Opinion ID: 749601
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Duty as Landowner

Text: 27 An employee of an independent contractor enjoys the status of an invitee of the owner of the premises on which he is working. Bozung, 711 P.2d at 3093 (citing Greenleaf v. Puget Sound Bridge & Dredging Co., 364 P.2d 796 (Wash.1961)). A landowner.is liable to an invitee if he or she breaches his or her duty to keep the premises under his control reasonably safe and to warn of dangers which are not obvious, but has no liability for the negligence of the independent contractor. Phillips, 875 P.2d at 1234 (quoting Lamborn v. Phillips Pac. Chem. Co., 575 P.2d 215 (Wash.1978)) (internal quotation marks omitted). 28 We agree with the government that it fulfilled its duties as a landowner as to Weimer. The government required DeRuwe to follow the safety manual and shut down the main pump, thereby eliminating the possibility that the dust caps would explode upward with the force of the water. If the operations manual is followed, the undrilled dust caps, by themselves, present no latent danger. Weimer admits that had that procedure been followed, the accident would have been prevented. 29 There is also uncontroverted evidence that Weimer was on notice that there was a problem with the particular riser head with which he was working. He testified in deposition that when he tried to remove the dust cap the coupler would not move, and that he had never encountered a coupler that would not move. Because the dust cap was still attached to the riser head, he was also on notice that the sprinkler head with which he was working had not yet been de-winterized for the season. Finally, Weimer admitted that he was aware that the prudent thing to do when confronted with this unusual situation was to shut down the entire system until the problem was identified.