Elsberry v. Ivey

In Elsberry v. Ivey, 209 Ga. App. 620, 621 (2) (b) (434 SE2d 158) (1993) Elsberry was hired to remove a roof from a 100-year-old log house "from the top down." Elsberry began by removing a layer of asphalt shingles and after three to four hours had worked his way down to the underlying wooden shingles, which slid, causing him to fall. The Court upheld summary judgment in favor of Ivey, the property owner, ruling that Elsberry assumed the risk of working on the roof of an old house and his injury arose from dangers that "ordinarily and naturally exist in doing the work" for which he was employed. Id. at 622(2) (c). "But this is not all. The servant could not have engaged in the work without knowing and seeing . . . the identical condition which, as grounds of negligence, it is alleged that the master allowed to exist." Id.