Eliminating Liability For Subcontractor Employee Injuries In California

‘Go back to work.’ Those words from the general contractor precipitated the subcontractor employee’s injury. Still, the general contractor was not liable.

In a win for the construction industry, the Court of Appeal ruled in August 2022 that the Privette Doctrine barred subcontractor employees’ injury claims against general contractors.

The Privette Doctrine is great for property owners, but, until now, it left general contractors in purgatory. The doctrine holds that the owner of property is not liable for injuries to a hired party’s employee. That is true even if the property owner created the condition that caused the injury.

The theory is that, as the hirer, the property owner has delegated all safety to the company doing the work. That makes imminent sense. Still, how Privette applied to a contractor-subcontractor relationship was murky until McCullar v. SMC Contracting (2022) 83 Cal. App 5th 197.

Before going too far, we must discuss the term ‘general contractor.’ While it can refer to a construction company that self-performs most or all its work, it also can refer to a company that just manages the construction or anything in between. The problem for the general contractor arises when its subcontractor’s employee is hurt onsite.