King v. Ashley
Filed 6/22/06 King v. Ashley CA4/3
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION THREE
| ALBERT KING et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. JOSH ASHLEY et al., Defendants and Respondents. | G035614 (Super. Ct. No. 04CC07807) O P I N I O N |
Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Clay M. Smith, Judge. Affirmed.
Mancini & Associates, Marcus A. Mancini and David A. Cohn; Benedon & Serlin, Douglas G. Benedon and Gerald M. Serlin for Plaintiffs and Appellants.
Klinedinst PC, G. Dale Britton, Kevin J. Gramling, and Christopher D. Holt for Defendants and Respondents.
* * *
An independent drywall contractor was injured when climbing down a ladder at a residential remodeling site. He and his wife filed suit against the homeowners for negligence and loss of consortium. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the homeowners.
On appeal, the contractor argues that there are triable issues of material fact as to whether the homeowners retained control over the safety conditions at the worksite and affirmatively contributed to his injuries by denying him the use of the existing staircase inside their home. We affirm the summary judgment. The homeowners made access available to the interior staircase by appointment, but no appointment was made for the date in question.
I
FACTS
In 2002, Josh Ashley (Ashley) and his wife Teri (the Ashleys) hired general contractor The Chambers Company to construct a second story room addition to their home in Newport Beach. Alan R. Chambers (Chambers) of The Chambers Company hired Albert King (King), a licensed independent contractor with over 30 years of drywall installation experience, to do the drywall portion of the project. At the time of hire, Chambers told King that he would have to use a ladder to access the house. Chambers provided the necessary ladder.
On October 2 or 3, 2002, King arrived at the property to clean up the work area. He inspected the ladder that Chambers had provided and found no problems with it. King placed the ladder against the garage, but did not secure it. As he was descending the ladder, while carrying a 25-pound bag of cement, the ladder slipped and King fell to the ground. He suffered a fractured pelvis, resulting in a one-week hospital stay.
King and his wife Bernadine (the Kings) filed a complaint against the Ashleys and The Chambers Company for negligence (premises liability) and loss of consortium. The Ashleys filed a motion for summary judgment. The court granted the motion on May 24, 2005 and a formal order was filed that date. On June 2, 2005, the Kings filed a notice of appeal from what they described as â€
