Landscape, Maintenance and Tree Contractors, Reduce Your Liability, Understand Your Duty of Care

SAN DIEGO - March 2, 2015 - PRLog -- Landscape, maintenance and tree care professionals are supposed to be knowledgeable, licensed professionals, despensing qualified services for their clients.  Unfortunately, contractors might not fully understand how their services could leave them vulnerable to a lawsuit.  It might be hard for a maintenance contractor to understand why he is being sued by someone who tripped over a non-retracted pop up head or  tree care company getting sued because a palm tree they pruned later died from Fusarium disease.

At the time of service, they performed according to their contract and did the work according to specifications.  However, did they understand their duty of care to their client?  Many contractors might not be aware they have a legal obligation to avoid acts or omissions that might result in harm or damage to a person or property. The client relies upon contractor knowledge and professionalism to keep them informed. A contractor who solely performs to their contractural scope of work and fails to inform the client of site issues, needed repairs or other extra work not included in their contract may not be providing the duty of care owed to their client.

An example would be a maintenance contractor notices spray heads on risers have been installed adjacent to a pedestrian walkway.  The contractor knows that pop up heads should always be used along concrete pedestrian surfaces to avoid a trip hazard.  But, since they only provide maintenance services, the contractor does not inform their client about the inherent danger.  A month later a pedestrian trips over one of the shrub heads, sustains   severe injuries, and eventually sues the landscape maintenance contractor. The maintenance contractor objects, stating they did not install the shrub heads nor was it in their maintenance contract to change the heads to pop ups, that would be extra work they were not responsible for.

However, the maintenance contractor was aware of the potentially dangerous condition, but chose to not disclose this knowledge to the client because they felt it was not their responsibility.  Was this omission a violation or failure of the the contractor to provide the duty of care owed their client?  Field conditions frequently change or differ from contract requirements.  Contractors make a variety of daily decisions that may have potential legal ramificationis they are not aware of.

Their employee might be the first to notice a site hazard or needed repair, are they trained or knowledgeable about reporting the condition to their supervisor?  Will they be reprimmanded or rewarded for reporting a problem at the jobsite?  A contractor may never be aware of a dangerous site condition or needed repair unless reported by field workers.  If an accident occurs, then who is to blame?

To learn more about how landscape, maintenance and tree contractors can minimize their legal exposure to lawsuits click here to read the full article.

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