Ruling against a window washer who fell off the roof of the defendant’s house while cleaning a skylight, the Supreme Court in Gonzalez v. Mathis today declines to add a third exception to its general rule that “a hirer of an independent contractor delegates to the contractor all responsibility for workplace safety.” [Disclosure: Horvitz & Levy filed an amicus curiae brief in the case.]
The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Joshua Groban holds, “unless a landowner retains control over any part of the contractor’s 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.”
The court reverses the Second District, Division Seven, Court of Appeal.
Another opinion regarding landowner liability to independent contractors — in Sandoval v. Qualcomm Inc. — should file by September 13. [Disclosure: Horvitz & Levy filed the petition for review in Sandoval and has briefed the case in the Supreme Court (here, here, here, and here).]
