It's not my fault . . . is it? Landowners vs. independent contractors

One of the benefits of hiring an independent contractor is that most obligations fall to the contractor—obtaining workers' compensation and general liability insurance; complying with federal, state, and local employment laws and tax withholding requirements; establishing the means, methods, and instruments necessary to complete the project; and overall responsibility for the safety of the contractor and any workers. California law strongly presumes the hirer of an independent contractor delegates all responsibility for workplace safety to the contractor, subject to few narrow exceptions.

That presumption may be rebutted in one of two ways: Either the hiring entity retains some control over the contractor's work and negligently exercises that control in a way that contributes to the worker's injury or a property owner knows or should know of a concealed hazard on its property and fails to warn the contractor.

But what about when an independent contractor knows of a hazard and can't adopt any means to minimize or avoid it? Is the hiring entity liable for any resulting injuries? According to the California Supreme Court, the answer is no.

A slippery slope

Luis Gonzalez had been engaged by homeowner John R. Mathis as a professional window washer for many years. He first worked as an employee of a window washing company and later opened his own company. He advertised his company as specializing in hard-to-reach windows and skylights. Mathis owned a one-story home with a skylight located beyond a parapet wall, constructed to hide various ducts, pipes, and permanent fixtures just beyond the wall.