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Cook v. Morrison3/3/1992
condition so as not to expose him unnecessarily to danger, and to give warning of hidden conditions and dangers of which . . . had express or implied knowledge." Southern Ry. Co. v. ADM Milling Co., 58 N.C. App. 667, 673, 294 S.E.2d 750, 755, disc. rev. denied, 307 N.C. 270, 299 S.E.2d 215 (1982); Spivet, 264 N.C. at 388-89, 141 S.E.2d at 810 (defendant owed duty to employee of independent contractor to warn of hidden danger in its plant). The defendant had no duty, however, to warn Cook of an obvious condition on the land of which Cook had equal or superior knowledge, unless the defendant should have anticipated an unreasonable risk of harm to Cook notwithstanding the obviousness of the condition. Southern, 58 N.C. App. at 673, 294 S.E.2d at 755. In such cases, the particular circumstances may require the owner or occupier of the land to take precautions beyond warning the invitee of the obvious condition. Id. at 674, 294 S.E.2d at 756.
These general rules on the tort liability of owners and occupiers of land to invitees, however, do not apply to the actual work undertaken by independent contractors and their employees. Unless the activity undertaken is inherently dangerous, an owner or occupier of land who hires an independent contractor is not required to provide employees of the independent contractor a safe place to work nor is he required to take proper safeguards against dangers which may be incident to the work undertaken by the independent contractor. Brown v. Texas Co., 237 N.C. 738, 741, 76 S.E.2d 45, 46-47 (1953); 62 Am. Jur. 2d Premises Liability ยง 457 (1990). If, however, the activity is inherently dangerous and
the owner or occupier of the land knows or should know of the circumstances creating the danger, then the owner or occupier of the land has the nondelegable duty to the independent contractor's employees "to exercise due care to see that . . . [these employees are] provided a safe place in which to work and proper safeguards against any dangers as might be incident to the work [are taken]." Woodson v. Rowland, 329 N.C. 330, 357, 407 S.E.2d 222, 238 (1991) (where general contractor hired subcontractor to perform alleged inherently dangerous activity, general contractor liable for breach of nondelegable duty of care if it knew of circumstances creating danger).
Assuming arguendo that the forecast of the evidence at the summary judgment hearing is sufficient to establish a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the trenching was inherently dangerous, id. at 354, 407 S.E.2d at 236, there is no evidence in the record demonstrating that the defendant knew or should have known of the circumstances creating the danger to which Cook was exposed. Although the defendant, a truck driver by trade, held a residential contractor's license, he had never built a house as a general contractor other than the one he owned, and on that house he was not involved, even in a supervisory capacity, in installing the septic system. Although the defendant visited the site approximately every other day and occasionally gave instructions and made suggestions as to how Morrison should comply with various engineering requirements, the defendant did not know how to dig a trench, did not know what "shoring" a trench meant prior to Morrison's deposition, and testified that if Morrison had been improperly installing the system, he would not have known it. Finally, Morrison testified that to his knowle
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