Georgia Warehouse Owner Owed No Legal Duty To Provide Fall Protection to Employees of Trucking Company When at Warehouse

The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed summary judgment in favor of a warehouse owner where a trucking company employee fell off a loaded truck at the warehouse facility.  The worker argued that OSHA required the facility owner to provide fall protection to prove the facility owner had a legal duty to the worker for purposes of a negligence analysis.  The court, however, agreed with the facility owner’s OSHA expert that there was no feasible means of providing fall protection for employees who are on vehicles and trailers when the employee must be on the vehicle or trailer to perform his duties.

More importantly, OSHA imposes a duty of care only between an employer and its employees.  Here, the undisputed evidence showed that the facility owner prohibited its own employees from climbing on or securing loaded trailers.  Therefore, because the facility owner had no obligation to provide protection for falls from such trailers to its own workers, it followed that no such legal duty existed as to employees of other companies (including the trucking company).

The facility owner also argued that the trucking company’s insurer owed a duty to defend the facility owner against the worker’s negligence claims by virtue of being named as an additional insured on the trucking company’s insurance policy.  The appellate court disagreed, explaining that the policy only required a duty to defend the facility owner to the extent that the insured (the trucking company) “is obligated by a covered contract to reimburse, hold harmless or indemnify” the facility owner, and therefore it does not apply to claims arising from the facility owner’s own alleged negligence.