Wood v. UPS
Wood v. UPS, 2021 UT 49 (Pearce, J.)
Torts
A UPS truck hit and detached a heavy curtain at a company’s warehouse. The company tried to reattach the curtain. A few weeks later, an individual was hit by that curtain when it fell on his head. The individual sued the company and UPS. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of UPS because UPS did not owe a duty of care to the individual. The court of appeals affirmed. The Utah Supreme Court affirmed, holding:
- The company’s failure to fix the curtain was a superseding cause of the individual’s injury, thus summary judgment was properly granted to UPS.
- OF NOTE: The supreme court vacated the portion of the opinion from the court of appeals adopting section 452(2) of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which posits that the duty to prevent future harm caused by a party’s negligence can shift from the originally negligent party to a third person. The supreme court left this issue open and indicated it may adopt or reject that Restatement section in a future case.