47 Conn. Supp. 638 | Conn. Super. Ct. | 2002
Summary judgment shall be granted if the pleading and documentary proof submitted demonstrates that no genuine dispute of material fact exists and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Practice Book § 17-49.
The Workers' Compensation Act is remedial and should be "construed generously to accomplish its purpose." Driscoll v. General NutritionCorp., *640
In the present case, the plaintiffs assert that they have suffered, and some still suffer, respiratory ailments proximately caused by exposure to airborne droplets of petroleum-based metal working fluids which had been contaminated by microorganisms. Inhalation of these droplets introduces the microorganisms into the lungs resulting in a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. For purposes of the present motion, the court assumes these assertions to be true.
Before Jett v. Dunlop,
In Mingachos v. CBS, Inc.,
Definitive explication of the intentional injury exception to workers' compensation exclusivity came in Suarez I. Our Supreme Court explained inSuarez I that the substantial certainty test differed from a pure intent test in that the employee need only show that the employer believed there was a substantial certainty that the employee would suffer injury from its deliberate conduct rather than a requirement that the employer intended the injury to occur. Suarez I, supra,
The documentary evidence submitted in opposition to a motion for summary judgment in Suarez I raised a genuine dispute concerning the employer's belief that an employee would inevitably amputate his fingers as a result of the employer's demands of the employee. Id., 111. The evidence proffered showed that the employer refused to allow a machine maintainer to turn off a *642
plastic molding device or to use a vacuum to remove waste plastic from the machine. The evidence showed that the employer insisted that the employee plunge his bare hands into an operating machine. The Supreme Court remanded the case for trial; on remand the trial resulted in a plaintiff's verdict. The matter was appealed once again in Suarez II. InSuarez II, our Supreme Court described its earlier ruling as establishing an exception to the workers' compensation exclusivity provision if the employee can prove "either that the employer actually intended to injure the plaintiff (actual intent standard) or that the employer intentionally created a dangerous condition that made the plaintiff's injuries substantially certain to occur (substantial certainty standard)." SuarezII, supra,
The defendant in the present case has submitted documentary evidence which indicates that the employer harbored no belief that its actions or conduct were substantially certain to cause respiratory illness in the plaintiffs. The outbreak of pneumonitis was confined to its Farmington plant even though the same type of machinery and fluids were used during the same period at another facility of the defendant in Ivoryton. The majority of employees at the Farmington plant exhibited no signs of the illness. Tests performed on the air at the factory produced levels of metal working fluid within the safety standards required by the federal *643 Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. An investigation by the occupational hazards department of the University of Connecticut Health Center (health center) resulted in findings which list microorganisms in the fluid as the most likely source of the outbreak but do not conclusively identify the cause in the absence of a biopsy. The health center made certain tentative recommendations which were followed in part and ignored in part. The outbreak subsided without definitive findings as to its cause or remission.
The movant in a summary judgment motion has the burden of demonstrating an absence of genuine dispute as to material facts. Mingachos v. CBS,Inc., supra,
The plaintiffs' documentary proof consists of evidence that the defendant repeatedly failed to follow all recommendations of the health center and failed to relate these recommendations to its work force, especially with respect to the use of a type of respirator known as a "Scott pack." The plaintiffs also proffer evidence that the defendant had violated other safety rules and regulations in the past regarding ventilation and the proper labeling of containers of hazardous materials. *644
The plaintiffs' submissions may show that the defendant exhibited a lackadaisical or even cavalier attitude toward worker safety, but are bereft of evidence from which one might reasonably and logically infer that the defendant believed its conduct was substantially certain to cause hypersensitivity pneumonitis in these plaintiffs. As noted previously, substantial certainty is equivalent to inevitability and is certitude beyond even high probability.
It is not the gravity of the employer's conduct which comes under scrutiny but, rather, the employer's subjective belief. Suarez II, supra,
"Failure to take affirmative remedial action, even if wrongful, does not demonstrate an affirmative intent to create a situation that causes persons injury." Melanson v. West Hartford,
There is simply no documentary proof offered from which one might rationally infer that the defendant held the belief that its course of action and inaction would lead, inevitably, to the respiratory illness contracted by these plaintiffs. On the basis of the exclusivity provision *645
set forth in §