FILED 

 U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

 ELEVENTH CIRCUIT 

 June 25, 2004 

 THOMAS K. KAHN 

 CLERK

Honorable J. Owen Forrester, United States District Court Judge for the Northern *

District of Georgia, sitting by designation. 

[PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

________________________

No. 03-13484

________________________

D. C. Docket No. 01-00003-CV-CDL-6

THOMAS C. PATE, 

NELLIE PATE, 

Plaintiffs-Appellees, 

versus 

OAKWOOD MOBILE HOMES, INC., 

et al., 

Defendants, 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Defendant-Appellant. 

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Middle District of Georgia

_________________________

(June 25, 2004)

Before BARKETT and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges, and FORRESTER , District *

Judge.
Nellie Pate, Pate’s wife, was also awarded damages for loss of consortium related to her 1

husband’s injuries. 

2

BARKETT, Circuit Judge:

The United States appeals a judgment awarding damages to Thomas Pate

(“Pate”) against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) 1

pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) for injuries Pate suffered as a

result of unsafe work conditions at his work site. The United States challenges the

district court’s legal conclusion that OSHA’s negligence in this case creates a

cognizable claim under the FTCA. Because we agree that there is no basis for

liability under the facts of this case, we reverse.

BACKGROUND

Pate, a roofer employed by the private roofing contractor Howard

Enterprises (“Howard”), sustained serious injuries when he fell from the top of a

mobile-home on which he was working at a mobile-home manufacturing plant in

Georgia owned by Destiny Industries, Inc. (“Destiny”). Over a year before Pate’s

accident, inspectors from OSHA issued a citation against both Destiny and

Howard for the failure to provide adequate fall protection at the facility where Pate

was injured. The citations informed Destiny and Howard that the fall protection
 Pate fell on February 1, 1999. OSHA had inspected the relevant facilities on November 2

13 and 14, 1997. The citations were issued on December 19, 1997. The relevant citation stated in

prominent, highlighted text: “Date By Which Violation Must be Abated:12/31/97.”

3

violations were to be abated within a month. While Destiny and Howard abated 2

some of the hazards cited by OSHA, they failed to abate the specific hazard that

led to Pate’s injury.

For its part, OSHA was required, pursuant to its own regulations, to ensure

the abatement of the fall protection violation by (1) making certain that Destiny

and Howard certified that the hazards had been abated and (2) requiring that

Destiny and Howard timely submitted documents confirming the abatement of the

hazards. The OSHA inspector involved in this case was unaware of these

requirements. Furthermore, when Destiny and Howard did not provide the

appropriate certification, OSHA failed to initiate procedures designed to ensure

the abatement had been accomplished. 

After a bench trial, the district court found that had OSHA fulfilled its

mandatory responsibility to ensure abatement, Pate’s accident would have been

prevented because the appropriate safety equipment would have been installed. 

Accordingly, the district court entered judgment on Pate’s behalf pursuant to the

FTCA. 

DISCUSSION 
4

We review the application of the FTCA de novo. Andrews v. United States,

121 F.3d 1430, 1438 (11th Cir. 1997) (internal citations omitted). The FTCA

provides that the United States may be held liable for the negligent conduct of its

employees “in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual

under like circumstances.” 28 U.S.C. § 2674. Congress’s chief intent in drafting

the FTCA was not “to create new causes of action” but “simply to provide redress

for ordinary torts recognized by state law.” Howell v. United States, 932 F.2d

915, 917 (11th Cir. 1991). It was not “intended as a means to enforce federal

statutory duties.” Id. Indeed, “even where specific behavior of federal employees

is required by statute, liability to the beneficiaries of that statute may not be

founded on the Federal Tort Claims Act if state law recognizes no comparable

private liability.” Sellfors v. United States, 697 F.2d 1362, 1367 (11th Cir. 1983). 

Thus, in this case liability is not automatically established by the fact that OSHA

inspectors failed to perform their mandatory obligations. The United States can

only be found liable if a comparable private party would likewise be liable under

Georgia law.

Of course, a private party would not ordinarily be engaged, as is OSHA, in

enforcing compliance with workplace safety regulations. However, we have

rejected the position that the FTCA does not afford a remedy for negligence in the
5

performance of “uniquely governmental functions” simply “because there is no

identical private activity for purposes of comparison.” Howell, 932 F.2d at 918. 

We have held that the “comparison of activities need not be exact.” Id. In this

case, however, we cannot find support for OSHA’s liability under either the cases

cited by the district court or under the closest state law analogy, the good

samaritan doctrine. See, e.g., Indian Towing Co. v. United States, 350 U.S. 61, 64-

65 (1955); Howell, 932 F.2d at 918 n.3; Sellfors, 697 F.2d at 1367. 

