Plaintiff Leonardo Cordero, who worked for Camblin Steel Service, Inc. (Camblin), was injured while working on a pedestrian bridge project in Menlo Park. Ghilotti Construction Company, Inc. (Ghilotti) was the “ ‘turnkey’ ” contractor on the job. Cordero sued Ghilotti for damages for his industrial injuries, and Ghilotti eventually moved for, and the trial court granted, summary judgment on the basis of the Privette doctrine, which creates a “strong presumption under California law that a hirer of an independent contractor delegates to the contractor all responsibility for workplace safety[,] . . . [which] means that a hirer is typically not liable for injuries sustained by an independent contractor or its workers while on the job.” (Gonzalez v. Mathis (2021) 12 Cal.5th 29, 37–38 (Gonzalez).)
Cordero maintains the Privette presumption does not apply in this case and advances two arguments in this regard: First, as a matter of law, a Cal-OSHA (Lab. Code, § 6300 et seq.) regulation imposed a “nondelegable” duty on Ghilotti to address the site conditions that assertedly caused him to fall. Second, as a factual matter, Ghilotti did not delegate workplace safety to Camblin. He further maintains that even if the Privette presumption does apply, there are triable issues as to whether the “retained control” exception to the Privette doctrine set forth in Hooker v. Department of Transportation (2002) 27 Cal.4th 198 (Hooker) applies. We affirm.
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