Copeland v. Admiral Pest Control

In Copeland v. Admiral Pest Control, 1996 OK CIV APP 119, 933 P.2d 937, the plaintiff was bitten by a spider in a motel and sued the motel's pest control company, arguing that the company took it upon itself to exterminate the premises and keep it free of spiders and other dangerous insects. The company argued that it owed no duty to the plaintiff to eliminate pests from the motel or the warn of the danger of pests. The company further argued that the plaintiff was not a foreseeable person to whom it owed a duty because it was not the owner-operator of the motel and had no contractual relationship with the plaintiff. A division of the Court first found that the pest control company was not liable under a third-party beneficiary theory because there was no evidence that the motel or the pest control company intended to benefit motel guests to the extent that guests could enforce the contract. The Court then found that the pest control company could not be held liable in negligence because it did not have a duty to eliminate every spider from the motel.