Barry v. Employers Mutual Casualty Co.

¶ 1. Fred A. Barry appeals from the judgment, following a jury trial, awarding him $36,225 plus costs, in his action against Ameritech Corporation, resulting from his fall on a stairway at the Ameritech offices where he had been working. 1 Barry argues: (1) under the safe-place statute, Ameritech had a nondelegable duty such that the causal negligence of The Burgmeier Company, Inc., an independent contractor hired by Ameritech to maintain the stairway, should have been imputed to Ameritech; (2) retroactive application of Wis. Stat. § 895.045 (1995-96), 2 precluding joint and several liability…