Opinion ID: 2328266
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Negligent Hiring or Retention.

Text: In Count III of his complaint, Fry, Jr. alleged that Diamond failed to ensure that Arlyn was competent to conduct safely the work it was hired to perform. The trial judge did not address this allegation. There is little, if any, basis in this record for finding that Diamond was negligent in initially retaining Arlyn. It is undisputed that Barnas had worked successfully with Fry, Sr. on previous occasions, albeit on projects which did not require painting at heights of thirty-two feet. As the court explained in Sievers v. McClure, 746 P.2d 885 (Alaska 1987), it is unreasonable to expect the employer to make specific inquiries into the many details of the projects, and the safety procedures for each, when the employer has been reasonably assured of the contractor's general reputation for, and past history of, safety and competent work. Id. at 891. [9] [A] contractor's negligence in conducting the work it was hired to do creates no presumption that the employer was negligent in selecting the contractor.... One incident of poor judgment does not prove incompetence. Sullivan v. St. Louis Station Assocs., 770 S.W.2d 352, 356 (Mo.App. 1989) (citations omitted). In this area of the law, as in others, courts must make every effort to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2065, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). But an employer has the legal duty to use ordinary care so as not to employ or retain an independent contractor-carrier it knew or should have known was ... negligent in performing the contract. Jones v. Southwestern Newspapers Corp., 694 S.W.2d 455, 458 (Tex.App.1985) (emphasis added). Crediting, as we must for present purposes, Fry, Sr.'s deposition testimony that he told Barnas that he was using a procedure known by Barnas to be dangerous, we conclude that Barnas was in duty bound to investigate whether [Arlyn] in fact was competent and properly equipped to continue in the work and to take steps to avert any existing peril if [Arlyn] were not competent, or improperly equipped to carry on the work. Kuhn v. P.J. Carlin Constr. Co., 154 Misc. 892, 278 N.Y.S. 635, 644 (Supreme Ct.Bronx Co.1935). A genuine issue of material fact was thus presented as to whether Diamond was negligent in continuing to use Arlyn as its subcontractor after the scaffolding and ladder arrangement had been brought to Barnas' attention.