Liability in Hiring Contractors
Liability from employee of Independent Contractor
Lawsuits July 2007 CA
Evard v. Southern California Edison - filed July 11, 2007, Second District, Div. Three
Cite as 2007 SOS 4498
Common law rule that generally protects the hirer of an independent contractor from liability to third parties injured as a result of the contractor’s negligence in performing the work does not preclude liability where hirer breaches a nondelegable regulatory duty. General Industry Safety Order, codified as Sec. 3416 of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations, imposes nondelegable duty on billboard owners to provide standard guardrails or horizontal safety line or to insure that employee’s safety belt or harness lanyard is secured to a special purpose poster ladder. Testimony that billboard had a horizontal platform higher than 7-1/2 feet from the ground but did not have a horizontal safety cable to "tie off on" and that plaintiff did not tie his harness off onto the ladder when he attempted to insert a pole into the billboard was sufficient to create triable issue of fact whether billboard owner’s failure to comply with Sec. 3416(a) contributed to plaintiff’s injury by providing no guardrails to stop his fall and no safety line on which he could tie off, allowing him to fall when he received a shock from electrical power line.