David, J.
At issue is whether a general contractor assumed a non-delegable duty of care to keep a worksite safe when it executed the contract in question. Guided by the contract’s plain language and looking at the contract as a whole, we find the contract demonstrates the general contractor’s intent to assume a duty of care. Thus, we: 1) reverse the trial court’s grant of partial summary judgment for defendant; 2) grant the plaintiff’s motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of duty; and 3) remand for further proceedings on breach, causation, and damages.
…
I. A general contractor ordinarily owes no duty of care to subcontractor’s employee, but may assume the duty through a contract.
….
…In other words, a contract that is found to demonstrate the general contractor’s intent to assume a duty of care exposes the general contractor to potential liability for a negligence claim where no such liability would have otherwise existed. A duty imposed by contract, once formed, is non-delegable and is thought to encourage the general contractor to minimize the risk of resulting injuries. Bagley, 658 N.E.2d at 588.
Ryan’s theory of the case hinges on this exception; that is to say, Ryan argues that TCI assumed a non-delegable duty of care when it entered into a contract with Gander Mountain that imposed a specific duty on TCI to keep the worksite safe. TCI argues that no such intent can be gleaned from the contract’s language. Thus, a question of contract interpretation is at the heart of this case. We look to the contract as a whole and agree with Ryan’s position.
II. TCI assumed a non-delegable duty of care for all workers on the site when it contracted with Gander Mountain.
Considering this particular contract’s language, and taking the contract as a whole, Ryan prevails on the issue of existence of duty. Guided solely by well-established principles of contract interpretation, we find that TCI assumed a duty of care related to worksite safety for all employees when it entered into a contract with Gander Mountain.
….
III. We resolve the issue narrowly, based on the language of the specific contract in question, not on Court of Appeals precedent.
We reiterate that our decision today is solely guided by our contract interpretation precedent. In making their arguments, both parties point us toward Court of Appeals precedent on this issue. Ryan argues that language from TCI’s contract falls squarely in line with similar contracts found in Court of Appeals cases finding a general contractor assumed the duty of care. TCI, on the other hand, proposes that the Court of Appeals correctly analogized the TCI contract to those found in cases where no duty of care was assumed.
….
Notwithstanding whatever apparent similarities to other contracts exist, we think this case is one best decided by taking into account our Court’s precedent on contract interpretation, as applied to the particular contract language at issue. Although the Court of Appeals’ cases on assumption of duty certainly can be instructive – to the extent that they guide courts in evaluating the spectrum of language that may reveal intent – we think conducting a phrase-by-phrase comparison of language in each Court of Appeals case to the contract involved here is not the preferred approach. That is not to say that Court of Appeals precedent on assumption of duty of care cannot ever be helpful in guiding a court, but we see the issue in this case as one best settled by a contract interpretation analysis.
In sum, we decline the parties’ request to rely on Court of Appeals precedent to decide whether TCI assumed the duty of care. Instead, our decision here rests solely on our own contract interpretation precedent.
….
Conclusion
We hold that, by entering into a contract containing language that required TCI to assume responsibility for implementing and monitoring safety precautions and programs for all individuals working on the site, and by agreeing to designate a safety representative to supervise such implementation and monitoring, TCI affirmatively demonstrated an intent to assume a nondelegable duty of care toward Ryan. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s grant of summary judgment for TCI, grant Ryan’s motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of duty, and remand for further proceedings on breach, causation, and damages.
Rush, C.J., and Rucker, Massa, and Slaughter, JJ., concur.