Court Opinion

ID: 9513212
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:32:52.295679+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:46.669913
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Chief Justice,
concurring specially.
I reluctantly concur in the result. The majority analyzes our long-standing master-servant law recognizing the employer’s non-delegable duty to provide' the employee with a safe workplace and safe equipment. This enduring principle was most probably deemed necessary for the protection of the employee in 1882. Its viability as protection for the employee today is questionable. It seems to me the better action in today’s *595world of complex machines and equipment is to encourage the employer to contract with the specialists to do the technical work rather than to encourage the employer to attempt to install, modify, or repair equipment about which the employer may not know enough to protect the employee.
But the incentive to spend the money to contract with the specialist is' at least diminished if the employer remains liable for the acts of the contractor when, notwithstanding the employer’s best efforts to protect the employee by seeking the services of the expert, the employee is injured and the employer is held liable because the duty to provide a safe workplace and safe equipment is nondel-egable. The temptation, it seems to me, is for the employer to do the installation, modification, or repair and save the cost of hiring the specialist because the employer is liable in any event if there is an injury to an employee as a result of the installation, modification, or repair.
This rationale is discussed, in another context, in Fleck v. ANG Coal Gasification Co., 522 N.W.2d 445, 452 (N.D.1994) where we considered the application of Sections 416 and 427 of the Restatement of Torts, providing exceptions to the general rule of employer non-liability for the acts of an independent contractor. After noting the vast majority of jurisdictions which have considered the issue hold that employers of independent contractors .are not vicariously liable to the employees of the independent contractor under the Sections 416 and 427 of the Restatement of Torts, we quoted with approval Wagner v. Continental Casualty Co., 143 Wis.2d 379, 421 N.W.2d 835, 842 (1988):
“ ‘If the principal employer incurs tort liability when he hires an independent contractor, the principal employer would, for reasons of cost, prefer to use his own employees, who may be inexperienced, rather than employ an independent contractor skilled in the task. Thus, several courts conclude that to impose tort liability on the principal employer would have unfavorable consequences to the principal employer, the independent contractor, the employees and the public.’ ”
■ Noting that the majority rule “encourages the hiring of trained professionals with special expertise to perform work that is inherently dangerous or encompasses a peculiar risk[] better promotes the dual policy concerns of safety to the general public and safety to those performing the work....” Fleck, 522 N.W.2d at 452, we quoted with approval from the decision in Zueck v. Oppenheimer Gateway Properties, Inc., 809 S.W.2d 384, 387-388 (Mo.1991):
“ ‘Independent contractors are frequently, if not usually, hired because the landowner is aware of his own lack of expertise and seeks to have the work performed as safely and efficiently as possible by hiring those possessing the expertise he laeks^
“‘If the landowner chooses to avoid the additional liability imposed by the inherently dangerous exception, he may choose to direct his own employees to do the work despite his and their lack of expertise. That simple choice limits the landowner’s exposure to that provided under worker’s compensation. But that choice also increases the risk of injury to the employees and to innocent third parties.
“ ‘The anomaly is apparent now. By permitting employees of independent contractors to invoke the inherently dangerous doctrine, the law takes the distorted position of (1) rewarding landowners who, despite their own lack of expertise, choose to perform work negligently resulting in injury to workers, (2) increasing risks to innocent third parties and (3) punishing landowners who seek expert assistance in an effort to avoid liability for injury!’ ”
It seems to me a comparable rationale is applicable here. If the employer remains liable for the specialist’s act, even when the employer is not negligent in the hiring, the employer is encouraged to save the cost and do the work in-house, to the detriment of the employee and the public. I suggest it is time we reconsider the master-servant law relied on by the majority. But, the issue was not briefed nor argued in this ease and we should reconsider only after full briefing and argu*596ment. I therefore concur in the result in this ease.