Owner Supervision of Contractors - "You Missed a Spot"
It probably fair to say that residents in community associations have reputations for watching over contractors while they render services in communities' property. Contractors have been known to complain that "commandos" interfere with their ability to perform and, in some instances insist on participating to "help" the contractors. Whether an individual resident's motivation is to simply lend a hand to a fellow member of the human race or whether his motivation is to cure what he perceives to be inadequate work varies from situation to situation. A recent case decided by the Third District Court of Appeal (the appellate court that considers appeals for Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties) recently decided a case that might cause a homeowner to think twice about getting involved with a contractor while he is working on the property. The court ruled that a trial court's decision to deny relief to an individual who was injured while lending some assistance to a contractor who was working on his property was correct.
According to the court's opinion, Jose Barrocas had hired DirecTV to install a satellite dish system in Mr. Barrocas' house. While the DirecTV serviceman was in the attic, the serviceman asked Mr. Barrocas for a glass of water. Mr. Barrocas returned with the water, climbed up the ladder and, while reaching to give the serviceman the water, slipped and fell from the ladder. Mr. Barrocas sued the serviceman and DirecTV alleging negligence and seeking compensation for the injuries he sustained when he fell from the ladder.
The court held that, under the circumstances that were pled in the complaint, there was an absence of a legal relationship between Mr. Barrocas and DirecTV which would impose any duty of care upon DirecTV or its serviceman to protect Mr. Barrocas. The court identified a number of other circumstances in other cases where it could be reasonably argued that a property owner was rendering assistance to the contractor in such a manner that would impose liability upon the contractor if the owner sustained injury; however, the court indicated that each of the circumstances where liability was found to exist involved a situation where the homeowner was asked to assist the contractor in the performance of the work. In the DirecTV case, nothing was asked of the homeowner other than to provide the serviceman with a glass of water. The homeowner had no obligation to climb the ladder to provide the contractor with the refreshment and the contractor was held not to have had a sufficient relationship with the homeowner to impose any duty of care upon the contractor to make sure that the ladder was safe.
As I mentioned, whether or not a contractor would be responsible to a homeowner for damages sustained by the homeowner in the process of performing services will be based upon the specific factual circumstances of the case. The lesson to be taken from this case is that directors and individual homeowners in condominiums and homeowners associations should have minimal contact with contractors while the contractors are rendering services to the community or the individual owner's property.
