Arnazzi v. Quad/Graphics, Inc., 218 W. Va. 36

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia reviewed a summary judgment ruling in an employee’s deliberate-intention workplace injury action under West Virginia Code § 23-4-2(d)(2)(ii). The court held that conflicting evidence regarding forklift safety training and the circumstances of the injury created a triable issue on proximate cause, reversed the judgment for the employer and supervisor, and remanded the case.

Holdings

1. The evidence was sufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the absence of required forklift safety training was a direct and proximate cause of Arnazzi's injury. Proximate cause was therefore an issue for the trier of fact, and summary judgment was improper.
2. A plaintiff's inability to identify precisely how an accident occurred or how omitted safety training would have prevented it does not eliminate a genuine issue of material fact when other evidence and reasonable inferences support causation.
3. Expert testimony is not required as a matter of law in every case to prove that a lack of required safety training proximately caused or contributed to an accident or injury.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the evidence created a genuine issue of material fact that the lack of legally required forklift safety training was a direct and proximate cause of Arnazzi's serious injury under West Virginia Code § 23-4-2(d)(2)(ii)(E).
2. Whether summary judgment was proper where the plaintiff could not identify with certainty how the accident occurred or specifically explain how the omitted training would have prevented it.
3. Whether expert testimony was required as a matter of law to establish proximate causation based on the failure to provide required safety training.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded