Marathon Corp. v. Pitzner

OPINION

John C. Pitzner (“Pitzner”), a Dallas County resident, was working for Professional Employers Group, Inc. (“PEG”), a Texas corporation that supplied temporary employees, when he was sent out on an air conditioner repair job on Monday, July 18, 1994, for Environmental Comfort Systems, Inc. d/b/a Country Refrigeration (“ECSI”), a Texas corporation owned by Robert S. “Country” Hull (“Hull”), a Carrollton, Texas resident. Pitzner was asked to repair an air conditioning unit manufactured by York International Corporation (“York”), a Delaware corporation. The unit was located on the roof of Marathon Corporation, a Texas corporation, d/b/a Honda-Suzuki North (“Marathon” or “appellant”), a motorcycle dealership in Dallas. Pitzner was working alone on the roof when the dealership closed at 6:00 p.m. and its employees left. Approximately two hours later, he was found lying semiconscious on the ground next to the Marathon building, bleeding profusely from his left ear. Pitzner had fallen from the roof and sustained severe head trauma. A screwdriver with a burnt tip was found lying nearby. Pitzner’s injuries prevented him from explaining what caused him to fall from the roof. He underwent emergency surgical removal of portions of the frontal and temporal lobes of his brain, leaving him seriously and permanently disabled.