Kinsman v. Unocal Asbestos case: Landowner Liability and Premises Hazards

Read the discussion in the Kinsman v. Unocal asbestos case, where landowner liability and premises hazards are discussed.

But Grahn’s statement regarding the hirer’s nonliability for hazards on the premises related to “the object of the work of the independent contractor” (Grahn, supra, 58 Cal.app.4th at p. 1398) does point to an important limitation on a landowner’s duty toward the contractor’s employees.

A landowner’s duty generally includes a duty to inspect for concealed hazards. But the responsibility for job safety delegated to independent contractors may and generally does include explicitly or implicitly a limited duty to inspect the premises as well.

Therefore, the principles enunciated in Privette suggest that the landowner would not be liable when the contractor has failed to engage in inspections of the premises implicitly or explicitly delegated to it.

Thus, for example, an employee of a roofing contractor sent to repair a defective roof would generally not be able to sue the hirer if injured when he fell through the same roof due to a structural defect, inasmuch as inspection for such defects could reasonably be implied to be within the scope of the contractor’s employment.

On the other hand, if the same employee fell from a ladder because the wall on which the ladder was propped collapsed, assuming that this defect was not related to the roof under repair, the employee may be able to sustain a suit against the hirer.

Put in other terms, the contractor was not being paid to inspect the premises generally, and therefore the duty of general inspection could not be said to have been delegated to it. Under those circumstances, the landowner’s failure to reasonably inspect the premises, when a hidden hazard leads directly to the employee’s injury, may well result in liability.

Courtesy of http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/archive/S118561.PDF

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