What is the current state of the law on liability for injuries sustained by an independent contractor?

"At common law, a person who hired an independent contractor generally was not liable to third parties for injuries caused by the contractor's negligence in performing the work." (Privette v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.4th 689, 693.) Numerous exceptions developed over time, including an exception pertaining to "contracted work that poses some inherent risk of injury to others" known as the doctrine of peculiar risk. (Ibid.) "The courts adopted the peculiar risk exception to the general rule of nonliability to ensure that innocent third parties injured by the negligence of an independent contractor hired by a landowner to do inherently dangerous work on the land would not have to depend on the contractor's solvency in order to receive compensation for the injuries." (Id. at p. 694.) "[I]n its original form the doctrine of peculiar risk made a landowner liable to innocent bystanders or neighboring property owners who were injured by the negligent acts of an independent contractor hired by the landowner to perform dangerous work on his or her land.... [] Gradually, the peculiar risk doctrine was expanded to allow the hired contractor's employees to seek recovery from the nonnegligent property owner for injuries caused by the negligent contractor." (Id. at p. 696.) California was among the minority of jurisdictions that adopted that view. (Ibid.) Our Supreme Court

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