Hagerman Construction, Inc. v. Copeland
Court of Appeals of Indiana
697 N.E.2d 948 (1998)
Hagerman Construction (defendant) was the prime contractor building a basketball arena when Anthony Copeland (plaintiff), an employee of a subcontractor, fell 45 feet to his death through an unprotected opening in precast concrete. In the resulting negligence suit, Copeland's estate introduced expert testimony and testimony from three construction workers describing industry custom that general contractors typically cover such openings. Hagerman appealed the admission of this testimony about practices on other projects as prejudicial and irrelevant.
Whether evidence of customary industry practices may be introduced in a negligence case to show whether a defendant's acts or omissions were negligent.