Opinion ID: 2623509
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Applicability of Business Invitee Principles

Text: [¶ 15] Franks next contends that a duty of care is imposed on IPC apart from the protections offered by our employer-of-independent-contractor line of authority. She asserts that Wayne was a business invitee on IPC's leased premises and Justin Browning's negligence created a foreseeable unsafe condition of the premises that caused Wayne's death. She relies upon Ruhs v. Pacific Power & Light, 671 F.2d 1268 (10th Cir.1982), which held that under Wyoming's common law, [a]n independent contractor's employee who goes on the owner's premises is an invitee to whom the owner may be liable for injury caused by an unsafe condition of the premises. Id. at 1272. In Ruhs, Kyle Ruhs was employed by Wright's Tree Service, Inc.; Wright's had contracted with PP & L to trim trees around PP & L's electrical lines. While doing this trimming, Ruhs was electrocuted and severely injured. In the action that followed, summary judgment was granted for PP & L under the rule that it owed no duty to its independent contractor's employees. The Tenth Circuit reversed upon evidence showing that PP & L had been negligent by failing to de-energize the power lines before Ruhs began working near them in violation of the National Electrical Safety Code. Ruhs, 671 F.2d at 1274. Determining that PP & L owed Ruhs a duty of care as an invitee, and finding that a jury could determine that PP & L's own negligence had caused Ruh's injuries, the Tenth Circuit remanded for trial. Id. Franks now contends that Ruhs can be applied to the facts of this case, while IPC contends that no direct negligence claim is permitted against the employer of an independent contractor whose employee injures the employee of another independent contractor. The rule in Ruhs originally was developed by our own precedent, Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. Like, 381 P.2d 70 (Wyo.1963), and remains law today. Hittel, 996 P.2d at 678. The precise question is the direct negligence of IPC; an issue of direct negligence is not applicable to Andregg or R & J Production. Franks provides no authority that this theory applies to Andregg and R & J Production as an owner or possessor of the land, and we do not consider its application to them. [¶ 16] With the exception of trespassers, we impose a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances upon an owner or possessor for all other entrants upon land. Clarke v. Beckwith, 858 P.2d 293, 296 (Wyo. 1993). Wyoming law recognizes that the drilling of an oil and gas well is an ultrahazardous activity, a dangerous agency. Pan American Petroleum Corp., 381 P.2d at 73-74. However, Wyoming law remains, as previously stated by this Court, that the owner's duty to an invitee who may be the employee of an independent contractor is that of reasonable care under all the circumstances, including the duty to take reasonable precautions to protect the invitee from dangers which are foreseeable from the arrangement or use. Ruhs, 671 F.2d at 1272; Hittel, 996 P.2d at 678; see also, Pan American Petroleum Corp., 381 P.2d at 74. In Hittel, we limited the application of Ruhs and Pan American to ultrahazardous activity. 996 P.2d at 678-79. Franks contends that Hull v. Chevron, 812 F.2d 584, 588-89 (10th Cir. 1987), established the rule that ultrahazardous activities create a non-delegable duty of the owner to maintain a safe workplace. IPC contends that offloading well casing is not an ultrahazardous or abnormally dangerous activity but does not address Hull's application. [¶ 17] In Hull, John C. Hull, an employee of Chase Drilling Company (Chase), was assisting two co-employees in unloading and moving drill collars, 8,000 pound cylinders utilized around the drill bit. The low man on the totem pole or worm in oil field parlance, Mr. Hull was positioning certain racks onto which the drill collars were temporarily being placed when one of the drill collars rolled off the tines of the forklift and onto his right leg, seriously injuring it. Mr. Hull filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming seeking damages for this injury against his employer, Chase, and the lessee, Chevron, which had hired Chase to drill the well. Pursuant to the Wyoming Workers' Compensation Act, the district court dismissed the action against Chase. In an amended complaint, Mr. Hull then alleged in three causes of action for negligence, strict liability, and culpable negligence that Chevron (1) had a nondelegable duty in an ultrahazardous activity to maintain a safe working environment; (2) was negligent in failing to supervise the proper operation of the forklift which it had leased and placed on the site; (3) had failed to maintain a smooth and level terrain around the rig; (4) retained control of the drilling operations and, thus, was vicariously liable for the negligent acts of Chase's employees; and (5) owed Hull a duty of care as a third-party beneficiary of Chevron's federal lease which imposes certain safety requirements on oil and gas operators. During the six-day trial, the jury heard testimony from Chase and Chevron employees, various safety and oil and gas experts, and medical and rehabilitation specialists. Mr. Hull sought to prove that under the particular day rate contract governing the relationship between Chase and Chevron, Chevron retained the right to control and direct the entire drilling operation. In defense, Chevron attempted to establish Chase's role as an independent contractor with primary control over the details of the drilling operation, Chase's negligence in failing to supervise its forklift operator who was alleged to have used amphetamines on the morning of the accident, and the plaintiff's negligence and contributing drug use. As a third-party defendant, Chase abandoned its pretrial contention that it was an independent contractor and put on evidence to underscore its theory that the company man, Chevron's employee, Mr. Bobby Haynes, directed and supervised the drilling operation. In returning a verdict for the plaintiff, the jury found by a preponderance of the evidence that Chevron and Chase were governed by a principal/agent, not operator/independent contractor, relationship. 812 F.2d at 585-86. [¶ 18] Thus, Hull is distinguishable from this case where no genuine dispute exists that A-1 was an independent contractor. Franks cannot establish the requisite principal/agent relationship required to proceed under a theory of non-delegable duty should we decide that rule existed. By contract, IPC and A-1 agreed upon an independent contractor relationship and while that fact is not definitive, neither IPC nor Andregg exercised the requisite control over the well site required by Noonan to impose liability on IPC.