Legal Question in Personal Injury in New York
Duty of Property Owner to adjacent property
Adjacent property owner hired independent contractor (LLC) to harvest trees from his property without performing any background check to determine if the contractor was qualified. He gave the contractor a survey map and contractor then incorrectly marked the property lines and cut trees on my adjacent land.
The contractor was unqualified. They lacked experience, certifications, insurance/bonds and missed the property line by 200 feet.
I have NY case law that will hold the owner liable if they issue negligent instructions to the contractor (see Leger v Central Hudson Gas & Elec. Corp., 291 AD2d 603, 604 [2002]), and I reason that because the owner didn't investigate the qualifications of the contractor he wouldn't have been able to determine reasonable instructions. Furthermore, that by providing only a survey map to an unqualified contractor is also negligent instructions.
I can not find additional case law to support this contention.
There are no property line disputes.
Is the owner liable for damages by hiring and not properly instructing an unqualified contractor to remove trees?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Duty of Property Owner to adjacent property
A party who retains an independent contractor is generally not held liable for the negligence of an independent contractor. Exceptions to this rule exist where the employer is negligent in selecting, instructing or supervising the contractor, where the contractor is employed to do work that is inherently dangerous or where the employer bears a specific nondelegable duty.
Unfortunately, the short answer to your question, "is the owner liable?" is "maybe." Any attorney would need to do a thorough investigation before providing you with a more definitive answer.
Hope this helps.
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