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Emerson Dennis Saul
v.
Seaboard Triumph Foods, L.L.C.
Appellant
Emerson Dennis Saul
Appellee
Seaboard Triumph Foods, L.L.C.
Attorney for the Appellant
Christopher P. Welsh
Attorney for the Appellee
Sarah K. Kleber and Jeff W. Wright
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, Roger L. Sailer, Judge. REVERSED AND REMANDED. Heard by Bower, C.J., and Badding and Langholz, JJ. Opinion by Langholz, J. (16 pages)
Emerson Saul was injured at a Seaboard Triumph Foods, LLC pork processing plant, where he was a temporary employee, while employed by a staffing agency. He appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Seaboard Triumph, dismissing his negligence lawsuit over his workplace injury after holding that Seaboard Triumph was also his employer. OPINION HOLDS: Seaboard Triumph presented strong evidence supporting its motion for summary judgment from which a factfinder could conclude that it was Saul’s second employer. But we cannot say that this is the only reasonable conclusion a factfinder could reach from the evidence—especially given that Seaboard Triumph’s human resources manager testified that Saul was not Seaboard Triumph’s employee. The district court thus erred in granting summary judgment.
