Issue: Under Nebraska Law Whether a Corporation Retained Enough Control to Implement Whatever Safety Precautions It Deemed Necessary, Including Requiring Independent Contractors to Comply with OSHA Regulations on a Construction Site.
| Area of Law: | Construction Law, Personal Injury & Negligence |
| Keywords: | Duty to provide a safe worksite; Possession and control of a worksite; Liability for negligence |
| Jurisdiction: | Nebraska |
| Cited Cases: | None |
| Cited Statutes: | Restatement (Second) of Torts § 416 |
| Date: | 07/01/2001 |
Nebraska law provides that an employer of an independent contractor faces vicarious liability for the contractor’s negligence if the employer was under a duty imposed by a statute or other rule of law. Parrish v. Omaha Pub. Power Dist., 496 N.W.2d at 911 (Neb. 1993). When the owner or general contractor maintains possession and control of a worksite, it retains the duty to provide all employees on the site with a safe place to work. Id. That duty includes the duty to implement safety precautions and to require independent contractors to comply with applicable statutes and regulations. Id. The Torts Restatement addresses this exception to the general rule of nonliability, as well.
One who employs an independent contractor to do work which the employer should recognize as likely to create during its progress a peculiar risk of harm to others unless special precautions are taken, is subject to liability for physical harm caused to them by the failure of the contractor to exercise reasonable care to take such precautions, even though the employer has provided for such precautions in the contract or otherwise.
Restatement (Second) of Torts § 416 (1965). Indeed, the Parrish court stated that it was the general contractor’s business to take reasonable steps to guard against observable, avoidable dangers in common work areas that create a high degree of risk to a significant number of workers.
As expressed in Restatement (Second) of Torts § 416 (1965), if a general contractor hires an independent […]
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