Greatway Roofing v. SCCI CA2/6

Filed 2/22/22 Greatway Roofing v. SCCI CA2/6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION SIX

GREATWAY ROOFING, INC., 2d Civ. No. B312872 (Super. Ct. No. 56-2019- Cross-complainant and 00531872-CU-PO-VTA) Appellant, (Ventura County)

v.

SCCI, INC. et al.,

Cross-defendants and Respondents.

The question here is whether cross-defendants are liable for injuries caused by a third party. The trial court granted cross-defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the ground that they did not increase the risk of injury and were not in a special relationship with cross-complainant or the third party who caused the injury. We affirm the judgment. FACTS Greatway Roofing, Inc. (Greatway) contracted to resurface the roof and remove air-conditioning equipment at a premises

owned by a non-party. The roof on the premises contained a number of skylights. Rod Menzel, the owner of Greatway, created a safety plan for work on the roof. Some of the skylights were covered with wood structures. The uncovered skylights were in a section marked off as “no access.” Alex Luna was an independent contractor working for SCCI, Inc. (SCCI). Greatway contracted with SCCI to provide safety instruction to its employees. On October 9, 2017, Luna was on the jobsite to conduct a workplace safety meeting for Greatway. The topic was slip and fall. Roof safety was not addressed. After the meeting Menzel asked Luna if he would accompany him to the roof so that Menzel could show him what he put in place as the safety plan for the project. Neither Luna nor SCCI were hired to review Greatway’ s safety plan. Luna voluntarily agreed to do so. Luna spent approximately 10 to 15 minutes on the roof. Menzel asked Luna, “What do you think of what we’ve done?” Luna replied, “You guys did a great job there.” Menzel believed Luna was referring to the overall safety plan for the roof. Ten days later, David Sciuk, an employee of an independent contractor hired by the property owner, was power- washing the roof. Sciuk tripped and fell through a skylight, suffering substantial injuries. Sciuk sued Greatway and Greatway settled by paying its policy limits. Greatway sued Luna and SCCI for indemnity to recover the amount of the settlement. The action was based on Luna’s statement, “You guys did a great job there.” Greatway did not allege breach of contract against Luna or SCCI.