Summary
In Evans, the plaintiff was an employee of the city of Marion, and was injured while working for the city in its salvage operations. 10 Ohio St.2d at 240.
Summary of this case from St. Julian v. Owens-Illinois, Inc.Opinion
No. 40406
Decided May 31, 1967.
Negligence — City operating trash dump — Accepting waste materials for disposal — Independent contractor as to person depositing waste — City employee injured while working at dump.
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Marion County.
Plaintiff, appellant herein and hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, was injured while employed by the city of Marion in salvage operations at the city's trash dump. The injury occurred when plaintiff, while loading scrap metal, picked up a can which had contained a product known as Kholine. This substance was a caustic paint-removing chemical which had been used by defendant, Whirlpool Corporation, appellee herein, and which was deposited by defendant at the city's dump. The liquid coming from the container struck plaintiff, burning both eyes, with resulting total blindness in one eye.
In his petition plaintiff alleges that the defendant knew or should have known that the Kholine was inherently dangerous and likely to injure anyone handling cans or drums containing it, and that defendant was under a duty to warn prospective handlers of the danger. It is alleged further that defendant negligently failed to clean and remove the dangerous substance from its containers and to warn plaintiff of the dangerous character of the substance.
The evidence reveals that defendant, for approximately four years prior to plaintiff's injury, had dumped one to three truckloads per day of waste material, including containers from which not all of the caustic chemical had been removed. Defendant proved that in 1957 when it began hauling Kholine to the dump it notified the city's Safety Service Director and the supervisor in charge of the city dump that Kholine containers were being dumped and explained the nature of this material to them and received permission to dump it along with their other trash. This evidence was unrefuted and was verified by various city employees.
At the close of all the evidence the trial court directed a verdict for the defendant, upon which judgment was rendered. The judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
The cause is before this court pursuant to the allowance of a motion to certify the record.
Messrs. Williams, Murray, Deeg Ketcham, Mr. Gordon E. Williams and Mr. Victor A. Ketcham, for appellant.
Messrs. Moore, Myers, Parsell Firstenberger and Mr. Theodore A. Parsell, for appellee.
When the city accepted these waste materials from defendant with actual notice of their character, it undertook to dispose of them and thus became, as to the defendant, an independent contractor.
This court's holding in Wellman v. East Ohio Gas Co., 160 Ohio St. 103, disposes of plaintiff's contentions. Paragraphs one and two of the syllabus read:
"1. Where an independent contractor undertakes to do work for another in the very doing of which there are elements of real or potential danger and one of such contractor's employees is injured as an incident to the performance of the work, no liability for such injury ordinarily attaches to the one who engaged the services of the independent contractor.
"2. One who engages an independent contractor to do work for him ordinarily owes no duty of protection to the employees of such contractor, in connection with the execution of the work, who proceeds therewith knowing and appreciating that there is a condition of danger surrounding its performance."
The trial court was correct in directing the verdict for the defendant. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is, therefore, affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
TAFT, C.J., ZIMMERMAN, MATTHIAS, O'NEILL, SCHNEIDER and BROWN, JJ., concur.