The Second District Court of Appeal says the Privette Doctrine did not bar a wrongful death claim by the family of a truck mechanic who was killed on the job. The decision upholds the jury’s award of $1,042,000 to the worker’s wife and son but denies the plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial to seek …
Bruce Kelly filed a lawsuit against Westfield Topanga Owner LLC, which owned the shopping mall where he was injured, and CSI Electrical Contractors. Kelly was installing cable in the ceiling of the building when he fell from a 12-foot ladder and sustained an injury. At the time, Kelly worked for Communication Technology Services, LLC (CTS), …
A company on the wrong end of a $100 million jury award for negligence in a worker’s death will get a new trial. The Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that the jury should have considered whether the Privette Doctrine applied to the case. The court of appeal rejected the lower court’s assertion that Privette …
California’s Supreme Court established the Privette Doctrine in the early 1990s to protect third parties—homeowners, businesses, and other hirers of independent contractors or businesses—from liability for injuries that employees of these contracted entities sustain. Privette holds that the workers’ compensation exclusivity protections extend to the hiring entity in part because their payments under the contract …