Court Opinion

ID: 9698118
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:42:23.035424+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:38.484378
License: Public Domain

PORTER, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent and would hold that the plaintiff contractor, as a matter of law, assumed the risk. Since he was the expert and the homeowner was not, plaintiff had no right to claim reliance upon any representation the homeowner made to him concerning the safety of the canopy, when the limited observation plaintiff chose to make revealed the canopy condition was “dangerous” and “unsafe.” Thereafter, in spite of his own conceded misgivings about the canopy, plaintiff voluntarily placed his scaffolding in such position that his own safety would be jeopardized if the loosened canopy fell, as it later did. Plaintiff independent contractor knowingly acquiesced in the risk by electing to go ahead with the work in the manner he did. Bartlett v. Gregg, 77 S.D. 406, 92 N.W.2d 654 (1958); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 496 C at 569 (1965).