Opinion ID: 2099999
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: subcontractor defense.

Text: The Cabinet's first defense in Babbitt was premised upon KRS 44.073(15), which provides: Neither the Commonwealth nor any of its cabinets, departments, bureaus, or agencies or any officers, agents, or employees thereof shall be liable under a respondeat superior theory or any other similar theory for the acts of independent contractors, contractors, or subcontractors thereof or anyone else doing work or providing services for the state on a volunteer basis or pursuant to a contract therewith. That may very well have been a valid defense to the claim pertaining to the absence of rumble strips, because there was evidence that Allen Company had paved over the 310 feet of missing strips. However, the Cabinet's witnesses admitted that it was the duty of the Cabinet, not Allen Company, to repaint the right edge line between the right southbound lane and the paved shoulder. The Board made no findings with respect to either of these claims of negligence. The Cabinet's contract with Allen Company did not call for the erection of a guardrail between the shoulder of the road and the ditch adjacent to the rough-cut rock wall. The Cabinet's defense to this issue was that its failure to erect a guardrail at that location did not constitute negligence. As noted earlier, the Board found both ways on this issue.