CONTRACTOR OWED A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF OVER AND ABOVE THE OBLIGATIONS IN THE CONTRACT BETWEEN THEM.
The Third Department determined defendant contractor owed a duty to plaintiff crane operator over and above any obligation running from a contract between them. The court further found there was a question of fact whether defendant was negligent in finding and setting up a staging area for the crane (the crane sank and fell into the pond):
In a case such as this one where the parties’ relationship stems from a contract, a “duty must spring from circumstances extraneous to, and not constituting elements of, the contract, although it may be connected with and dependent upon the contract” … . “In determining the scope of duty, courts examine, among other factors, whether the injury-producing occurrence is one that could have been anticipated” … . Whether a duty exists in the first instance is a question of law for the courts … .
Here, neither the price quote nor the work order — the documents embodying the contractual relationship between plaintiff and defendant — contained terms regarding site safety or the placement of cranes at the site. The record nonetheless reveals that Daniel Morin, defendant’s president, scouted an area by the pond where the dredging would take place in order to construct a “staging area” that was to be used for daily activities and access for construction equipment. Southern Tier Crane Servs., Inc. v Dakksco Pipeline Corp., 2017 NY Slip Op 02859, 3rd Dept 4-13-17
NEGLIGENCE (CONTRACTOR OWED A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF OVER AND ABOVE THE OBLIGATIONS IN THE CONTRACT BETWEEN THEM)/CONTRACT LAW (NEGLIGENCE, CONTRACTOR OWED A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF OVER AND ABOVE THE OBLIGATIONS IN THE CONTRACT BETWEEN THEM)