Having your independent contractors sign waiver language can mitigate your risks. That’s the lesson of Holmes v. Clear Channel Outdoor. Here are the facts.
- Fred Holmes was an experienced billposter who signed an independent contractor agreement with Eller Media. The independent contractor agreement contained this waiver language: “Contractor hereby waives all of its rights for any recovery against [Clear Channel] including its employees, agents or tenants for any damages incurred by Contractor in providing the services hereunder, provided that such a waiver of recovery does not invalidate the insurance coverage.”
- Clear Channel Outdoor purchased Eller Media
- In September 2001 while Holmes was on a Clear Channel Outdoor billboard replacing a vinyl, a weld on a bracket holding the billboard’s catwalk failed and Holmes fell 20 feet to the ground and broke his wrist.
- Holmes sued Clear Channel for damages claiming the billboard was negligently constructed and maintained.
- Clear Channel countered that Holmes had waived his right to recover damages against Clear Channel.
- A Georgia trial court and court of appeals upheld Clear Channel’s argument based on the waiver language and dismissed the case. The courts found: “No statute prohibits a billboard owner from contracting with an independent contractor who puts posters on billboards to limit the owner’s liability to that contractor.”
Do you make your contractors sign a contracting agreement? What clauses do you put in the agreement. Email billboardinsider@gmail.com or use the form below.
[wpforms id=”8663″]
Paid Advertisement
