Hymas v. UAP Distribution, Inc.

¶1 We are called upon to decide whether UAP Distribution Inc., the owner of a jobsite at which John Hymas was seriously injured while working construction, was entitled to summary judgment that it had no statutory or common law duty that could give rise to liability for Mr. Hymas’s fall into an unguarded trench. Mr. Hymas, whose employer was UAP’s cement contractor, argues that UAP owed him a duty of care under WISHA, 1 as a jobsite owner, because it retained control over his employer’s work. He argues that UAP owed him a duty under common law, as a landowner, because it should have…