Personal Injury Newsroom

The Court Denied Woods’s Motion Insofar As It Sought Summary Judgment On Dover’s Breach Of Contract Claim

On September 15, 2000, Eischeid filed suit against Dover. In March of 2001, Eischeid amended his complaint and added a direct negligence claim against Woods. In the original and amended complaints, Eischeid alleges that Dover was responsible for maintaining a safe work site but failed to do so. He avers that this failure and Dover’s negligence in performing construction work proximately caused his injuries. [Pf.’s exhs. 1, 7]. In the amended complaint, he alleges that Woods was negligent in performing construction work and that this negligence was a direct and proximate cause of his injuries. [Pf.’s exh. 7]. Dover filed a third-party complaint against Woods, claiming that, to the extent that there is a judgment rendered against Dover for Woods’s negligence, Woods must indemnify Dover for that portion of the judgment that is attributable to Woods’s negligence.

Shortly before State Auto filed the present declaratory judgment action, this court entered an Order in Eischeid’s personal injury case, on June 2, 2003, regarding Woods’s motion for summary judgment on Eischeid’s claim against it and on Dover’s third-party complaint against it. Eischeid did not resist Woods’s summary judgment motion, and the court held that summary judgment was appropriate on the merits because of the exclusivity of Iowa’s Workers’ Compensation statute, Iowa Code chapter 85. Pertinent to State Auto’s lawsuit, the court concluded that Dover and Woods’s Subcontract Agreement required Woods to indemnify Dover for damages arising out of Woods’s negligence but not out of Dover’s own negligence. Eischeid v. Dover Constr., Inc.,F. Supp. 2d  2003 WL 21272258, at *8 (N.D. Iowa June 2, 2003). The court also granted Woods’s unresisted motion to the extent Dover asserted claims of negligence, for contribution, and for breach-of-contract for failure to procure workers’ compensation insurance.

The court denied Woods’s motion insofar as it sought summary judgment on Dover’s breach-of-contract claim for breaches of contractual duties to comply with the plans and specifications for the construction project and to comply with OSHA regulations and on Dover’s claim for indemnity. Moreover, in accordance with the procedure outlined in the unpublished decision of the Iowa Court of Appeals in Sward v. Nelson Construction, Inc., 2003 WL 118206 (Iowa Ct. App. Jan. 15, 2003), this court also illustrated how the court would instruct the jury in Eischeid’s personal injury case in order to simultaneously address Dover’s third-party claim for indemnity against Woods: the court will permit the jury to assign causal negligence to Woods in Eischeid’s suit against the general contractor, Dover, in order to determine Woods’s indemnity to Dover. Eischeid,  F. Supp. 2d, at, 2003 WL 21272258, at  10.