## Facts

- Larry Lee Bayne, a truck driver employed by a trucking company, delivered goods to Todd Shipyards Corporation’s premises.
- While unloading at Todd’s loading platform, Bayne fell from the elevated platform and was injured.
- The platform lacked a guardrail required by an administrative workplace safety regulation (WAC 296-25-515).
- Bayne alleged Todd’s failure to comply with the regulation constituted negligence.

## Issues

1. Whether violation of an applicable administrative safety regulation constitutes negligence per se or merely evidence of negligence.
2. Whether workplace safety regulations adopted under former RCW 49.16 protect only an employer’s own employees or all workmen lawfully on the premises in the course of their employment.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Washington reversed the judgment for Todd and remanded.
- The court held that violation of the applicable administrative safety regulation constituted negligence per se.
- The court held the regulation was intended to protect all workmen lawfully on the employer’s premises in pursuit of their employment, including non-employees like Bayne.
- The trial court erred by instructing the jury that regulatory violation was only evidence of negligence rather than negligence per se.

## Legal Principles

- Violation of an applicable statute or ordinance is negligence per se under Washington law.
- Violation of an administrative safety regulation is negligence per se when the regulation is adopted pursuant to a specific statutory directive to establish safety standards and promulgated with notice and a public hearing.
- Workplace safety regulations adopted under former RCW 49.16 protect all workmen lawfully on an employer’s premises in the pursuit of their employment, not only the employer’s direct employees.
- When negligence per se applies, the jury should be instructed that the regulatory violation establishes breach of duty as a matter of law (subject to other elements such as causation and damages).

## Conclusion

The court extended negligence per se to a formally promulgated workplace safety regulation adopted under a specific legislative mandate and held that such regulations protect all workers lawfully on the premises for work, requiring a new trial under proper negligence-per-se instructions.


Bayne v. Todd Shipyards Corp., 88 Wn.2d 917, 568 P.2d 771 (Wash. 1977)