How have the concurring and dissenting opinions of the Court of Appeal considered a general contractor's responsibility to ensure the safety of their subcontractors?

In the end, the concurring and dissenting opinion would effectively deprive general contractors of a right available to any other hiring person: the right to delegate to independent contractors the responsibility of ensuring the safety of their own workers. On peril of incurring civil liability, general contractors would, under the concurring and dissenting opinion's approach, have to specify in their contracts with subcontractors every conceivable safety or precautionary measure to be taken during construction. Even then, a general contractor could still incur tort liability if the employee of a subcontractor suffers an injury because the employee could, in a lawsuit against the general contractor, claim that the safety measures set forth in the contract were just not specific enough in averting the injury. In effect, the concurring and dissenting opinion's proposed rule would impose liability on general contractors simply for "having written a certain kind of contract, a contract found too vague on one point." (Nelson v. United States (9th Cir.1980) 639 F.2d 469, 477.) ⁴