Relying on United States v. Aretz, 280 S.E.2d 345 (Ga. 1981) and Phillips

v. United States, 956 F.2d 1071 (11th Cir. 1992), the district court found that

“under Georgia law, a private actor who assumes a particular responsibility for

employee safety can be liable if he negligently discharges that responsibility and

that negligence proximately causes injuries to the employees his undertaking was

designed to protect.” We do not find these cases applicable because OSHA cannot

be said to have “assume[d] a particular responsibility for employee safety.” While

OSHA’s laudable goal is “to assure so far as possible every working man and

woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions,” 29 U.S.C. § 651(b),

OSHA does not take final responsibility for achieving this end. See 29 U.S.C. §

654(a); Irving v. United States,162 F.3d 154, 169 (1st Cir. 1998) (en banc) (The

Occupational Health and Safety Act (“OSH Act”) “in no uncertain terms, places
6

primary responsibility for workplace safety on employers, not on the federal

government.”); Galvin v. Occupational Safety & Health Admin., 860 F.2d 181,

185 (5th Cir. 1988) (“the Occupational Safety and Health Act squarely places the

burden of compliance with workplace safety standards on the employer”

(emphasis in original)); Cunningham v. United States, 786 F.2d 1445, 1447 (9th

Cir. 1986) (noting as part of discretionary function analysis that under OSH Act,

“[t]he employer has the statutory responsibility for maintaining a safe

workplace”); see also Otis Elevator Co. v. OSHRC, 581 F.2d 1056, 1058 (2d Cir.

1978) (“‘Final responsibility for compliance with the requirements of this act

remains with the employer.’” (quoting legislative history)). 

Furthermore, the two cases the district court relied upon are not analogous.

In Aretz the Georgia Supreme Court found that the government had a duty to warn

the employees of a contractor about a danger the government itself had created. 

In that case, the government initially mis-classified a hazardous material as nondetonative and, when it learned the material was actually detonative, failed to warn

the independent contractor storing the material. Aretz, 280 S.E. 2d at 348-49.

Despite the fact that the government provided in its agreement with the contractor

that the contractor was not entitled to rely on the government’s storage

classifications, id. at 348, the Georgia Supreme Court found that the government
7

nevertheless could be held liable because it owed a duty to warn the contractor

that it had mis-classified the hazardous material. Id. at 350-51 (“Where one by his

own act, although without negligence on his part, creates a dangerous situation, he

is under a duty to remove the hazard or give warning of the danger so as to prevent

others from being injured where it is reasonably foreseeable to occur.”). 

In Pate’s case, by contrast, OSHA did not itself “create[] a dangerous

situation.” OSHA inspected a manufacturing plant where it found a pre-existing

dangerous situation. Cf. Howell, 932 F.2d at 919 (finding that an FAA inspector’s

failure to ground or initiate an investigation of a plane that was suspected of

containing contaminated fuel “did not increase the risk of harm under Georgia

law” because the “inspector caused no such change in the condition of this plane

or its fuel”). Indeed, OSHA acted to lessen the danger by issuing a citation stating

that the employer was to abate the hazard by a certain date. Thus, the current case

is completely at odds with Aretz. In Aretz, the government had created a danger

and failed to warn an employer, with whom it had a contractual agreement, of the

danger; in this case, OSHA did not create a hazard but nevertheless warned Pate’s

employer that a hazard existed.

Phillips is similarly distinguishable. In that case, as in Aretz, the harm at

issue occurred in the performance of a government contract in which work was
While some of the government’s safety responsibilities derived from the Army Corps 3

Safety Manual, the applicability of this manual itself was incorporated into the agreement

between the government and the contractor. See Phillips, 956 F.2d at 1074; 29 C.F.R. § 52.236-

13 (1991).

8

being done for the government’s benefit. In Phillips, the Army Corps of Engineers 

(“Army Corps”) hired an independent contractor to construct extensions to aircraft

hangers on an Army base. 956 F.2d at 1073. Phillips, an employee of the

contractor, was injured during the construction when the scaffolds he was working

on collapsed under him. Id. We found that the Army Corps had a duty of care

because in its contractual relationship with Phillip’s employer it “assumed safety

responsibilities” that it failed to discharge with ordinary care. Id. at 1078. Citing

to the regulation that contained the pertinent contractual provisions, we affirmed

the district court’s conclusion “that the Army Corps had specific responsibilities

with regard to the construction project’s safety.” Id. at 1074 (citing 29 C.F.R. § 3

52.236-13 (1991)). Furthermore, we noted that the Army Corps met with the

contractor in a “mutual understanding meeting” in which the government informed

the contractor of some of the safety procedures. See id. at 1073. Thus, there was

convincing evidence in Phillips that the Army Corps contractually retained certain

safety responsibilities involving the construction project. Indeed, an Army Corps

engineer at the project testified that “his office had the responsibility for assuring
9

‘safety with a dedicated commitment to free the job site of unsafe conditions and

activities which may result in injury.’” Id. (emphasis added).

