Opinion ID: 2186830
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Restatement (Second) of Torts Sections 413, 416, 427.

Text: We are concerned here with the issue whether the defendant contractor, in these circumstances, owed a duty to the plaintiff, an employee of an independent contractor. This is a legal question. Lunde v. Winnebago Industries, Inc., 299 N.W.2d 473, 475 (Iowa 1980). It is undisputed that the issue was properly raised and preserved by Gilbert's trial motions, exceptions, and objections. Sections 413, 416, and 427 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts were set out in Giarratano v. Weitz Co., 259 Iowa 1292, 1307, 147 N.W.2d 824, 833 (1967), and Porter v. Iowa Power and Light Co., 217 N.W.2d 221, 232 (Iowa 1974), and will not be repeated here. Nor will we reiterate the extensive analysis of these sections found in Lunde, 299 N.W.2d at 475-79, a decision filed after the trial in this case. We start from the general rule that ordinarily the employer (here, the prime contractor) of an independent contractor (here, a subcontractor) is not liable for injuries arising out of the latter's negligence. Lunde, 299 N.W.2d at 475; Restatement (Second) of Torts § 409 (1965); W. Prosser, Law of Torts § 71, at 468-69 (4th ed. 1971). This common-law concept is subject to many exceptions, including the sections 413, 416, and 427 situations in which an employer may be vicariously liable to others [1] when an independent contractor is hired to do work that is specially, peculiarly, or inherently dangerous. Restatement (Second), supra, §§ 413, 416, 427; see id. § 409, Comment (b), at 371. But an exception to these exceptions is still another general rule that ordinarily mine-run building projects are not covered by the peculiar risk doctrine. Lunde, 299 N.W.2d at 477; 41 Am.Jur.2d Independent Contractors § 43 (1968). Although the record is clear that Midwest usually provided, and billed for, any scaffolding or safety devices required, the oral time-and-materials contract between Gilbert and this subcontractor did not require the latter to take safety precautions. Thus, the relevant Restatement sections are 413 and 427; section 416 does not apply when the employer does not require precautions in the contract or otherwise. Restatement (Second), supra, § 416, Comment c. Liability under section 413 requires the work to be of such a nature that the employer should recognize [it] as likely to create, during its progress, a peculiar unreasonable risk of physical harm to others unless special precautions are taken. Id. § 413. We have said, with reference to sections 416 and 427, that the required danger must be inherent in the work when properly done, and that the danger is not inherent unless it attends the normal and usual method of doing the work. Lunde, 299 N.W.2d at 476 (quoting Restatement (Second), supra, § 416, Comment e); Porter, 217 N.W.2d at 233 (construing Restatement (Second), supra, §§ 416, 427). The peculiar risk exception is not concerned with the taking of routine precautions, of a kind which any careful contractor could reasonably be expected to take, against all the ordinary and customary dangers which may arise in the course of the contemplated work. Restatement (Second), supra, § 413, Comment b (emphasis added). In Lunde we recognized that the element of foreseeability must be present to allow recovery; the danger or risk must be foreseeable by the employer in the normal conduct of the operation. 299 N.W.2d at 476 (quoting Smith, Collateral Negligence, 25 Minn.L. Rev. 399, 428 (1941)). Examining this record in the light most favorable to plaintiff, we find no evidence that this risk, in the normal conduct of the work, was foreseeable by Gilbert. The night before this accident Gilbert had covered the flat portion of the roof and a twelve-inch overlap with canvas. The result was a dry working area. Several experts, including plaintiff's superintendent, testified a workmanlike and normal manner in which to cover the crack in the slanting portion of the mansard roof would be to hold down the tar paper by lying or kneeling on it on the flat surface, and then lapping it over and nailing it down about twelve inches below the edge. Midwest's superintendent Drew had so instructed the foreman Olson and expected him to convey the order to plaintiff. Plaintiff testified he thought it was important to keep himself on the flat surface of the roof because it's not very hard to slip on plywood decking, especially that's on a slope, but a strong wind prompted him to go over the side to better hold down his end of the base sheet. Gilbert's employee on the job, Hugo, testified he was surprised when he observed plaintiff had gone over the edge and tried to warn him not to do so. Drew, responding to generalized questions on cross-examination, testified a worker might go down on an adjoining pitched roof to nail an eighteen-inch overlap, if it isn't too steep. Hugo responded in a similar vein. However, these questions addressed a hypothetical situation in which nails were to be inserted eighteen inches below the flat surface. Here the nailing was required below a crack only eight to ten inches from the flat surface. When plaintiff fell, Olson was kneeling on the other end of the base sheet strip on the flat surface and nailing about ten inches down on the mansard. Plaintiff asserts a strong wind required his bizarre maneuver, but we cannot conceive that a determination whether construction work is likely to create a peculiar unreasonable risk should turn on the hour-to-hour force and direction of the wind. To be an inherently dangerous activity, the danger must inhere in the activity itself at all times, whether or not carefully performed. Rodriques v. Elizabethtown Gas Co., 104 N.J.Super. 436, 445, 250 A.2d 408, 413 (1969) (emphasis added). Gusts of wind do not rise to a section 413 peculiar risk, but require routine precautions, of a kind which any careful contractor could reasonably be expected to take. Restatement (Second), supra, § 413, Comment b. Plaintiff assigns importance to the fact that later in the day Midwest's workers used toeboards to descend the slanting roof areas to cover another crack that was four feet below the top crack. But plaintiff admittedly was not engaged in that activity when he fell, and he testified he had not then seen the lower crack. On its facts this case is controlled by Lunde and not Giarratano. Nothing in this record persuades us this work was so inherently dangerous that, as a matter of public policy, we should declare it nondelegable and allow a jury to consider Gilbert's vicarious liability. The issue of Gilbert's liability under this doctrine was submitted erroneously to the jury. Insofar as it affirms trial court's rulings in this respect, the Court of Appeals decision must be vacated. This holding makes it unnecessary to analyze Gilbert's claim that a collateral negligence issue was raised. [2]