Opinion ID: 1701237
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: finding for the county

Text: Implicit in the district court's finding for the county is the conclusion that WeWeldit, not the county, had the duty to take precautionary measures which would have prevented the accident, namely, adequate shoring and an appropriate slope for the trench wall. Yet, in view of its agreement with Husker Steel, the county had the responsibility or obligation to provide excavatory work. Thus, in reference to the bridge construction and participation in the project, the county had a nondelegable duty to use due care to protect persons against injury from the hazards or risks which inhered in the particular excavation, trenching, and earthwork undertaken by the county. See Hickman v. Parks Construction Co., 162 Neb. 461, 76 N.W.2d 403 (1956). Also, the county was not relieved of its nondelegable duty when WeWeldit accepted the county's excavatory work for the bridge project. See Hickman v. Parks Construction Co., supra . The county's turning the finished earthwork, such as it was, over to WeWeldit did not absolve the county from liability for its negligence concerning the inherently dangerous trench excavated by the county. See Erickson v. Monarch Indus., 216 Neb. 875, 347 N.W.2d 99 (1984). Nevertheless, the district court exonerated the county from its nondelegable duty by finding that such nondelegable duty had been delegated to or assumed by WeWeldit. Although the district court attributed all the negligence to WeWeldit, which, according to the district court, had breached its duty to take precautionary measures regarding the trench, the nondelegable duty imposed on the county as the result of the trench's inherently dangerous condition precluded a transfer or transposition of liability from the county to WeWeldit. Consequently, we find that the district court's conclusion, exonerating the county from liability for its negligence demonstrated by the record, is clearly erroneous. The judgment against McKinstry relative to the county is, therefore, reversed.