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A pair of Hamilton Superior Court lawsuits alleging negligence on Amazon’s part are heading back to trial court, after the Indiana Supreme Court denied transfer in both cases.
The lawsuits, filed on behalf of two independent truck drivers, alleged the company did not provide adequate signage for contractors entering Amazon’s Greenfield warehouse, resulting in the death of one of the drivers and catastrophic injuries for the other.
Driver Mahari Oukbu, who was hit in September 2022, survived his injuries, while Harvail Dhillon, who was hit in October 2022, died at the scene.
In denying transfer, the high court upheld the Indiana Court of Appeals’ decision to reverse a lower court’s ruling that initially dismissed both cases.
The appellate court reversed and remanded both Oukbu and Dhillon’s cases, ruling Amazon had direct knowledge of the hazard it created and took no action to provide instructions for approaching truck drivers.
On April 10, the high court heard arguments in the cases Harjit Kaur, Individually, and as the Special Administrator of the Estate of Harvail Singh Dhillon, Deceased v. Amazon Inc. and Mahari Mrach Oukbu and Nitsihiti Abraham v. Amazon Inc., which both concern the safety of someone who comes onto a landowner’s property for business.
The cases stem from two separate incidents in 2022, in which two Amazon drivers were having trouble locating where they needed to go to deliver loads to an Amazon fulfillment in Mt. Comfort.
According to court documents, the drivers parked on the road and walked up to the facility to get directions, and both were hit by passing vehicles.
Both cases were dismissed in Hamilton Superior Court after Amazon successfully argued that since the incidents did not happen on their property, they couldn’t be held liable.
The plaintiffs appealed the cases to the Indiana appellate court, arguing that although the incidents didn’t occur on Amazon’s premises, the company still had a duty to provide for their safety because Amazon failed to provide adequate lighting and signage on its property so drivers could find their way into the center.
“In short, Oukbu’s complaint was sufficient to demonstrate that Amazon owed a duty of reasonable care to
Oukbu, and that Amazon’s actions—or inactions—created a condition that made passage unsafe on the abutting public road,” Chief Judge Robert Altice wrote in Oukbu’s case.
All supreme court justices denied the petitions to transfer, except for Chief Justice Loretta Rush, who voted to grant the petitions to transfer.
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