High Court Declines to Expand Privette Doctrine

California’s Supreme Court said it would not create a third exemption to the so-called Privette doctrine that would expose to liability a party hiring an independent contractor for known hazards for which the contractor is unable to adopt reasonable safety precautions. “We conclude that, under Privette, a landowner presumptively delegates to an independent contractor all responsibility for workplace safety, including the responsibility to ensure that the work can be performed safely despite a known hazard on the work site,” the high court’s decision in Gonzalez v. Math...