Business & Insurance Litigation Newsletter for Indiana

Defense Tip: Contractor Defenses

Indiana courts have consistently recognized that based on a consideration of public policy and the relationship between a contractor and the employees of other contractors on a construction project site, contractors have a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent the foreseeable harm to the employees of other contractors. Woods v. Qual-Craft Industries, Inc., 648 N.E.2d 1198 (Ind. Ct. App. 1995). However, contractors have had success in obtaining summary judgment on the grounds that the specific injury in a case was not, as a matter of law, foreseeable. For example, see Woods, 648 N.E.2d 1198 (no duty because injury to worker falling on debris left on the project work site by subcontractor not reasonably foreseeable given intervening collapse of scaffolding); Collins vs. J.A. House, Inc., 705 N.E.2d 568 (Ind. Ct. App. 1999) (no duty where risk of worker falling on concrete slab left by subcontractor not reasonably foreseeable).