Opinion ID: 2352303
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the carlson company.

Text: The plaintiff, as an employee of a subcontractor, was on the premises by the implied invitation of the defendant, Carlson Company, the general contractor, which was bound to use reasonable care to see that the place in which the work was to be performed was reasonably safe. Terranella v. Union Bldg. and Construction Co., 3 N.J. 443 (1950); Murphy v. Core Joint Concrete Pipe Co., 110 N.J.L. 83 ( E. & A. 1933). This defendant contends, however, that there was no proof of a violation of any duty owing by this defendant to the plaintiff, that there was no proof of negligence on the part of this defendant as to the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries, that the plaintiff assumed the risk, that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur was not applicable, and therefore the trial court erred in refusing to grant this defendant's motions for judgment. We disagree with this contention. We have already determined that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur applied to the situation. Our discussion and disposition of this question with reference to the appeal of the defendant, Busman and Rosen, Inc., is equally applicable to this defendant. Several cases are cited by this defendant in support of its contention that res ipsa loquitur is not applicable to the present situation, but we find the cases to be inapposite. The two cases most strongly relied upon by this defendant are Holmes v. Pelligrino, 102 N.J.L. 697 ( E. & A. 1926), and Moran v. Moore McCormack Lines, 131 N.J.L. 332 ( Sup. Ct. 1944); affirmed, 132 N.J.L. 171 ( E. & A. 1944). In the Holmes case the defendant had furnished some planks for one Schlossman to use in the erection of a scaffold. The latter erected the scaffold. While working on it, a plank broke and the plaintiff fell to the floor. It was held that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur was inapplicable to the defendant. But in that case there was no evidence that the defendant had any control of the scaffold during or subsequent to its erection, whereas in the present case there was evidence from which the jury could infer that the defendants had joint control of the scaffold. Furthermore, there was no evidence in the Holmes case of what caused the plank to break, whereas in the instant case there was evidence that the scaffold fell because of a disengaged bracket. In the Moran case, supra, the trial court disposed of the merits of the case adversely to the plaintiff. The opinion of the Supreme Court in that case discloses that a rather unusual course was pursued. A nonsuit was granted at the conclusion of the entire case on the basis of the defendant's explanatory testimony which was not contradicted or rebutted and which was deemed conclusive that the defendant was not guilty of negligence. This defendant argues, however, that since it engaged Busman and Rosen, Inc., as an independent contractor, to erect the scaffold its only duty to the plaintiff was to exercise reasonable care in selecting a skillful and proper person as such contractor, and having performed that duty it was relieved of any negligence which may be imputable to the independent contractor. In pursuance of this argument the Carlson Company urges that the trial court erred in not charging its request No. 15 as follows: The general rule of law is that where one employs a contractor exercising an independent employment and hiring his own servants to do work not in itself a nuisance, the contractor alone is liable for an injury resulting from the negligence of himself or his servants unless the employer is in default in selecting an unskillful or an improper person as contractor. The principle of law stated in the request is correct. Terranella v. Union Bldg. & Construction Co., supra ; Bacak v. Hogya, 4 N.J. 417 (1950); but it was not error to refuse to charge this principle under the circumstances here existing. The principle of law, as stated in the request, is a general rule. These words perforce indicate that there are exceptions. The present case comes within the exceptions. The extent to which a person may relieve himself of liability by engaging an independent contractor has limitations. The evolution of the law on this subject appears to be as follows: One of the earliest cases on the subject is Bush v. Steinman, 1 Bos. & P. 404, 126 Eng. Reprint 978 ( Eng. 1799), which is reviewed in Anno. 18 A.L.R. 821. The philosophy of that case was that the person engaging an independent contractor was liable for the negligence of a servant of the independent contractor on the theory of respondeat superior. This philosophy was followed for a time by some early American cases, but was rejected in New Jersey in the case of Cuff, Adm'x. v. Newark and New York R.R. Co., et al., 35 N.J.L. 17 ( Sup. Ct. 1870); affirmed, 35 N.J.L. 574 ( E. & A. 1870), and elsewhere; 27 Am. Jur., Independent Contractors, § 27, p. 504. The philosophy following the rejection of Bush v. Steinman, supra , permits a person to relieve himself of liability under certain circumstances by engaging an independent contractor to perform the work. In such cases although he thereby escapes liability for negligence of such contractor he is not immune to liability for his own negligence, and if the negligence of both concur, both are liable. 