|
The Tennessee Supreme
Court recently issued an interesting opinion in a case involving a fire which
caused a loss to a partially completed house. In this case, Ewin B.
Jenkins v. Big City Remodeling, et al, No. E2014-01612-SC-R11-CV, 515 S.W.3d
843 (Tenn. 2017), the Court dealt with a situation where the Plaintiff’s
hired a general contractor to construct a house. The general contractor subcontracted
the hardwood flooring work to another contractor, which in turn subcontracted the
job to another subcontractor. On October 31, 2012, the partially completed
house and everything in the house were destroyed by a fire. The legal theory used
by the plaintiffs against the general contractor was the theory of res ipsa loquituur
to try to establish an inference of negligence on the general contractor.
The Tennessee Supreme
Court noted that due to the fact the Plaintiffs lacked direct proof of the general
contractor’s negligence, they relied upon the evidentiary principle of res ipsa
loquitor to establish an inference of negligence. The phrase “res ipsa
loquitur” is a Latin phrase meaning “the thing speaks for itself”. The classic
case where the res ipsa loquitur doctrine was first referenced is a 19th
Century English case, Byrne
v. Boadle, 159
Eng. Rep. 299 (1863). In that case, a barrel of flour rolled out
of a window of a warehouse and fell on a passing pedestrian. The pedestrian
could not point to any specific negligent actions on behalf of the warehouse
owner that actually caused the barrel of flour to hit the pedestrian. However, the plaintiff successfully argued
that this was the kind of event that would not happen without the negligence of
the warehouse owner. As a result, the plaintiff in that case was successful
under this theory.
In the Jenkins
case at issue, the Tennessee Supreme Court analyzed the res ipsa loquitur
doctrine in detail. In order to establish res ipsa loquitur in Tennessee, a
plaintiff must show that “(a) the event that caused the injury is of a kind
that ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence; (b) other
responsible causes, including the conduct of the plaintiff and third persons,
are sufficiently eliminated by the evidence; and (c) the negligence is within
the scope of the defendant's duty to the plaintiff.” Jenkins
at 849. The Tennessee Supreme Court noted that res ipsa loquitur has been
applied in fire loss cases in Tennessee and in other jurisdictions when the
exact cause of the fire is not known. However, in those cases, the defendant
had “exclusive control over the premises or the instrumentality that cause the
fire.” Jenkins
at 849. That is the key issue in the Jenkins case.
In the Jenkins
case, the Court found the Plaintiff simply did not...
|