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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 8-481 / 07-1952 Filed August 27, 2008

ERMA WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, vs. DAVID E. RICE, RANDY ZORN, ED BELL, SILVANNA B. HEILMANN, NATHAN MARRIOT, STEVE TROXEL, CHRIS SHEEHAN AND KEVIN NORRIS, Defendants-Appellees. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Wapello County, Daniel P. Wilson, Judge.

Erma Williams appeals from the district court order granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants on her gross negligence claim. AFFIRMED.

Philip F. Miller and Pamela G. Dahl of Philip Miller Law Firm, West Des Moines, for appellant. Christian S. Walker of Faegre & Benson, L.L.P., Des Moines, for appellees.

Considered by Miller, P.J., and Vaitheswaran and Eisenhauer, JJ.

2 VAITHESWARAN, J. Erma Williams sustained injuries in an on-the-job accident and sued several co-employees for gross negligence. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants. On appeal, Williams contends genuine issues of material fact precluded summary judgment. I. Background Facts and Proceedings The summary judgment record reveals the following essentially

undisputed facts. Williams worked at Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. (also referred to as Excel/Cargill), a meat packing plant in Ottumwa. The plant was organized by "lines" that processed specific parts of the carcasses. These lines were

equipped with different types of machines that removed skins from the carcass parts. On the day of her injury in 2004, Williams was working on the "rib and belly line." This line had a skinning machine that was designed to remove the skin from the "fatback" portions of the animals bellies.1 sometimes altered to process the fatbacks with the skins on. Williams was a designated "utility" person on the rib and belly line. She was responsible for performing a variety of jobs, as needed. When Williams began her shift, she was told to perform "edible janitor" duties, which required her to "pick meat off the floor and recondition it." She was to wear mesh gloves for this job. Williams donned her gloves and was about to begin the job when her supervisor, Nathan Marriot, told her to find and instruct employee Steve Troxel to The machine was

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Randy Zorn testified "[i]ts a cover of fat thats over the loin and then separated or removed from the loins and asided, and we either produce a skin-on or skinless."

3 remove parts from the fatback skinning machine so a "skin-on" order could be processed. Williams found Troxel, told him what to do, and proceeded to another task assigned by her supervisor. Meanwhile, Troxel removed the blades from the fatback skinning machine. After he did so, slabs of meat began piling up in the machine. Williams went to check on the source of the problem. She saw that certain prongs inside the machine were "hanging down," preventing the fat backs from coming through. As she moved to shut the machine off, one of her mesh gloves was pulled into the machine and Williamss fingers were injured.2 Williams sued Troxel and Marriott as well as David Rice, the general supervisor of the plant; Randy Zorn, plant manager; Kevin Norris, supervisor of the picnic and butt line; Christopher Sheehan, superintendent of the cut floor department; Silvanna Heilmann, the safety director; and Ed Bell, a supervisor. She and the defendants filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court denied Williamss motion, granted the defendants motion, and dismissed the petition. This appeal followed. II. Applicable Standard Summary judgment is properly granted when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.981(3).

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The fact that Williams was injured by the fatback skinner is undisputed. The circumstances surrounding the injury are disputed. One of Williamss coworkers confirmed Williamss account. Randy Zorn, however, attested that, according to an investigation into the accident, Williams reached into the machine to remove clogged product.

4 III. Analysis A. General Principles An injured worker is not limited to the rights and remedies under our statutory workers compensation scheme if the injury is "caused by the other employees gross negligence . . . ." Iowa Code

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