The Court of Appeals of Maryland on Monday ruled that the party that hires an independent contractor does not owe a duty of care to an employee of the contractor for injuries caused by the contractor’s negligence.

The state’s highest court also ruled in Hancock v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore that the duty of a contractor or subcontractor on a construction job to exercise due care to provide for the protection and safety of the employees of other contractors or subcontractors is owed with respect to conditions that the contractor or subcontractor creates or over which it exercises control.

In 2014, the City of Baltimore contracted with R.F. Warder Inc. to perform repairs and maintenance for the city’s plumbing and heating systems. Sutton Building Solutions LLC was a subcontractor for the project, according to the ruling filed in Annapolis.

In May 2018, the city asked Warder to unclog a pipe at a city pool, which called for an excavation that the facility maintenance coordinator for the Baltimore City Department of Recreations and Parks approved without inquiring about the experience Wader or SBS had with regard to such work. Two days into the excavation project that called for workers to dig 15 feet, one of the unsecured trench walls collapsed on a worker, killing him.

The worker’s parents sued the city and Sutton, asserting claims for survivorship, negligence and wrongful death.

The city moved to dismiss the complaint, arguing that its duty of care did not extend to employees of an independent contractor that created the dangerous condition. Sutton also argued that the company could not be liable for the man’s death because it neither created nor controlled the condition that killed him.

The trial court granted both motions. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed in an unreported opinion. The Maryland Court of Appeals also affirmed, writing that “(u)ltimately, we are unwilling to place on contractors who have not accepted any contractual or supervisory responsibility for the safety of work performed by others at a job site — based merely on their status as contractors — a duty enforceable in tort to protect others from potential hazards that the contractors neither created nor exercised any control over,” the court said.

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