In sum, Phillips involved the government acting in its capacity as a

contracting-party and a landowner. Had the Army Corps endeavored to construct

the project itself, there would be no question that it would be responsible for the

safety conditions of the project. In Phillips the issue was simply whether the

Army Corps had delegated its safety responsibilities in hiring a contractor to do

the construction project for the Army Corps. We found that under the facts of that

case, the government indeed had retained certain responsibilities which were

negligently carried out. In contrast to Phillips, in the case at hand the harm did not

take place on government property, the government did not contract with the

employer, and the employer was not providing the government with a service. 

Instead, OSHA was acting in its capacity as a regulator-enforcer to promote the

welfare of all workers. 

Normally, the most analogous approach in determining whether the

government is liable in the regulator-enforcer context under state law is the good

samaritan doctrine. See Howell, 932 F.2d at 918 & n.3. While the good samaritan

doctrine may not always be the only appropriate approach in this context, here it is

far more analogous than the government contract cases. However, even the good
The other two prongs clearly do not apply. With regard to the first prong of analysis,

4

under Georgia law “risk is only increased ‘when a nonhazardous condition is made hazardous

through the negligence of a person who changed its condition or caused it to be changed.’”

Howell, 932 F.2d at 919 (quoting Argonaut Ins. Co. v. Clark, 267 S.E.2d 797, 799 (Ga. App.

1980)). Under this standard, we determined that an FAA inspector’s failure to ground a plane

that was suspected of containing contaminated fuel “did not increase the risk of harm under

Georgia law” because the “inspector caused no such change in the condition of this plane or its

fuel.” Id. The same is true in this case: OSHA only failed to ensure the abatement of a preexisting hazard–it did not increase the hazard. Liability similarly cannot be established under the

second prong because the OSH Act makes the employer, not OSHA, responsible for workplace

safety. 29 U.S.C. § 654(a). 

10

samaritan doctrine cannot support liability here. Georgia has adopted the good

samaritan doctrine as set forth in Section 324A of the Restatement (Second) of

Torts, which states:

One who undertakes, gratuitously or for consideration, to render

services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the

protection of a third person or his things, is subject to liability to the

third person for physical harm resulting from his failure to exercise

reasonable care to protect his undertaking if (a) his failure to exercise

reasonable care increases the risk of such harm, or (b) he has

undertaken to perform a duty owed by the other to the third person, or

(c) the harm is suffered because of reliance of the other or the third

person upon the undertaking. 

 

Howell, 932 F.2d at 918. Pate only asserts the third prong, 324A(c), as a basis for

liability, arguing that his employers relied on OSHA. We need only make two 4

points. First, there is insufficient evidence to support a finding that Pate's

employers relied on OSHA in their failure to abate the hazard. Indeed, OSHA

issued a citation for the safety violations it found which unequivocally stated in
Pate further argues that Daley v. United States, 792 F.2d 1081 (11th Cir. 1986) supports 5

a finding of liability. Citing to Gill v. United States, 429 F.2d 1072, 1075 (5th Cir. 1970), in

Daley we found that air traffic controllers owed a duty of care to comply with the government's

Air Traffic Control Manual. 792 F.2d at 1085-86. However, Gill makes clear that liability in air

traffic controller cases stems from the public’s reliance on such controllers. Gill, 429 F.2d at

1075 (“The United States may be liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for negligent

provision of services upon which the public has come to rely.”). As discussed above, under the

facts of this case, we do not believe that Pate or his employers justifiably relied on OSHA’s

omissions. 

11

highlighted text: “Date By Which Violation Must be Abated: 12/31/97.” This date

was more than a year before Pate’s injury. Second, even if for some reason Pate’s

employers did rely on the fact that OSHA had not followed up in ensuring

abatement, this reliance would not be justified under the facts of this case. As

stated above, the OSH Act places ultimate responsibility on the employer in

ensuring compliance with safety regulations, not OSHA. Pate's employers would

not be justified in relying on OSHA’s omissions in their failing to abate a known

hazard. Cf. Myers v. United States, 17 F.3d 890, 903-04 (6th Cir. 1994)(reliance

upon mine inspectors under Mine Safety and Health Act would be “manifestly

unreasonable and unjustified” “[i]n light of the clear Congressional purpose to

ensure that the primary responsibility for safety remains with the mine owners and

miners”). 

5

For the foregoing reasons, this matter is REVERSED and REMANDED for

further proceedings consistent herewith.