After injuring his fingers on freight elevator doors, Needham Henson brought this tort action against the premises owner, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, alleging negligent maintenance and breach of the duty to warn. Georgia-Pacific moved for summary judgment, which the trial court granted. This appeal followed. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.To prevail at summary judgment under OCGA § 9-11-56, the moving party must demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the undisputed facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, warrant judgment as a matter of law. A defendant who will not bear the burden of proof at trial need not affirmatively disprove the nonmoving party’s case; instead, the burden on the moving party may be discharged by pointing out by reference to the affidavits, depositions and other documents in the record that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case. If the moving party discharges this burden, the nonmoving party cannot rest on its pleadings, but rather must point to specific evidence giving rise to a triable issue. Our review of the grant of summary judgment is de novo, and we construe the evidence and all inferences therefrom in favor of the nonmoving party. Citations and punctuation omitted. Miller v. Ford Motor Co. , 287 Ga. App. 642, 643 1 653 SE2d 82 2007. See also Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins , 261 Ga. 491 405 SE2d 474 1991. So viewed, the record reflects that the freight elevator in question was located at the Georgia-Pacific plant in Cedar Springs, Georgia. The freight elevator had exterior and interior doors. Only the exterior doors are relevant to this case. The two exterior doors were integrated into the first floor of the plant and did not ascend or descend with the elevator itself. The two doors operated in tandem —as one door descended from the ceiling, the other door ascended from the floor, with the two doors coming together in the middle. In order to close the doors, a passenger had to manually pull on a strap attached to the top door of the elevator.
At the time of the freight elevator accident, Henson was working for an independent contractor that was repairing the boiler system at the Georgia-Pacific plant. While on the ground floor, Henson was about to assist in loading equipment onto a truck. Henson was instructed by his employer, however, to first go to the second floor of the plant and retrieve a safety belt he had left behind. Henson then proceeded to the freight elevator and got inside. No one else was on the elevator. Using his right hand, Henson reached up, grabbed the strap attached to the top door, and pulled down on it applying “very little” weight. As he pulled on the strap, Henson was looking over to the left at the elevator control panel. According to Henson, the elevator doors then closed “so fast” that two fingers on his right hand got smashed between the two doors as the doors came together. There were no other witnesses to the incident.
