Taylor v. Aetna Life Ins. (54 F. Supp. 2d 1076, 1999)

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

DE MENT, District Judge.

Before the court are Defendant Aetna Life Insurance Company’s Motion For Summary Judgment (“Mot.”), Memorandum Of Law In Support of Its Motion For Summary Judgment (“Def.’s Br.”), and Notice Of Filing Evidence, all filed on January 28, 1999. On February 16, 1999, Plaintiff J.B. Taylor filed a Response In Opposition To Defendant’s Motion For Summary Judgment (“Response”). On February 24, 1999, Defendant filed a Reply To Plaintiffs Response In Opposition To The Motion For Summary Judgment (“Reply”). After careful consideration of the arguments of counsel, the relevant law, and the record as a whole, the court finds that Defendant’s Motion For Summary Judgment is due to be granted in part and denied in part.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

The court properly exercises subject matter jurisdiction over this action, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332, diversity jurisdiction. The Parties do not contest personal jurisdiction or venue.

SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARD

On a motion for summary judgment, the court is to construe the evidence and factual inferences arising therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. See Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 157, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970). Summary judgment can be entered on a claim only if it is shown “that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). As the Supreme Court has explained the summary judgment standard:

[T]he plain language of Rule 56(c) mandates the entry of summary judgment, after adequate time for discovery and upon motion, against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial. In such a situation, there can be no “genuine issue as to any material fact,” since a complete failure of proof concerning an essential element of the nonmoving party’s case necessarily renders all other facts immaterial.

Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) (citing Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)).

The trial court’s function at this juncture is not “to weigh the evidence and determine the truth of the matter but to determine whether there is a genuine issue for trial.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (citations omitted). A dispute about a material fact is genuine if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party. See Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505; see also Barfield v. Brierton, 883 F.2d 923, 933 (11th Cir.1989).

The party seeking summary judgment has the initial burden of informing the court of the basis for the motion and of establishing, based on relevant “portions of ‘the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any,’ ” that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548 (citing Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c)). The mechanics of satisfying the initial burden vary, however, depending upon which party, the movant or the nonmovant, bears the burden of proof at trial. See Fitzpatrick v. City of Atlanta, 2 F.3d 1112, 1115 (11th Cir.1993) (detailing the nature of the parties’ responsibilities when preparing or defending against a motion for summary judgment).

Once this initial demonstration under Rule 56(c) is made, the burden of production, not persuasion, shifts to the nonmov-ing party. The nonmoving party must “go beyond the pleadings and by [his or] her own affidavits, or by the ‘depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file,’ designate ‘specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.’” Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548 (citing Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e)). In meeting this burden, the nonmoving party “must do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts.” Matsushita Elec. Indus. Corp. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). That party must demonstrate that there is a “genuine issue for trial.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e); see also Matsushita, 475 U.S. at 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348; Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505. An action is void of a material issue for trial “[w]here the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party.” Matsushita, 475 U.S. at 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff was injured on March 14, 1996 at the Maxwell Air Force Base (“Maxwell”) commissary. (Resp. at 2.) At the time of his injury, Plaintiff had two different employers. (Id.) Plaintiff was employed by the United States Air Force (“USAF”) at Maxwell, working as a Custodial Worker Supervisor at the Officers’ Club. (Id.; Taylor Dep. at 27; Logan Aff. ¶ 4.) Plaintiff has been an employee of Maxwell since approximately December, 1967, when he was hired as a janitor. (Logan Aff. ¶ 2.)

Plaintiff was also employed, pursuant to a written contract, by Milbrand/Prime Team Services, Inc. (“Milbrand/Prime”) as an independent contractor to stock various food product items on the shelves of the Maxwell commissary. (Resp. at 2; Taylor Dep. at 19-20; Taylor Aff. ¶2; Def.’s Br. Ex. 5.) Although Plaintiff was employed by the USAF at the Maxwell Officers’ Club at the time of his injury, “Plaintiff was not an employee of the [Maxwell] commissary nor was he ever paid by the commissary to perform any work for the commissary.” (Resp. at 3; Taylor Aff. ¶ 3.) Further, Plaintiff has never “been under the direction or control of any commissary employees or the commissary management.” (Taylor Aff. ¶ 3.)

On March 14,1996, the date of Plaintiffs injury, “Plaintiff was physically present at the commissary to perform stocking duties” (Resp. at 3) pursuant to his contract with Milbrand/Prime, as demonstrated by the following deposition testimony by Plaintiff:

Q: What else do you stock besides butter?

A: I stock butter, yogurt, cheese.

Q: So dairy products?

A: Yeah, dairy products.

Q: So you would have been there at the commissary on March 14, 1996 to carry out your duties pursuant to this independent contract with Mil-brand?

A: Yes.

Q: So you were working for yourself as an independent contractor, correct?

A: Yes.

Q: You were not working for Maxwell?

A: No.

Q: You were not there as part of your duties with the Officers’ Club?

A: No.

Q: Your duties with the Officers’ Club were confined to the Officers’ Club, correct?

A: Right.

(Taylor Dep. at 27.)

However, Plaintiff states that his injury occurred before he began his shelf-stocking duties and that “he was engaged in a purely voluntary undertaking, not for pay, at the behest of commissary employees to assist them in the moving of a refrigeration unit, which unit was dropped on the Plaintiffs hand causing severe crush injuries.” (Resp. at 3.) The following deposition testimony by Plaintiff details the events leading up to his injury:

Q: Just before the incident occurred where you were injured, what were you doing?

A: What were [sic] I doing?

Q: Yes, sir.

A: We go to the commissary and we have to put our merchandise on a cart, which we roll out in the store and put on the shelf, so I headed in the cooler to get my merchandise at this particular time.

Q: What happened then?

A: Well, I go in the cooler and one of the commissary QAEs—

Q: What is a QAE?

A: Which it’s like a supervisor, per se, commissary manager, you could say. He called me, asked me to give them a hand loading a refrigerator off a pallet.

A & A A A ik

Q: So he asked you to come over and help the three of them unload a refrigeration unit? G?

A: Yeah. i>

Q: What was it on? <©

A: pallet. ¡>

Q: I mean, was it on a truck or just on the ground on a pallet? <£>

A: They rolled it out on a pallet jack and sit it down and we was to take it off the pallet to put it in a corner.

Q: So it was down on the ground on a pallet and y’all needed to pick it up and set it off and then they could move it over to wherever they needed to? ¿O

A: Right.