IVERSEN v. CALIFORNIA VILLAGE HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION
Defendant and respondent California Village Homeowner's Association (California Village) hired plaintiff and appellant Kurt Iversen (Iversen), an independent contractor, to service air conditioner units on the roofs of several of the buildings at its Tarzana, California condominium complex. Iversen fell from a ladder attached to one of those buildings and brought an action against California Village alleging theories of premises liability and negligence for injuries sustained in the fall. Iversen alleged negligence per se because the ladder was not equipped with the safety mechanism provided for by California Occupational Safety and Health Act (Lab. Code, § 6300 et seq.[1]) (Cal-OSHA) regulations. California Village moved for summary judgment, inter alia, on the ground that Iversen could not rely on Cal-OSHA to support a negligence action because he was an independent contractor and not California Village's employee. The trial court granted California Village's summary judgment motion.
On appeal, Iversen contends that he can use Cal-OSHA regulations to establish negligence per se because those regulations do not apply just to employees. We hold that the Cal-OSHA regulations do not apply to an independent contractor and that Iversen cannot use those provisions to establish negligence per se or negligence in this case. We therefore affirm the judgment.
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