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Be careful out there: You may be liable for a contractor's employee's injuries

March 2020 employment law letter
Authors: 
Judith Droz Keyes, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

After Dynamex and Assembly Bill 5, the use of independent contractors has come under strict scrutiny in California. One of the situations that remains lawful involves business-to-business contracting arrangements—i.e., when one company (the "hirer") contracts with another company (the "contractor") to perform certain services. A common example of a business-to-business arrangement is when a hirer contracts with a catering company to provide food service to its employees or with a janitorial company to clean its offices. Another example common in the agricultural industry is when growers hire contractors to box and ship their products.

But what happens when a contractor's employee is injured on the hirer's worksite or as a consequence of obeying the instructions of one of the hirer's employees? The injured worker will be covered by the contractor's workers' compensation insurance, but will the hirer be on the hook as well? That question was recently addressed by a California Court of Appeal.

Contractor's employee injured on hirer's premises

Sun Pacific grows mandarins in Ventura County and hires independent contractors to deliver empty bins to the orchard, pick the fruit, and deliver full bins to the packing house. Navarro Trucking is one of its contractors. Jesus Alaniz was a truck driver employed by Navarro. J. Antonio Rosa Lule is another Sun Pacific contractor. Roberto Reynosa was employed as a forklift driver by Lule.

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