Chelcher v. Spider Staging Corp.
United States District Court for the District of the Virgin Islands
892 F.Supp. 710 (1995)
Chelcher (plaintiff), an experienced scaffold worker, injured his back sandblasting a propane tank for hours atop a mis-rigged, tilted “spider” scaffold manufactured by Spider Staging Corp. (defendant). Chelcher knew the scaffold was mis-rigged and that no safety inspector was present, yet boarded and worked on it anyway for about five hours. He sued for negligent failure to warn, arguing a pictogram warning of falling should have been affixed to the scaffold; both parties moved for summary judgment.
Whether a plaintiff asserting negligent failure to warn must prove that the missing warning was both a cause-in-fact and a proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries.