Court Overturns Ruling On Statehouse Fire Rubbermaid Back In Case, As Maker Of Wastebasket Where ‘92 Blaze Started
Last week, employees in the attorney general’s office were passing around an unusual exhibit.
It was the plastic-encased remains of a melted wastebasket.
A cigarette tossed into that basket on New Year’s Day of 1992 is believed to be the cause for a fire that eventually caused $3.4 million damage to the 90-year-old capitol.
The incident later caused then-Gov. Cecil Andrus to ban smoking in the Statehouse.
Chris Rich, an aide to Attorney General Alan Lance, said the Boise Fire Department was about to throw the melted wastebasket out from its evidence room, so he went over and picked it up. After the grimy plastic blob went around a few offices, it was sent over to the Idaho Historical Society.
They’d better go get it back.
The Idaho Supreme Court on Thursday vacated a district court ruling that held the basket’s manufacturer, Rubbermaid Inc., an Ohio corporation, couldn’t be blamed for the fire. The case was sent back to district court.
The state and insurance companies tried to hold Rubbermaid responsible for the fire on the grounds that the manufacturer failed to use a fire retardant material in the design of the basket, and the wastebasket material itself added fuel to the fire, causing it to spread.
The Supreme Court ruled 4-1 that District Judge D. Duff McKee improperly granted the manufacturer summary judgment on two parts of the lawsuit: strict liability and breach of implied warranty.
The court also held that the district judge improperly excluded a supplemental statement from a state expert witness.
The state’s witness, Frank Roberts, testified about industry standards and a test showing examples of similar wastebaskets set on fire. In arguing for reconsideration, the state wanted to submit an additional statement by Roberts and a videotape, but the judge ruled against it.
The district judge ruled Roberts’ statements did not create any triable issue of fact and that he testified abstractly.