Cruz

ORDER GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT

“There are good reasons not to call an opponent’s argument ‘ridiculous.’” “The reasons include civility; the near-certainty that’overstatement will only push the reader away ... and that, even where the record supports an extreme modifier, the better practice is usually to lay out the facts and let the court reach its own conclusions.” Bennett v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 731 F.3d 584, 585 (6th Cir. 2013). Sira Cruz calls Defendants’ arguments “perverse,” “absurd,” “nonsensical,” and “intellectually dishonest.” But as Judge Kethledge observed in Bennett , there’s a more important reason for avoiding the hyperbole in this case: the argu *1142 ments that Cruz “derides” are “instead correct.” Id.

Summary

Sira Cruz fell down a ladder entrance while working in a tank on board the USS Makin Island. She blames general contractor National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (Nassco 1 ) for failing to cover the entrance. She blames subcontractor Peterson Scaffolding for installing scaffolding too close to the entrance. Nassco and Peterson moved for summary judgment.

The Court needs to resolve two issues. First, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’…