Common work area doctrine

The court held that the trial court properly granted defendant-KCS Resources' motion for summary disposition after finding that plaintiff could not satisfy all the elements of the "common work area doctrine" set forth in Funk. Plaintiff-Davis, Jr., worked as a derrick hand for Team Well Services. KCS Resources subcontracted with Team Well Services to drill an oil well as part of an oil exploration project it was conducting on its property. Defendant hired Oil Ex, Inc. to act as a general contractor and oversee all the project work. Defendant also hired numerous other companies as subcontractors for different tasks. While Davis was working on Team Well Services' derrick, a cable upon which he was relying to prevent a fall snapped. Davis fell 20 to 25 feet and sustained serious injuries. Plaintiff, citing Clark, argued that defendant breached its common law duty not to act negligently. In Clark, the defendant and the plaintiff worked together closely and the defendant specifically applied a substance to the plaintiff's work area that caused the plaintiff to slip and injure himself. In this case, defendant was not present at the work site and, instead, relied on other individuals to perform all the work. Further, Davis was injured as a result of a safety equipment failure, and the equipment at issue was owned and fully controlled by Davis' employer, not by defendant. There was no evidence presented to the trial court that defendant knew or should have known about the dangerous condition of the cable. The facts of this case did not support a conclusion that defendant acted negligently. Thus, Clark was factually distinguishable and did not support plaintiff's claim of liability on the part of defendant pursuant to common law negligence principles. The undisputed facts demonstrated that plaintiff was injured while working on a derrick operated solely by Team Well Services, his employer. There was no evidence presented that any employees of the other subcontractors worked on, or would have reason to work on, the derrick. The other subcontractors were hired to perform different jobs. Team Well Services alone was hired to drill the oil well. Thus, the location where plaintiff was injured was "a situation where employees of a subcontractor were working on a unique project in isolation from other workers." Therefore, plaintiff was not injured in a common work area. Nor could plaintiff succeed under a theory of premises liability. Premises liability involves dangerous conditions on the land. Plaintiff's accident involved machinery owned by his employer, not a condition on the land. Affirmed.