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Cashwell v. Fincher11/22/2005
t the cases in Mississippi dealing with an independent contractor being injured on the premises of one with whom he has contracted are distinguishable from his situation. Cashwell argues that those cases, which preclude the independent contractor's recovery, all revolve around the independent contractor being in control of the premises and working within his area of special expertise. Cashwell argues that, in this situation, Fincher was at all pertinent times completely in control of the premises. Furthermore, Cashwell argues, and it is undisputed, that his area of expertise is only in conventional television sets, and that he never works on large screen sets. As such, Cashwell argues that summary judgment was inappropriate.
. Under the theory of premises liability, "the duty owed by a premises owner or occupier to a business invitee . . . is that duty to exercise reasonable or ordinary care to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition." Id. at 782. Furthermore, "the owner/occupier is not an insurer of the invitee's safety, and he is not liable for injuries which are not dangerous or which are, or should be known to the business invitee." Id. With respect to independent contractors, a variation on the general premises liability rules is that the owner/occupier has no duty to protect them from dangers "arising from or intimately connected with" defects on the premises, or machinery or appliances on the premises which the independent contractor has undertaken to repair. Jackson Ready-Mix Concrete v. Sexton, 235 So. 2d 267, 270 (Miss. 1970). However, the lynchpin in determining whether the owner/occupier of the premises "is absolved of liability [due to the injured party's status as an independent contractor] is whether it maintains any right of control over the performance of that aspect of work which gave rise to the injury ." Magee v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp., 551 So. 2d 182, 186 (Miss. 1982). Cashwell was undisputedly working as an independent contractor for Fincher at the time he was injured. However, that fact alone does not mean that Fincher is absolved of liability, as he clearly exercised control over the premises and the particular task at the time Cashwell was injured. Nevertheless, while Cashwell is correct in his assertion that Fincher may not benefit from the "independent contractor exception" to the general rules of premises liability, that does not mean that Fincher is automatically liable for his injury. It simply means that the ordinary rules of premises liability (i.e., the duty of an owner/occupier to a business invitee) apply.
. Despite the fact that Cashwell's area of expertise was in working on conventional televisions, it is difficult to conceive that Cashwell did not understand and appreciate that large screen televisions were significantly heavier than conventional sets. Furthermore, the agency from which Cashwell received his injury was the lifting of the television rather than any unusually dangerous "condition" posed by the television itself. As such, while we find that the "independent contractor exception" does not apply to absolve Fincher of liability, we nevertheless hold that the trial court was not in error in granting Fincher's motion for summary judgment. For the above reasoning, we affirm.
. THE JUDGMENT OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF HARRISON COUNTY IS AFFIRMED. ALL COSTS OF THIS APPEAL ARE ASSESSED TO THE APPELLANT.
KING, C.J., LEE AND MYERS, P.JJ., BRIDGES, IRVING, CHANDLER, GRIFFIS AND BARNES, JJ., CONCUR.
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