Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

This is a premise liability question concerning a slip & fall. We lease a building in a strip mall to a tenant who runs a grocery store/market. We hired a subcontractor/indep. contractor to put stucco on outside of building. The tenant has vendors near the entrance of the store selling burritos, propane, etc. Subcontractor puts down visquine or plastic sheeting to do the work (stucco) and a customer/patron of the grocery store slips & falls on the plastic as she is entering the building. The leased area descripition re: common area is somewhat vague. Who has liability for the slip & fall if the area is seemingly "controlled" by the tenant? Thank you in advance for your response.


Asked on 10/07/09, 6:51 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Shers Law Offices of Georges H. Shers

If there was negligence as to the incident, the subcontractor has the basic liability because his work is what casued the inujury to occur. There may also be a duty the store owner has to be sure that that work was done in a way so as not to injury his customers if he in fact controls the area in which she fell. As the owner of the property and as the person who hired the subcontractor, you also have liability unless you can show you had no control over the work being done. The normal situation will involve the injured party making a claim against all three of you, the three insurance carriers looking at what the contracts state about holding whom harmless for accidents, and then one of them trying to resolve the case. The carrier for the subcontractor will likely take the lead but if the matter is not settled all three of you will be named as defendants.

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Answered on 10/07/09, 7:36 pm


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