IADC members E.B. (Chip) Chiles, IV and Steven W. Quattlebaum, along with fellow Quattlebaum, Grooms, Tull & Burrow PLLC attorney R. Ryan Younger, obtained summary judgment for American Greetings Corporation in a negligence action brought by employees of an electrical utility. The plaintiffs claimed that American Greetings was liable for severe arc-flash burns they sustained while working on a transformer owned by American Greetings. The plaintiffs claimed damages in excess of $30,000,000.00.
American Greetings moved for summary judgment on the ground that it had no duty to warn plaintiffs of the risk of arc flash because the risk was a known and inherent danger of plaintiffs' electrical work. American Greetings further argued that plaintiffs could not use federal, state, and industry regulations to expand the common law to create a duty. The Court agreed with American Greetings, holding that, as a matter of law, "American Greetings owed no duty to warn plaintiffs of the danger of an arc flash or to otherwise ensure that plaintiffs avoided that danger because it was a known danger inherent in the electrical work plaintiffs were hired to perform."