Leland Timothy Watkins, Michael Edwin Watkins, and Leland Brian Watkins collectively, “Watkins Farm” sued Stacey Bloodsworth, Tony Yancey, and Milton Ussery for crop damage allegedly caused by the drifting of chemicals aerially applied by Bloodsworth to Ussery’s neighboring cotton crop. The trial court denied the defendants’ motions for summary judgment and certified the ruling for immediate review. This Court granted applications for interlocutory review filed by Yancey Case No. A10A1635 and Ussery Case No. A10A1636. We have consolidated the cases for review, and for the reasons that follow, we reverse in Case No. A10A1635 and affirm in Case No. A10A1636. Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. OCGA § 9-11-56 c. A de novo standard of review applies to an appeal from a grant of summary judgment, and we view the evidence, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant.1 So viewed, the material portions of the record show that Yancey farmed a cotton crop and helped Ussery, his brother-in-law, farm Ussery’s separate cotton crop. Yancey used a combination of his own equipment and Ussery’s equipment to prepare and plant Ussery’s cotton crop. Yancey had no ownership interest in Ussery’s property or crop, nor did he participate in the yield. At the end of the year, Ussery paid him what the men estimated Yancey’s work was worth. Adjacent to Ussery’s cotton field was Watkins Farm’s crop of pepper plants. In the fall of 2006, after conferring with a cotton “scout,” Ussery determined that the timing was appropriate to apply certain chemicals, including a defoliant, to the cotton crop. He arranged for Bloodsworth to apply the chemicals to his crop from a crop-dusting airplane. Yancey, as part of his regular employment with a farm supply warehouse, delivered the chemicals from the warehouse to the airport where Bloodsworth operated. Bloodsworth then aerially applied the defoliant to the cotton crop, and during the process, some defoliant allegedly drifted onto Watkins Farm’s adjacent pepper crop and damaged it.
After discovering the damaged pepper crop, Watkins Farm sued Bloodsworth, Yancey, and Ussery, alleging claims for negligence and trespass. Yancey and Ussery moved for summary judgment, which motions were denied, giving rise to these interlocutory appeals.
