Opinion ID: 852780
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Due Precaution

Text: Roberts contends that PSI could have been found liable for his injuries under the due precaution exception to the general rule of non-liability for acts of independent contractors. Sometimes referred to as the peculiar risk doctrine, this exception imposes liability on a principal where the act to be performed will probably cause injury to others unless due precaution is taken. Carie, 715 N.E.2d at 856; Bagley, 658 N.E.2d at 586. This exception requires that, at the time of engaging the contractor, the principal should have foreseen that the performance of the work or the conditions under which it was to be performed would, absent precautionary measures, probably cause injury. Carie, 715 N.E.2d at 856; McDaniel, 709 N.E.2d at 22. Application of this exception therefore depends on the probability of injury from the risk and its foreseeability by the principal. This doctrine does not render the principal liable for the contractor's failure to take normal precautions incident to the activity to be carried out. Thus, a homeowner has no liability for an electrician's failure to take the normal precaution of breaking a circuit before touching the wiring. The McDaniel court explained, the exception applies only when the risk involved is something more than the routine and predictable hazards generally associated with a given occupation: it must be a risk unique to the circumstances of a given job. 709 N.E.2d at 22. It is not concerned with taking routine precautions, of a kind which any careful contractor could reasonably be expected to take, against all of the ordinary and customary dangers which may arise in the course of the contemplated work. Such precautions are the responsibility of the contractor. Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 413 cmt. b. The trial court instructed, the law imposes a duty on a landowner [read principal] if the work to be performed will probably cause injury to others unless due precautions are taken to avoid harm. The essence of this exception is the foreseeability of both the peculiar risk involved in the work and the need for special precautions. For purposes of this exception, the phrase `peculiar risk' refers to the risk of a particularized harm specific to the work being performed or the conditions under which it is performed. Moreover, the exception applies only when the risk involved is something more than the routine and predictable hazards generally associated with a given occupation: it must be a risk unique to the circumstances of a given job. PSI argues that exposure to asbestos materials at PSI job sites did not present a peculiar risk to an asbestos worker who worked with and around asbestos materials on a daily basis in the normal course of his trade. PSI points out that mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases are much more common in asbestos workers than in the general population. PSI contends these disorders are therefore routine and predictable hazards of asbestos insulation work. Roberts counters that mesothelioma has a very long latency period and Roberts did not know the danger at the time, so the danger in working with asbestos was neither routine nor predictable. Roberts's claim thus seeks to embrace the unforeseeability of the risk and at the same time attribute to PSI liability for failing to foresee it. We think that absent unusual circumstances at a given workplace, industry standards are applicable measures of the routine precautions that are the responsibility of the contractor, and injuries or disorders that are usual to a given occupation are not within the due precaution exception. McDaniel, 709 N.E.2d at 23. Roberts argues that even if unusual risk is required, PSI meets that test because his exposure to asbestos was more severe at PSI sites than at other jobsites and therefore working at PSI created a peculiar risk. PSI counters that there is no evidence that working at PSI involved risks unique or distinguishable from the general risk Roberts faced on a daily basis in the normal course of his profession. Roberts did the majority of his work on PSI property. He points to the duration, intensity, and volume of asbestos at PSI as unique, and argues that the high heat at PSI caused him not to wear a mask. He also points to evidence that PSI's workers kicked up dust, and that the asbestos insulation at PSI was in worse condition than that at other locations. We do not believe these facts establish that PSI created unusual risks as applied to an insulator. They establish at most a higher incidence of qualitatively identical hazards. And it is clear that working with any level of asbestos can be associated with mesothelioma. As we recently observed the normal, expected use of asbestos products entails contact with its migrating and potentially harmful residue. Stegemoller v. ACandS, Inc., 767 N.E.2d 974, 976 (Ind.2002). In sum, the record is undisputed that wherever Roberts may have worked as an insulation contractor, the risk was the same  that of breathing asbestos fibers and contracting mesothelioma. At most, PSI created a quantitatively higher risk, but not a risk unique to PSI, and not a risk requiring qualitatively different precautions from those generally associated with asbestos.