{"id":899164,"date":"2021-09-22T14:58:27","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T20:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=899164"},"modified":"2021-09-22T14:58:29","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T20:58:29","slug":"known-hazards-privette-doctrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/known-hazards-privette-doctrine\/","title":{"rendered":"California Supreme Court Declines to Create Exception to Privette Doctrine for &#8220;Known Hazards&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Tracy D. Forbath | <a href=\"https:\/\/lewisbrisbois.com\/newsroom\/legal-alerts\/california-supreme-court-declines-to-create-exception-to-privette-doctrine-for-known-hazards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard &amp; Smith<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\u00a0<em>Gonzalez v. Mathis<\/em>\u00a0(Aug. 19, 2021, S247677) __ Cal.5th___, the California Supreme Court reversed an appellate decision holding that a landowner may be liable to an independent contractor, or the contractor\u2019s workers, for injuries resulting from \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/independent-contractor-worksite-injury\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">known hazards<\/a>,\u201d as running contrary to the\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-injuries-privette-doctrine-electrifying-perhaps-not-particularly-shocking-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Privette\u00a0doctrine<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;<em>Gonzalez<\/em>, the contractor, who specialized in washing skylights, slipped and fell while accessing the landowner\u2019s particularly hard to reach skylight from a narrow retaining wall that was allegedly covered in loose gravel and slippery. (Slip opn., p. 3.) While the trial court initially granted the landowner summary judgment pursuant to the&nbsp;<em>Privette<\/em>&nbsp;doctrine, the appellate court reversed and held that the landowner had a responsibility to take reasonable safety precautions where there was a known safety hazard on the landowner\u2019s premises. (<em>Id.<\/em>&nbsp;at p. 6.) Whether the landowner could have taken various safety precautions also raised disputed issues of material fact precluding summary judgment. (<em>Ibid.<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the California Supreme Court concluded that no broad, third exception to the&nbsp;Privette&nbsp;doctrine lies; \u201cunless a landowner retains control over any part of the contractor\u2019s work and negligently exercises that retained control in a manner that affirmatively contributes to the injury [citation], it will not be liable to an independent contractor or its workers for an injury resulting from a known hazard on the premises.\u201d (Slip opn., p. 2.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The California Supreme Court also contemplated landowner liability with an eye towards preserving a landowner\u2019s ability to obtain summary judgment under the&nbsp;<em>Privette<\/em>&nbsp;doctrine. The court noted \u201cit would be difficult, if not impossible, for a landowner to ever obtain summary judgment were [it] to adopt a rule that subjects landowners to potential liability where there are no reasonable safety precautions available to protect against a known danger.\u201d (Slip Opn., p. 22.) Indeed, whether an independent contractor could have adopted reasonable safety precautions to protect against a known hazard will \u201calmost always\u201d raised issues of material fact. (<em>Ibid<\/em>.) Further, the court concluded that contractors are in a better position to assess whether they can protect their workers against a known hazard on a worksite and whether that work can then be performed safely. (<em>Id<\/em>.&nbsp;at p. 28.) Thus, the court held that a landowner delegates to an independent contractor all responsibility for workplace safety, including \u201cthe responsibility to ensure that the work can be performed safely despite a known hazard on the worksite.\u201d (<em>Id<\/em>.&nbsp;at p. 32.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tracy D. Forbath | Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard &amp; Smith In\u00a0Gonzalez v. Mathis\u00a0(Aug. 19, 2021, S247677) __ Cal.5th___, the California Supreme Court reversed an appellate decision holding that a landowner may be liable to an independent contractor, or the contractor\u2019s workers, for injuries resulting from \u201cknown hazards,\u201d as running contrary to the\u00a0Privette\u00a0doctrine. In&nbsp;Gonzalez, the contractor, who&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/known-hazards-privette-doctrine\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">California Supreme Court Declines to Create Exception to Privette Doctrine for &#8220;Known Hazards&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8782],"tags":[9895,11540,361,9884],"class_list":["post-899164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-injury","tag-advise-consult","tag-known-hazards","tag-personal-injury","tag-privette-doctrine","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>California Supreme Court Declines to Create Exception to Privette Doctrine for &quot;Known Hazards&quot; 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