{"id":976,"date":"2012-11-16T08:38:49","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T15:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=976"},"modified":"2012-11-16T08:38:49","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T15:38:49","slug":"general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project\/","title":{"rendered":"General Contractor Remains Liable for Property Safety until Owner Accepts the Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denise H. McClelland – October 31, 2012<\/p>\n

The Kentucky Court of Appeals held, in September 2012, that a general contractor is liable for unsafe lighting on a temporary walkway until the owner of the project accepts the work.\u00a0 At the request of a hospital owner, the general contractor built a pedestrian walkway from the hospital to an employee parking lot.\u00a0 The walkway impeded an existing stairway to the parking lot causing the contractor to construct a temporary stairway for employee use during construction efforts.\u00a0 A transition step or curb existed at the top of the stairway to the parking lot.\u00a0 The hospital owned the parking lot.\u00a0 The parking lot had permanent lighting fixtures.\u00a0 The general contractor also placed a temporary light fixture midway on the stairway. The temporary light fixture was connected or on the same schedule as the permanent lighting. An employee accessed the stairway at approximately 6:15 p.m. in late November at a time when none of the parking lot lights or the midpoint stairway light was functioning.\u00a0 The employee fell, suffering a severe shoulder injury, when she missed the transition step, claiming she could not see the transition step.<\/p>\n

The employee filed suit in Fayette Circuit Court, Lexington, Kentucky.\u00a0 The contractor argued the hospital controlled and was responsible for the parking lot lights.\u00a0 The employee argued the general contractor knew employees would walk the temporary stairway in the dark and had a duty to ensure proper lighting was in place and functioning.<\/p>\n

The general contractor built the stairway in a workmanlike manner. The fall did not occur because of any defect in the stairway\u2019s construction.\u00a0 The issue was whether the general contractor had to ensure the stairway was adequately lit, and if such duty existed, whether the general contractor could rely on the presence of the owner\u2019s existing lighting.<\/p>\n

The Court of Appeals rejected the assertion that the general contractor\u2019s only duty was to construct the stairway in a workmanlike manner.\u00a0 Moreover, the general contractor could not rely solely on the owner\u2019s lighting.\u00a0 The court adopted Section 384 of the Restatement of the Law of Torts, Second.\u00a0 This concept provides that when someone builds or creates any structure or condition on land owned or possessed by another, the builder is subject to the same liability (or the same freedom from liability) as the possessor of the land for any physical harm caused to others on the land by any dangerous character of the structure or other condition while the work is in his charge.\u00a0 The Court of Appeals held that because the hospital had not accepted the stairway, the contractor had the same liability (or the same freedom from liability) as the hospital owner, imposed the same duty on the general contractor to prevent the harm as it did on the property owner, imposing on the general contractor the duty of providing adequate lighting while the project was in its control.<\/p>\n

The case was remanded for determination by a jury of whether the contractor\u2019s reliance on the owner\u2019s lighting was a breach of the contractor\u2019s duty to provide adequate lighting.<\/p>\n

The dissent in this opinion noted that the holding \u201cbroadly expands a contractor\u2019s potential liability and imposes a duty not contemplated by the parties\u2019 contract.\u201d\u00a0 The contractor built the stairs in a workmanlike manner, did not control the parking lot lights, and no evidence existed that the contractor knew the lights were not functioning on the evening of the injury.\u00a0 There was also no contractual obligation between the general contractor and the owner for the contractor to control the operation of the parking lot lights.\u00a0 It was not the general contractor that created the injurious condition on the hospital premises.\u00a0 But based on the court\u2019s majority opinion, contractors may be required to provide their own lighting, a costly and time-consuming addition to the cost of the project.\u00a0 The dissent is also concerned that even owner\u2019s liability may be expanded if, after a hail storm or other natural disaster, a power loss occurs and the owner does not immediately restore back-up lighting.<\/p>\n

The opinion, Martin v. St. Joseph Hospital System, Inc., 2012 W.L.4036997 (Ky. App. 2012) is unpublished.\u00a0 But under Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure, the opinion may be relied upon if no other existing published opinion deals with the same issue and a copy of the unpublished opinion is presented to the court and counsel of record.\u00a0 In Martin v. St. Joseph Health System, Inc., the Court of Appeals identifies the issue as one of \u201cfirst impression\u201d acknowledging that no published opinions exist regarding the subject matter.\u00a0\u00a0 Thus this case is likely to form a basis for adding contractors to plaintiff\u2019s injury claims on construction sites if a certificate of occupancy has not yet been issued on a project demonstrating the owner\u2019s acceptance of the work.\u00a0 Contractors must beware.<\/p>\n

via General contractor remains liable for property safety until owner accepts the project – Lexology<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denise H. McClelland – October 31, 2012 The Kentucky Court of Appeals held, in September 2012, that a general contractor is liable for unsafe lighting on a temporary walkway until the owner of the project accepts the work.\u00a0 At the request of a hospital owner, the general contractor built a pedestrian walkway from the hospital… Continue reading General Contractor Remains Liable for Property Safety until Owner Accepts the Project<\/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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,172,5],"tags":[12,5,242],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-2","category-construction-law-2","category-osha","tag-construction","tag-osha","tag-property-safety","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nGeneral Contractor Remains Liable for Property Safety until Owner Accepts the Project - Advise & Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"General Contractor Remains Liable for Property Safety until Owner Accepts the Project - Advise & Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Denise H. McClelland – October 31, 2012 The Kentucky Court of Appeals held, in September 2012, that a general contractor is liable for unsafe lighting on a temporary walkway until the owner of the project accepts the work.\u00a0 At the request of a hospital owner, the general contractor built a pedestrian walkway from the hospital… Continue reading General Contractor Remains Liable for Property Safety until Owner Accepts the Project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Advise & Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-16T15:38:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7\"},\"headline\":\"General Contractor Remains Liable for Property Safety until Owner Accepts the Project\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-16T15:38:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project\/\"},\"wordCount\":836,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"construction\",\"OSHA\",\"Property Safety\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Construction\",\"Construction Law\",\"OSHA\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-contractor-remains-liable-for-property-safety-until-owner-accepts-the-project\/\",\"name\":\"General Contractor Remains Liable for Property Safety until Owner Accepts the Project - 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