Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Advice needed. business/accident

This question really involves the tort of negligence rather than business law, and you would get more and better answers if you re-asked it under said headings on LawGuru, but here's a business lawyer's best guess:

If you were negligent, you are liable.

The owner of the company and/or the company may be liable to the performer on one or more theories: "respondeat superior" or negligent supervision (or the like).

"Respondeat superior" is legal Latin for "the superior shall respond" and that expression is further translated to mean the employer is responsible for the negligent torts of the employee; i.e. when a UPS truck collides with you, you don't sue the driver, you sue UPS (and maybe the driver too, for good measure, but you expect to recover from the company or its insurance comapny).

The fact that you are an independent contractor rather than an employee will, in my opinion, make little difference. I could be wrong.

In any event, even under respondeat superior, the employer can in theory recover from the employee if the employer is held responsible.

Finally, you might take a look at your contract to see if it contains any provisions regarding liability for negligence-caused accidents of this kind.

Re: Advice needed. business/accident

You.