Unzicker v. Kraft Food Ingredients Corp.

State: Illinois

Court: 4th District Appellate

Docket No: 4-00-0671 Rel

Case Date: 10/23/2001

October 23, 2001

NO. 4-00-0671

IN THE APPELLATE COURT

OF ILLINOIS

FOURTH DISTRICT

MARLIN UNZICKER and THERESA UNZICKER,
                         Plaintiffs-Appellants and
                         Cross-Appellees,
                          v.
KRAFT FOOD INGREDIENTS CORPORATION,
                         Defendant and Third-Party
                         Plaintiff-Appellee and
                         Cross-Appellant,
                         and
NOGLE & BLACK MECHANICAL, INC., a
Foreign Corporation,
                         Third-Party Defendant.

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Appeal from
Circuit Court of
Champaign County
No. 92L1278

Honorable
George S. Miller,
John R. DeLaMar
Judges Presiding.

JUSTICE COOK delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, Marlin Unzicker, appeals a judgment findingdefendant Kraft Food Ingredients Corporation (Kraft) only severally liable for the judgment in Unzicker's favor. The judgmentwas entered in accordance with the former version of section 2-1117 of the Civil Practice Law, which provided several liabilityfor defendants whose fault was less than 25% of total fault,including the fault of "any third[-]party defendants who couldhave been sued by the plaintiff." 735 ILCS 5/2-1117 (West 1994). In September 1996, Judge Miller conducted the trial in the caseand the jury had apportioned fault at 1% on the part of Kraft and99% on the part of third-party defendant, Nogle & Black Mechanical, Inc., Unzicker's employer. In November 1996, Judge Millerentered judgment. We affirm for reasons different than thosegiven by the trial court.

I. BACKGROUND

Unzicker was injured July 20, 1991, while he wasinstalling stainless steel piping in Kraft's Champaign, Illinois,plant. At the time of the accident, Unzicker and another Nogle &Black employee, Mike Mills, were standing on a "manlift" (scissors lift), welding flanges to a pipe. Mike Law, a Nogle & Blackforeman, wanted to deliver some equipment to Unzicker. To dothat, the Nogle & Black crew used a Kraft forklift, previouslymade available to Nogle & Black by Kraft. The forklift wasoperated by a Nogle & Black apprentice, with Law in the forklift's basket. Law was being elevated as the forklift approachedthe manlift. The forklift struck the manlift and the manlifttipped over, causing Unzicker and Mills to fall.

On October 7, 1992, Unzicker filed suit against Kraft,alleging negligence and violations of the Structural Work Act(740 ILCS 150/0.01 through 9 (West 1992) (repealed by Pub. Act89-2,