Worker Falls to Death: Now the Blame Game Is on

A contractor was not legally responsible for the death of a laborer who fell to his death while working for a subcontractor, a New Jersey appeals court decided.

In April of 2020, Willams Savaria was helping to provide maintenance services on a U.S. Naval vessel.

Savara was working as a laborer/painter for 5 Seasons LSB Corp., which had been subcontracted by Bayonne Dry Dock & Repair Corp. to do the work.

Bayonne Dry Dock had subcontracted with 5 Seasons on four prior occasions to do similar work, and no serious safety-related issues arose during that time.

But on April 19, 2020, that all changed in a major way.

Worker Falls to Death

On that day, Savaria and others were assigned to paint the inside of the ship’s anchor chain locker, which is a space where the ship’s anchor is stored during travel. It is accessible via manholes, and it is about 30 feet deep.

A supervisor told the others to wait to enter the locker until he returned with fall protection equipment. A co-worker ignored that instruction and went down into the locker before the supervisor returned.

Savaria did not wait either. He tried to join his co-worker, but he fell before he reached the bottom of the locker and sustained fatal injuries.

Administrator Sues Over Death

The administrator of his estate sued Bayonne Dry Dock and Patriot Contract Services, alleging that they negligently caused Savaria’s death. Patriot Contract Services was the prime contractor for the ship’s maintenance project.

After the administrator dismissed its claims against Patriot Contract Services, Bayonne Dry Dock filed a motion for summary judgment.

The trial court granted the motion on the basis that Bayonne Dry Dock did not owe a duty of care to Savaria.

The trial judge noted that a general contractor may be liable for injuries to the employee of a subcontractor in some situations, such as when:

• the general contractor controls the manner and means of the subcontractor’s work
• the general contractor knowingly hires an incompetent subcontractor, or
• the contracted work is a nuisance per se.

But the administrator did not argue to the trial judge that any of those exceptions applied.

Subcontractor Responsible for Safety

The trial judge added that contractors are generally free to assume that subcontractors will take adequate safety measures.

After the trial judge denied the administrator’s motion for reconsideration, the administrator filed an appeal.

The appeals court agreed with the trial judge that Bayonne Dry Dock was not liable in negligence for Savaria’s death because it did not owe a duty of care to him.

Bayonne Dry Dock was not under any contractual duty to make sure that 5 Seasons used proper safety protocols, the reviewing court said. Instead, 5 Seasons was solely responsible for the safety of its employees.

Bayonne Dry Dock did not supervise Savaria’s work and was not present at the time of the accident, the court noted.

Appeals Court Sums It Up

“While Savaria’s workplace death is tragic, based on the record before us, it would be unfair and unsound public policy to impose a duty of care upon Bayonne Dry Dock to ensure that 5 Seasons’ employees, such as Savaria, safely performed their work,” the appeals court said.

The trial court’s decision in favor of the contractor was affirmed.

As the appeals court ruling in this case explains, contractors are not always off the hook when a subcontractor’s employee is injured — or worse. Rather, contractors must do their due diligence to hire a responsible subcontractor and analyze how closely they manage the subcontractor’s assignment.

Estate of Savaria v. Dock, No. A-1679-22, 2024 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 1931 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 8/13/24).