Case of the Day – Tuesday, November 23, 2021

LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO BLAME

No matter how rational and discerning television juries might be, in real life, the decisions that the finders-of-fact make can be a crap shoot, especially with a roomful of parties.

I recall an old, wise lawyer telling me years ago that cases with multiple defendants were a headache for defense counsel, because jurors naturally assumed with so many people accused of damaging the poor plaintiff, someone must be at fault. “So they listen to the poor plaintiff’s sob story,” the wizened old barrister said, “and they start looking around the courtroom for someone to blame.”

A cautionary note to plaintiffs: Sometimes that backfires, because when so many parties with differing, interlocking relationships cram the defendant’s dock, convincing the jury that one or more of the defendants owes a duty to your poor injured plaintiff can be like trying to catch a greased pig. Such as in today’s case.

The tree was rotten. It had been rotten for a long time. It collapsed onto a passing cyclist, out enjoying a country ride on a dedicated bike path. An electric utility owned by a mega-power holding company (imagine a corporation with buckets full of cash) held an easement over the bike path and adjacent land to trim the trees away from its lines, and that utility had a thundering herd of contractors signed up to do the hazard tree analysis and trimming for it.

Shouldn’t be too hard to get the money flowing to the plaintiff, right? Well, let’s see…

Rossetti v. American Electric Power Co., 2004-Ohio-118, 2004 Ohio App. LEXIS 109 (Ct.App. Licking County, Ohio, Jan. 12, 2004). Rosemarie Rossetti and her husband, Michael Leder, were riding bicycles on the T.J. Evans Bike Trail in Licking County when a linden tree collapsed and fell into an Ohio Power line and across the bike path. The tree then hit Rosemarie, seriously injuring her.

The linden tree that fell was located about 51 feet off of the bike trail on land adjacent to the bike trail owned by Karen Matz and John Skowronski. The tree, which was about 80 years old and 101 feet tall, leaned over the power lines. According to the Rossetti’s expert, Dr. Sydnor, there was a huge cavity in the base of the tree and the “tree was hollow for… three, four feet up.” The tree had been hollowed out at the base for over 20 years, and there was decay around the base that had existed for almost the entire life of the tree. Both the decay and the hollowed out part of the base faced away from the bike path. According to Dr. Sydnor, the tree was rooted in the stump and the “root had actually grown through the stump and was growing up the hill. The root is – the failure of that root was what caused the failure of the tree. That was the only thing that was actually holding the tree up.”

Ohio Power had an easement over Karen & John’s property and the bike trail for trimming or removing trees along the trail that interfered with its power lines. The linden tree was not located within Ohio Power’s easement, but instead was about 51 feet from the trail and 25 feet from a wire fence marking the edge of the trail property.

Ohio Power trims and removes the trees in and around its easement on a three to five year trimming cycle. Under this cycle, the trees next the bike trail were inspected and maintained in 1988-1989, between 1990 and 1992 and in 1995. As part of its tree trimming program, Ohio Power contracted with both ACRT and Nelson Tree. ACRT, under its contract with Ohio Power, hired work planners who, as part of the trimming/removing cycle patrolled the electric lines and identified easement trees needing trimming or removal. Nelson Tree Service would then perform the actual trimming or removal for the 1995 cycle.

Rosemarie and Michael sued everybody, Ohio Power, ACRT, Nelson Tree and Karen & John. Everyone responded with motions for summary judgment.

The trial court granted the defendants’ motions for Summary Judgment, holding that “it was not foreseeable that the Linden tree would fall onto the bicycle path and cause a person physical harm” and that “given the lack of evidence beyond mere inference indicating the Linden tree was trimmed by the utility Defendants under the tree-trimming program, Plaintiffs cannot establish proximate cause.”

Rosemarie and John appealed.

Held:  The defendants’ motions for summary judgment were properly granted.

In a negligence case, the Court said, a plaintiff must prove that: (1) the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty; (2) the defendant breached that duty; (3) the plaintiff suffered harm; and (4) the harm was proximately caused by defendant’s breach of duty. The existence of a duty depends on the foreseeability of the injury. The test for foreseeability is whether a reasonably prudent person would have anticipated that an injury was likely to result from the performance or nonperformance of an act.

Here, the Court said, it was not reasonably foreseeable that the tree would fall onto the bicycle path and cause a person physical harm. John, who owned the private property on which the tree was located, testified there was no reason to notice the tree before it fell because “it looked healthy. I mean, there was no reason to notice it. It wasn’t as if the crown was brown or the bark was peeling.” Dr. Sydnor, Rosemarie’s and Michael’s ‘ own expert, agreed that “earlier on in the growth of this tree it would have been more readily identified as a hazard tree than later on.” While he testified that the tree would have been identified as a hazard in the 1980’s, Dr. Sydnor admitted that it was not reasonably foreseeable in 1980 that the linden tree was going to fall within the next 18 years.

What’s more, Dr. Sydnor testified that the linden tree was leaning for its entire life and that the tree had been hollowed out at its base for over 20 years, and that the decay around the tree’s base had been there “well in excess of 20 years, probably 40… maybe 80” years. Using the formula generally accepted in his field, Dr. Sydnor said the linden tree had a live crown-ratio of 66%, which was “good.” According to Dr. Sydnor, the tree was either the dominant or co-dominant tree in the canopy, which indicates that the tree has to, at some point, be fairly healthy. Thus, Dr. Sydnor said, even if Ohio Power ACRT, and Nelson Tree Service actually examined and trimmed this specific linden tree in 1995, and observed the decay, hollowed cavity, and poor root structure, it was still not reasonably foreseeable the tree would fall in the next four years, which would brought Ohio Power and its contractors to the next trimming cycle. Dr. Sydnor did testify that the tree would fall some day, but, the Court of Appeals said, “such testimony does not create a genuine issue of material fact since most trees will eventually fall.”

Others, including a Right-of-Way Program Developer with Davey Resource Group formerly employed by ACRT as a supervisor to the Utility Forestry Pre-Planner, and a Licking County Park District Ranger who saw the tree shortly after it fell, both agreed that the “crown, the top of the tree, was full of leaves…it looked like a healthy tree.”

Furthermore, the Court said, Nelson Tree, as part of its contract with Ohio Power, had no duty to inspect the trees on and adjacent to Ohio Power’s easement. Instead, its job was merely to trim or remove trees that were marked by ACRT. Nelson had no discretion with respect to which trees were to be trimmed or removed.

Based on all of that, the Court held, it was not reasonably foreseeable that the tree would fall, according to Rosemarie’s and Michael’s own expert evidence, and thus, “no duty arose on behalf of Defendants to take any action with regard to the Linden tree.”

– Tom Root