Mаrk Elsberry appeals the grant of summary judgment in favor of George Ivey. Appellant brought suit for personal injuries sustained frоm falling from a roof. Appellant (who has a ninth-grade education and considers himself a capable construсtion worker and carpenter) was a handyman who was directed by appellee (who has a two-year enginеering certificate from Georgia Tech and spent 40 years in the construction business) to remove shingles from the roоf of a tenant house over a century old. The house was built with logs, and secured with wooden pegs rather than nails. Threе months prior to the incident, a construction contractor inspected the house at appellee’s request and found it rotting and termite infested; both the contractor and appellee inspected the roof from the top to ascertain its condition. Appellee subsequently ordered appellant to remove the roоf “from the top down.” After two asphalt shingle layers were removed, underlying wooden shingles allegedly slid causing appеllant to fall from the roof. Held:
1.
Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins,
2. Apрellant was hired to remove a roof down to the rafters. Appellant testified he knew the age of the house аnd that it was in need of repairs. It was because the roof was defective that appellant was hired to remove it.
(a) An owner or occupier of land has a duty to exercise ordinary care to keep his premises safe for such persons as may lawfully come upon the premises at the owner’s expressed or implied invitation, inсluding workers hired to work upon the premises. OCGA § 51-3-1. However, an exception to this general rule exists as to workers hired to perform work which makes “ ‘a place that is known to be dangerous, safe, or in a work that in its progress necessarily changes the character for safety of the place in which it is performed as the work progresses.’ ”
Holland v. Durham Coal &c. Co.,
The master cannot provide a safe place for a servant whose work place constantly is shifted, altered, or transformed by the very labor the servant was engaged to perform. See
Rogers v. Condon, Graham & Milner,
(b) The rеmoval of two layers of asphalt shingles to reveal the wooden shingles below perforce would alter the rоof’s condition and affect the footing of persons working on the roof. For example, loosened shingles, remоved nails, and other debris were certain to accumulate to some degree even under optimum conditions making traversal of the roof more hazardous. As the roof, thusly, was not a static area but constantly shifting and being transformed as the roof removal progressed, the general rule of law, which imposes a duty on a master to provide his servаnt a safe work place would not apply. See generally
Rogers,
supra;
Holland,
supra;
Powell v. Shurling,
(c) Appellant contends that he “didn’t know anything was loose” on the roof and that hе had no experience with wooden shingles of the type he was hired to remove. It is undisputed that the wooden shingles wеre covered by two layers of asphalt shingles held in place by nails, which would be driven into the original wooden shingles. As
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the asphalt shingles were removed, the wooden shingles underneath were necessarily revealed and their condition should have been obvious to appellant. “It is the servant’s duty to observe every visible and manifest defect which would rеnder his work dangerous.”
Callahan v. Atlantic Ice &c. Corp.,
Appellant also argues that appellee failed to warn him of the slippery and loose condition of the wooden shingles. In addition to having removed the asphalt shingles, appellant had been working on various locations of the roof for three or four hours before he fell. Were there a defect presеnt, he had ample opportunity to discover it and act accordingly.
“A servant assumes the ordinary risks of his employmеnt, whether or not such employment be of a dangerous character. One who is [removing shingles from a roof] for the purpose of [removing the entire roof] incurs an obvious danger of [loosened shingles and nails being underfoot], and he either knows of such danger, or is chargeable with knowledge thereof. Under such circumstances there is no hidden danger, but one which is as obvious to the servant as to the master. Such danger is an incident to the very work in which the servant is engaging, and does not come from an independent agency.” (Emphasis deleted.)
Hagins v. Southern Bell Tel. &c. Co.,
Judgment affirmed.