Zenith Ins. Co. v. Hettinga Transportation CA5

Filed 3/20/24 Zenith Ins. Co. v. Hettinga Transportation CA5

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

ZENITH INSURANCE COMPANY, F084214 Intervenor and Appellant, (Super. Ct. No. VCU277573) v.

HETTINGA TRANSPORTATION, INC., OPINION Defendant and Respondent.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Tulare County. David C. Mathias, Judge. Chernow, Pine and Williams, Jeffrey J. Williams, for Intervener and Appellant Zenith Insurance Company. Horton, Oberrecht & Kirkpatrick, Kimberly S. Oberrecht; Sagaser, Watkins & Wieland, William M. Woolman; Gordon & Polscer, Brian C. Hickman; and Giulia M. Williams, for Defendant and Respondent. -ooOoo-

This matter is related to a prior appeal (Gonzalez et al. v. Hettinga Transportation, Inc. (Mar. 13, 2024, F083948) [nonpub. opn.].) Both appeals arise from the same underlying facts and the same trial court case. In 2017, and for several years before, Ricardo Gonzalez (Gonzalez) worked at AC Enterprises, a dairy operation in Tipton that was owned and run by Carl Brasil. In the early morning hours of April 29, 2017, Gonzalez, as part of his job at the dairy, dislodged bales of hay from a haystack to feed the cows at the dairy. The night before the accident, Hettinga Transportation, Inc. (Hettinga), a company based in Pixley, had delivered the hay by truck to the dairy; Hettinga employees had unloaded and stacked the hay upon delivery. After Gonzalez downed a few bales of hay from the stack in order to process the hay and feed it to the cows, other haybales toppled onto him, grievously injuring him. On February 28, 2019, Gonzalez and his wife, Hortencia Gonzalez (plaintiffs) filed the complaint initiating this matter against Hettinga, the defendant. The complaint alleged two causes of action: negligence and loss of consortium. As to the negligence cause of action, the complaint alleged that on April 28, 2017, Hettinga delivered and negligently stacked haybales at AC Enterprises such that once Gonzalez subsequently dislodged bales of hay from the haystack to feed the dairy cows, other haybales fell on him and severely injured him. The complaint also alleged a claim for loss of consortium on behalf of Gonzalez’s wife, Hortencia Gonzalez.1 On August 8, 2019, AC Enterprises’ worker’s compensation insurer, Zenith Insurance Company (Zenith or intervenor), filed a complaint-in-intervention against Hettinga. Zenith’s complaint-in-intervention sought to recover from Hettinga—