Date: 10-28-2024

Case Style:

Dustin Clover v. Crookham Company

Case Number: 50200

Judge: Gene A. Petty

Court: District Court, Third Judicial District, Canyon County, Idaho

Plaintiff's Attorney:

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Defendant's Attorney: Kevin Dinius

Description:

Caldwell, Idaho worker's compensation lawyer represented the Plaintiff.

Crookham Company is a seed production business in Caldwell, Idaho. In 2008, Crookham was looking for equipment to remove drip tape from its onion fields. Crookham could not find such equipment for purchase on the market but found similar equipment that other farmers had built. Using another farm's lifter as a prototype, Crookham built its own drip tape lifter. Crookham took photographs of the prototype, but did not conduct any research or hire any consultants to assist in its design of the drip tape lifter. Despite noting that the other drip tape lifters it observed had a seat attached to the side, Crookham placed a seat at the rear of its drip tape lifter.

In 2010, Crookham constructed a second drip tape lifter to use in its corn fields. Like the first one, the second drip tape lifter was designed and built by Crookham's employees. Once again, the employees involved in designing and constructing the drip tape lifter did not conduct any research or hire any consultants to assist and were allegedly unaware of the applicable Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") regulations during the design and construction process. For the Crookham employees who would use the drip tape lifter, training occurred in the field; no other safety procedures were developed.

Two employees were needed to operate the drip tape lifter. One employee would drive a tractor, which operated at a speed of roughly five miles per hour as it pulled the drip tape lifter, and a second employee would either ride in the seat on the drip tape lifter or walk alongside the lifter to monitor the lifting of the drip tape. The employee monitoring the drip tape would call out to the driver to stop when the tape broke.

Dustin Clover started working for Crookham in February 2018. On November 6, 2018, Clover was working at Crookham's seed plot farm and monitoring the drip tape. After several hours of monitoring and calling out to the driver when the tape had broken, Clover, who was seated in the chair on the back of the machine, yelled out to the driver that the tape had broken. When the driver stopped, Clover was thrown forward, and his left arm hit the machine's rollers, which were still moving. His arm was pulled inside by the rollers, followed by his upper left torso until his head was against the rollers. The driver eventually reversed the rollers to release Clover's arm. Clover was taken to the hospital for severe injuries, including a crush injury to the left side of his chest and his left upper arm. Clover also had a left scapula fracture, a left-sided AC joint injury, acute left-sided facial abrasions, and an acute closed head injury.

While no safety concerns were ever raised about the drip tape lifters after they were first deployed by Crookham in 2008, Crookham has previously received health and safety violations and penalties following OSHA inspections on other equipment that it has manufactured. Following a workplace death in 2016,[1] Crookham hired a safety manager to address safety practices at the company. The safety manager was responsible for determining whether an injury would be reported to OSHA. Clover's accident was not reported to OSHA, though Crookham did file a worker's compensation claim on behalf of Clover.

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"Idaho's Worker['s] Compensation laws provide the exclusive remedy for employees against their employer for an injury arising from and in the course of employment":

Subject to the provisions of [Idaho Code] section 72-223, the rights and remedies herein granted to an employee on account of an injury or occupational disease for which he is entitled to compensation under this law shall exclude all other rights and remedies of the employee, his personal representatives, dependents or next of kin, at common law or otherwise, on account of such injury or disease.

Fulfer v. Sorrento Lactalis, Inc., 171 Idaho 296, 520 P.3d 708, 715 (2022) (quoting I.C. § 72-211). Idaho Code section 72-209(1) also explains that recourse under Idaho's Worker's Compensation laws is the exclusive remedy: "Subject to the provisions of section 72-223, Idaho Code, the liability of the employer under this law shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of the employer to the employee, his spouse, dependents, heirs, legal representatives or assigns."...


Clover v. Crookham Co., 50200 (Idaho Oct 28, 2024)

Outcome: Affirmed

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: