Meranda Nixon Estate Wine, L.L.C. v. Cherry Fork Farm Supply Co.

Citations

• 243 N.E.3d 576
• 2024 Ohio 1523

Syllabus

The trial court erred in part by granting summary judgment to appellees, a commercial applicator and his employer, on the landowners' claims for damages to their vineyard as a result of herbicide drift from an herbicide application to a neighboring farm. While summary judgment was properly entered in appellees' favor on the landowners' common-law negligence, private nuisance, and negligent hiring, supervision, and training claims, the trial court improperly disregarded some Civ.R. 56 evidence, ignored issues of fact, and weighed conflicting evidence in awarding summary judgment to appellees on the landowners' claims for negligence per se, indirect trespass, and punitive and treble damages. Issues of material fact remained as to whether the appellees violated R.C. 921.24 by spraying herbicides in a manner inconsistent with their labeling requirements, whether the applicator acted recklessly or with actual malice when he elected to finish spraying the neighboring farm after noticing the wind had picked up and the chemicals he was applying had started to drift, and whether substantial damages were sustained to the landowners' grapevines as a result of the chemical application to the neighboring farm.