27 Am. Jur., Independent Contractor, § 30, p. 508. The present case involves the use of a scaffold. The scaffold was an appliance furnished for the use of the workmen. It has been established in this State that under the common law a master owes a duty towards his own servants to exercise reasonable care for the safety of appliances furnished by him for their use. This doctrine is extended to cases where a person agrees to furnish a contractor, in this case to the plaintiff's employer, with an instrumentality or appliance for use in the performance of a task. In the Restatement of the Law, Torts, Vol. 2, § 392, p. 1064, the rule is stated as follows: One who supplies to another, directly or through a third person, a chattel to be used for the supplier's business purposes is subject to liability to those for whose use the chattel is supplied, or to those whom he should expect to be in the vicinity of its probable use, for bodily harm caused by the use of the chattel in the manner for which and by persons for whose use the chattel is supplied: (a) If the supplier has failed to exercise reasonable care to make the chattel safe for the use for which it is supplied,   . On page 1068 of the Restatement, supra, under comment e, the following statement is made: Supplying tools for workmen. One who employs another to erect a structure or to do other work and agrees for that purpose to supply the necessary tools and temporary structure, supplies them to the employees of such other for a business purpose. Under this comment, various illustrations are given, including the following: 2. A is the principal contractor for the erection of a building. He lets out the various parts of the work to subcontractors. His contracts with them required him to provide all necessary scaffoldings. A servant of any of the subcontractors who goes upon the scaffolding is using it for the business purposes of the contractor. The subject is extensively reviewed in an annotation in 44 A.L.R. 932, 1049, in which various cases, including Mulchey v. Methodist Religious Soc., 125 Mass. 487 (1878), are considered. See also 38 A.L.R. 461, 29 A.L.R. 738, Restatement, Torts, Vol. 2, § 1393, p. 1070, et seq.; Hall v. Bates, 216 Mass. 140, 103 N.E. 285 ( Sup. Jud. 1913), and Hilleary v. Bromley, 146 Ohio 212, 64 N.E. 2d 832 ( Sup. Ct. 1946), for discussion and application of the principle. An application of the principle as above illustrated makes it obvious that the defendant, Carlson Company, if it assumed the obligation of furnishing scaffolding for the plaintiff's use, owed a duty to the plaintiff to furnish a reasonably safe scaffold, and that the Carlson Company could not relieve itself of such duty by delegating the construction of the scaffold to an independent contractor. While the scaffold was erected by Busman and Rosen, Inc., it was within the province of the jury to determine that it was supplied by the Carlson Company for use by the plaintiff and others. It is urged by the Carlson Company, however, that it did not agree to furnish scaffolding for use by the plaintiff and that the contract between this defendant and the plaintiff's employer was embodied in a letter written by the Carlson Company to the plaintiff's employer on October 8, 1947, prior to the commencement of the work by the plaintiff on the housing project. This letter stated, inter alia, Please furnish necessary labor and equipment for laying all of the asphalt shingles required for the above noted apartment project. There was testimony on behalf of the plaintiff that the contract with the Carlson Company for the roofing was an oral contract, that it had been made sometime prior to the date of the above letter and that it included the furnishing of scaffolding by the Carlson Company. There was conflicting evidence as to whether there was an oral contract or whether the letter constituted the entire contract. In this posture the Carlson Company requested the court to charge as follows: If you find from all the evidence that the writing of October 8, 1947, from Carlson to Meny constituted the written agreement between the parties hereto, then I charge you that such agreement in writing cannot be varied by oral conversations, and that you would not under such circumstances consider any such alleged conversations in the light of varying the written agreement between the parties. The court so charged, and then added: I so charge you; but I reiterate the charge that the plaintiff contends that it was not a written contract, and that there had been preliminary agreements between the parties and that they had already talked between themselves, that is, Carlson and Mr. Meny, concerning the work and concerning, particularly, according to the plaintiff, the question of scaffolding. The Carlson Company contends that the additional charge constituted error because the letter was a complete written contract and its terms could not be varied under the parol evidence rule. We do not agree with the point so advanced. Under the circumstances of this case it was properly a jury question as to whether an oral contract or the letter constituted the agreement between the parties. It is observed that the letter was not signed by the subcontractor, Meny, nor was there any correspondence by the latter in response thereto. The letter refers to equipment but does not refer to scaffolding. The word equipment is susceptible of different interpretations. In the light of the surrounding testimony in this case that Busman and Rosen, Inc., were to erect scaffolding; that the carpenter work on the project was to precede the work of the roofers; that scaffolding was of necessity to be used by the carpenters, the roofers and the tinsmiths; that the work of the several subcontractors was somewhat overlapping; that cooperation among the workmen is customary on a project of this nature; and that the scaffolding erected by Busman and Rosen, Inc., was not to be removed without the consent of the Carlson Company, when considered with the fact that it would appear to be unrealistic for each of several subcontractors to erect its own scaffolding on a project such as this, sufficient evidence was presented for the jury to determine that the agreement between the parties was oral and that it included the obligation on the part of the Carlson Company to furnish necessary scaffolding for use by the plaintiff in the performance of his work. The last point raised by the Carlson Company is that there was no evidence presented of any negligence on the part of this defendant. Our discussion of the evidence, our determination that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is applicable to this defendant, and our determination that the general rule relieving a person from liability for acts of an independent contractor is not available to the Carlson Company in this case, results in the conclusion that this point is without merit. It follows that the judgment against the Carlson Company should be affirmed. The judgment appealed from is affirmed in all respects. For affirmance as to all defendants  Chief Justice VANDERBILT, and Justices HEHER, WACHENFELD, BURLING and ACKERSON  5. For affirmance as to Busman & Rosen, Inc., and for reversal as to the other defendants  Justices CASE and OLIPHANT  2.