Opinion ID: 2389955
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Duty: Right of Control

Text: Read's pleadings allege that Kirby has a duty to take reasonable precautions to minimize the risk to its customers from coming into contact with Kirby dealers who have criminal and/or psychiatric records. Kirby and some of the amici curiae characterize Read's pleadings and arguments as seeking to impose vicarious liability on a general contractor for the torts of an independent contractor or as seeking to establish a master-servant relationship between Kirby and Carter. However, we understand Read's position to be that Kirby was negligent through its own conduct of creating an in-home marketing system without adequate safeguards to eliminate dangerous salespersons from its sales force. The duty is not based on a notion of vicarious liability, but upon the premise that Kirby is responsible for its own actions. In Redinger v. Living, Inc., 689 S.W.2d 415 (Tex.1985), we held that a general contractor, like Kirby, has a duty to exercise reasonably the control it retains over the independent contractor's work. Here, by requiring its distributors to sell vacuum cleaners only through in-home demonstration, Kirby has retained control of that portion of the distributor's work. Kirby must therefore exercise this retained control reasonably. In concluding that Kirby must act reasonably, we require no more and no less than is required of other general contractors in similar situations. See Redinger, 689 S.W.2d at 418. We recognized the direct liability of a general contractor for failure to reasonably exercise the control it retained over an independent contractor when we adopted Section 414 of the Restatement (2d) of Torts. Id. Through its contract with Sena, Kirby retains control of specific details of the work by requiring the in-home sales of its vacuum cleaners. Kirby argues that it owes no duty because it has successfully divorced itself from the independent dealers. Kirby notes that it has no contract with the dealers, only with the distributors. Moreover, Kirby's contract with its distributors provides that: [Kirby] shall exercise no control over the selection of Distributor's... Dealers.... The full cost and responsibility for recruiting, hiring, firing, terminating and compensating independent contractors and employees of Distributor shall be borne by Distributor. Kirby also relies heavily on the fact that Read stipulated that Carter was an independent contractor. The stipulation provided that [a]n independent contractor is a person who, in pursuit of an independent business, undertakes to do specific work for another person, using his own means and methods without submitting himself to the control of such other persons with respect to the details of the work, and who represents the will of such other person only as to the result of his work and not as to the means by which it is accomplished. We do not question Carter's status as an independent contractor, but this status is not a defense to Read's claim. As previously noted, it is undisputed that Kirby directed its distributors that its Kirby vacuum cleaners be marketed solely through in-home demonstration. It was Kirby's retention of control over this detail that gave rise to the duty to exercise that control reasonably. That Kirby's agreement with the distributors allowed the distributors to independently contract with dealers does not excuse Kirby from the duty to act reasonably with regard to the detailrequired in-home salesover which it did retain control. See Exxon Corp. v. Tidwell, 867 S.W.2d 19, 23 (Tex.1993) (noting that in determining whether duty exists in retained control case, focus is on whether retained control was specifically related to alleged injury). Finally, Kirby (and various amici curiae) argues that if Kirby has a duty in this case, all companies or individuals that employ independent contractors will be subject to the same duty. As we noted earlier, Kirby misunderstands the claim Read is making. Read merely asserts that Kirby, having retained control over vacuum cleaner sales by requiring in-home demonstrations, has a duty to exercise its control reasonably. This is a well-established duty. See Clayton W. Williams, Jr., Inc. v. Olivo, 952 S.W.2d 523, 528 (Tex.1997); Exxon Corp., 867 S.W.2d at 23; Redinger, 689 S.W.2d at 418; RESTATEMENT (SECOND) of Torts § 414 (1965). [1] Because Kirby did in fact retain control by requiring in-home sales, Kirby had a duty to exercise that retained control reasonably. It has also been suggested that two other cases support the position that Kirby owed no duty in this case. In Golden Spread Council, Inc. v. Akins, 926 S.W.2d 287, 290 (Tex.1996), we held that the Boy Scouts of America owed no duty to screen the criminal history of adult volunteers. In Greater Houston Transportation Co. v. Phillips, 801 S.W.2d 523, 527 (Tex.1990), we held that a cab company owed no special duty to admonish its cab drivers not to carry guns. These cases are inapposite. Neither involved any issue of retained control over specific aspects of the details of the work performed by an independent contractor. See Golden Spread Council, 926 S.W.2d at 290; Phillips, 801 S.W.2d at 526. Rather, we decided both cases solely on a straightforward common-law duty analysis, balancing the risk, forseeability, and likelihood of injury against the social utility of the actor's conduct, the magnitude of the burden of guarding against the injury, and the consequences of placing the burden on the defendant. See Golden Spread Council, 926 S.W.2d at 289-90; Phillips, 801 S.W.2d at 525. By contrast, today's holding is premised on the duty emanating from Kirby's retained control over the details of the work. This duty derives solely from the retained control, not from any balancing analysis. See Redinger, 689 S.W.2d at 418.