Court Opinion

ID: 9846472
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:41:55.164773+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:33.289004
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
On motion for rehearing, Allstate insists that our holding in the present case cannot be reconciled with Caruso v. Aetna Cas. &c. Co., 181 Ga. App. 829 (354 SE2d 18) (1987). In Caruso, the contractor categorically denied that there had been any contract between it and the insurer, and the only evidence offered by the insured to the contrary consisted of his own testimony that the insurer’s claims adjuster had recommended the contractor to him and that “when [the contractor’s president] contacted him and indicated that [the insurer] had authorized him to repair the roof, he understood that [the insurer] had hired [the contractor] for the job.” Id. at 830. Of course, the insured’s un*744derstanding in that case that the contractor had been hired by the insurer did not constitute evidence to that effect. Such evidence does, however, exist in the present case, in the form of the contractor’s undisputed testimony that Allstate had instructed him to proceed with the job subject to the Carters’ approval and to submit his repair estimates and bills directly to Allstate rather than to the Carters. While we recognize that the court stated in Caruso that the breach of contract theory of recovery asserted against the insurer by the insured had been “eviscerated by the fact that [the insurer was] not liable for the negligence of the independent contractor,” id. this statement must be considered mere dictum in light of the undisputed evidence that the insurer did not in fact have any contractual relationship with the contractor.
Decided October 30, 1990
Rehearings denied November 27, 1990
Mitchell, Coppedge, Wester, Bisson & Miller, Warren N. Coppedge, Jr., William F. Jourdain, for appellants.
Webb, Carlock, Copeland, Semler & Stair, Dennis J. Webb, E. Alan Miller, for appellee.
Allstate also questions on motion for rehearing how it could “be expected to comply with its policy contract and see to it that the repairs are performed in a skillful and workmanlike manner yet exercise no control over the time, manner and method or (sic) the performance of the work.” It is obviously possible to monitor an independent contractor’s performance without transforming him into an employee. “ ‘[M]erely taking steps to see that the contractor carries out his agreement, by supervision of the intermediate results obtained, or reserving the right of dismissal on grounds of incompetence, is not such interference and assumption of control as will render the employer liable. [Cits.]’ ” Slater v. Canal Wood Corp. of Augusta, 178 Ga. App. 877, 881 (345 SE2d 71) (1986). See also State of Ga. v. Goolsby, 191 Ga. App. 161, 163 (381 SE2d 299) (1989).

Motion for rehearing denied.