Summary Judgment-Negligence

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Jason Burns v. Sherwin-Williams Company

Case No.: 22-2825

Officials: Hamilton, Brennan, and Kirsch, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Summary Judgment-Negligence

Jason Burns, a truck driver, injured himself while delivering products to a Sherwin-Williams paint supply store. Burns and a store employee used the company’s walkie—a hand-operated electric forklift—to move pallets holding the products from Burns’s truck, up a small ramp, and into the store’s warehouse. When they finished unloading, Burns backed the walkie down the ramp in reverse to return the now-empty pallets to his truck. He moved in the direction of a dumpster and other pallets that were laying on the ground beside it. But as he approached the pallets and dumpster, Burns miscalculated how long it would take to stop the walkie. He failed to stop it as he approached the pallets, trapping his foot and breaking his ankle. Burns sued Sherwin-Williams, alleging that the company failed to exercise ordinary care by leaving the empty pallets in the work area and providing an unsafe walkie. Sherwin-Williams moved for summary judgment, arguing that it owed no duty to Burns under Illinois law and that Burns had failed to produce evidence suggesting that the walkie was unsafe. Sherwin-Williams also moved to exclude one of Burns’s experts, arguing that the expert’s opinions were unreliable and unhelpful.

The Seventh Circuit affirmed. Under Illinois law, Sherwin-Williams owed no duty to Burns. The discarded pallets were an open and obvious condition. The court declined to apply the doctrine’s deliberate encounter exception: “Where the possessor of land has reason to expect that the invitee will proceed to encounter the known or obvious danger because, to a reasonable man in his position, the advantages of doing so would outweigh the apparent risk.” The court upheld the exclusion of expert testimony that the walkie was unsafe as unreliable under Rule 702.

Affirmed

Decided 08/15/23

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