granted to employers by the workers compensation statute.

    Copyright:

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    of 2

    836 F.

    2d 545
    Unpublished Disposition

    NOTICE: Fourth Circuit I.O.P. 36.6 states that citation of


    unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing
    res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires
    service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Fourth
    Circuit.
    Arthur J. BELL, Pauline Bell, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
    v.
    VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INCORPORATED, a
    corporation,
    Defendant-Appellee,
    Clark Equipment Company, a corporation, Defendant.
    No. 87-2552.

    United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.


    Submitted Nov. 4, 1987.
    Decided Dec. 28, 1987.

    W. E. Mohler for appellant.


    Paul E. Frampton, Bowles, McDavid, Graff & Love for appellee.
    Before SPROUSE and WILKINSON, Circuit Judges, and BOYLE,
    United States District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina,
    sitting by designation.
    PER CURIAM:

    Arthur Bell appeals from the district court's grant of summary judgment to his
    former employer, Volkswagen of America, Inc., in his action to recover for a
    back injury he received while working on the job. The district court held that
    Bell failed to produce evidence that would allow him to maintain suit under
    West Virginia's statutory "deliberate intent" exception to the general immunity
    from common law tort actions that the West Virginia Workers' Compensation

    Act grants to covered employers. W.Va. Code Sec. 23-4-2. We affirm.


    2

    On March 21, 1984, Bell was employed as a tool and die maker at
    Volkswagen's Stamping Plant in South Charleston, West Virginia. He was
    injured when a forklift accidentally backed into a lunch table causing it to
    collide with another table, which rolled into his back. At the time, Bell was
    taking a break in a lunch area located adjacent to the production line where the
    forklift was operating.

    Bell contends that Volkswagen subjectively realized that the location of the
    lunch area next to a work area constituted a dangerous condition that presented
    a high degree of risk and strong probability of serious injury. The district court,
    however, concluded that the discrete facts "do not reveal the type of working
    condition which presented a high degree of risk and strong probability of
    serious injury or death." W.Va. Code Sec. 23-4-2(c)(2)(ii)(A). We agree with
    the district court's conclusion, and accordingly affirm its grant of summary
    judgment.

    AFFIRMED.

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