O'Hara v. Premcor Refining Group, Inc.

895 F. Supp. 2d 608, 2012 WL 4748053, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143925
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedOctober 4, 2012
DocketNo. C.A. 09-500-RGA
StatusPublished

This text of 895 F. Supp. 2d 608 (O'Hara v. Premcor Refining Group, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Hara v. Premcor Refining Group, Inc., 895 F. Supp. 2d 608, 2012 WL 4748053, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143925 (D. Del. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ANDREWS, District Judge:

This is a motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff Edward O’Hara brings a negligence action against Defendant The Premcor Refinery Group, Inc. as a result of injuries he suffered at a Premcor refinery plant on July 20, 2007. (D.I. 1). O’Hara was working as a roofer for his employer, Griffith Roofing & Waterproofing, Inc. Premcor had contracted with Griffith Roofing to provide roofing services on the Water Treatment Center at Premcor’s Delaware City refinery.1 On the day in question, O’Hara and his coworkers left the Water Treatment Center to dump debris. On the way back, O’Hara and his coworkers stopped at a designated smoking area for a smoke break. While in this area, O’Hara stepped onto a manhole cover. The manhole cover flipped up, causing O’Hara’s right leg to fall into the manhole. O’Hara suffered injuries to his knee as a result and brings suit against Premcor for negligence. Premcor now moves for summary judgment on the negligence claim. (D.I. 122).

The Court may grant a motion for summary judgment only “where the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions, and affidavits show there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Azur v. Chase Bank, USA Nat'l Ass’n, 601 F.3d 212, 216 (3d Cir.2010). Premcor brings two arguments in support of its motion for summary judgment: (1) Premcor had no duty to ensure O’Hara’s safety during the performance of Griffith Roofing’s contracting work and (2) the manhole cover posed an open and obvious danger that O’Hara should have recognized. The Court addresses each of these arguments in turn.

Premcor argues that it had no duty to ensure O’Hara’s safety and it thus should be granted summary judgment. Premcor acknowledges that it had a general duty to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition and to warn Griffith Roofing employees of all defects of which it knew of or had reason to know. Premcor argues, however, that a landowner has no duty to protect an employee of an independent contractor from the very hazard created by the doing of contract work, unless the owner retains active control over the manner in which the work is performed, citing Seeney v. Dover Country Club Apartments, 318 A.2d 619, 622 (Del.Super.1974). In Seeney, the contractor was hired to dig ditches and install sewer pipeline. Id. During this activity, the walls of a ditch where the contractor’s employee was working collapsed on the employee, injuring him. Id. at 620. The owner of the grounds was not liable, as he retained no control over how the ditch digging was accomplished or the safety methods used. Id. at 622. To the eon[610]*610trary, the contractor was hired as the ditch digging expert and was in the best position to ensure reasonable care while digging ditches. See id. Thus, Seeney held that a landowner is not responsible for injuries suffered by an employee of an independent contractor hired to work on its property when the injuries result “from the very hazard created by the doing of the contract work.” Id. at 621.

In this case, Premcor contracted with Griffith for roofing services. O’Hara was not injured, however, while doing any roofing. O’Hara was injured in a fall down a manhole while accompanying his coworkers to a smoke shack some distance from the roofing site. There was nothing special about O’Hara’s roofing work that made him especially at risk for falling into the manhole or anything about Griffith’s activities at the Premcor site that put Griffith in a position to inspect manholes. He thus was not injured by “the very hazard created by the doing of the contract work.” Had O’Hara been injured, for example, in a fall from the roof of the Water Treatment Plant while roofing, it would be analogous to Seeney, but these are not the circumstances here. The manhole posed an equal danger to anyone passing through that area of the facility, roofers and non-roofers alike.

Premcor quotes In re: Asbestos Litig. (Helm), 2007 WL 1651968, *17 (Del.Super.2007) in an effort to bolster its argument as follows:

Contractors are hired to perform a job and they are expected to take steps to protect themselves and their employees from known hazards of the job, and known hazards of the job site, without direction from the landowner.

Nothing here justifies the conclusion that Premcor had no duty to maintain safe premises for Griffith Roofing employees. This quote highlights the necessity for independent contractors to be wary of known hazards related to their contract work. As discussed, there is no evidence that the manhole cover was a known hazard of the roofing work or the job site. Premcor thus fails to establish that O’Hara was injured due to a risk created by the “very hazard created by the doing of the contract work.”

Premcor next argues that Griffith Roofing contractually agreed to provide for the “ultimate safety” of its employees, thus absolving Premcor of its duty to maintain safe premises. Entitled “Contractor Safety Guidelines,” the agreement states, “CONTRACTOR has the ultimate responsibility for the safety of their personnel at the job site in accordance with the COMPANY rules and OSHA 1910.119(h)(3)(iv).” (D.I. 123, Exh. D at 4). It further states,

CONTRACTOR will maintain safe work conditions at all times. In addition to being constantly alert for unsafe or potentially unsafe conditions, CONTRACTOR must check the work daily at the beginning and throughout each shift to ensure safe work conditions. Any unsafe working conditions must be corrected or reported to the COMPANY Representative immediately.

(Id. at 4). Premcor argues that this agreement relieved Premcor of the duty to keep the premises safe for Griffith Roofing employees. The Court disagrees with this interpretation. There is no indication that the parties intended for Griffith Roofing to completely assume Premcor’s general landowner duties. The agreement rather speaks to Griffith Roofing’s responsibility to maintain safe “work conditions” and safety at the “job site.” It thus highlights Griffith Roofing’s duty to maintain responsibility for the safety of its roofing work and the foreseeable effects of its presence at the Water Treatment Plant job site. As explained earlier, O’Hara was not injured due to a condition of his roofing work, as [611]*611any risk posed by the manhole cover was a danger completely unrelated to roofing. Further, the accident did not occur at the roofing site itself. The injury occurred due to a condition outside of Griffith Roofing’s control. It would be unreasonable to require Griffith Roofing employees to inspect every manhole located in areas of the refinery where its employees were authorized to travel as part of Griffith Roofing’s obligation to maintain safe work conditions. For these reasons, the Court does not believe that the agreement should be broadly read as causing Griffith Roofing to assume all of Premcor’s safe workplace obligations to Griffith Roofing’s employees.

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Related

Azur v. Chase Bank, USA, National Ass'n
601 F.3d 212 (Third Circuit, 2010)
Niblett v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company
158 A.2d 580 (Superior Court of Delaware, 1960)
Wilmington Country Club v. Cowee
747 A.2d 1087 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 2000)
Seeney v. Dover Country Club Apartments, Inc.
318 A.2d 619 (Superior Court of Delaware, 1974)
Argoe v. Commerce Square Apartments Ltd Partnership
745 A.2d 251 (Superior Court of Delaware, 1999)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
895 F. Supp. 2d 608, 2012 WL 4748053, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143925, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ohara-v-premcor-refining-group-inc-ded-2012.