SAINT PAUL, Minn. (CN) — Minnesota joined the slight majority of states that recognize tort claims for negligent selection of contractors Wednesday after the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of a sugar beet truck driver that was struck by a truck driver without a license contracted to transport produce for a local farm.
The state’s high court determined in their Wednesday morning order that negligent-selection torts are part of, or at least an extension, of a well-established common law right in Minnesota.
“Because a cause of action for negligent selection of an independent contractor is recognized by the restatement, has been cited by our court as a basis to adopt a new common law tort and is analogous to other recognized torts, we conclude that it is inherent in, or the natural extension of, a well-established common law right,” Justice Margaret Chutich wrote for the court.
Chutich pointed to the factors set forth in the 2007 case Larson v. Wasemiller, which established a four-factor test to inform the high court’s decisions to recognize common-law torts, in reversing the appeals court decision that Minnesota does not such claims.
Those factors include whether the tort is inherent in or a natural extension of an established common law right, whether other common law states have recognized the tort, whether recognition would create “create tension” with existing laws and whether that tension is outweighed by the importance of protections it would provide.
Chutich found that the court had already recognized similar claims, including a negligent-hiring tort for employers and the negligent-credentialing tort established in Larson.
Chutich also found that “if recognizing this claim did conflict with the general rule of non-liability for those that hire independent contractors, it would merely join a long list of existing exceptions.”
That route, she added, was not sufficient to vindicate claimants’ rights under the maxim that liability follows from tortious conduct.
At oral arguments in April, the defendants — farmers who had hired the unlicensed truck driver that hit the plaintiff — argued that recognition of such a tort would open up the floodgates of liability claims around the state.
Mike Tomsche, an attorney representing farmer Richard Menholt, said then a reversal of the appeals court decision would “wreak havoc and chaos in this state,” and create “a booming business for people like me.”
Justice Barry Anderson, too, was skeptical at oral arguments, saying that “one of the reasons I hire and independent contractor is that I want to move the liability from me to the independent contractor.”
Responding to these concerns, the court outlined the boundaries for such claims.
“To prevail on a claim of negligent selection of an independent contractor, the claimant must prove that the principal did not exercise reasonable care,” she wrote.
The threshold for reasonability, she wrote, varies with the danger and skill involved in the work and with the context in which the contractor is hired.
A company heavily involved in a given industry that habitually relies on contractors, for example, might incur liability for failing to vet a contractor in that industry that someone with minimal interaction with that industry would not.
The court also established a causation requirement that “will limit the claim’s availability to circumstances when the principal could have reasonably anticipated the harm, which must stem from a quality in the independent contractor that made it negligent for the principal to entrust the work to them.”
The plaintiff truck driver who argued for the change unfortunately won’t see his efforts recognized. Pedro Alonzo died earlier in 2024, six years after fellow sugar beet truck driver Alberto Lopez crossed over the center line of a Minnesota highway and struck his vehicle head-on.
Lopez — who had a suspended license and an active felony arrest warrant — was transporting sugar beets during the busy harvest season on behalf of Braaten Farms. Braaten in turn was providing transportation services to founder Darcy Braaten’s neighbor, Richard Menholt, and his farms.
Bringing suit against both farmers, the driver and all three companies, Alonzo sought to hold Menholt liable for failing to investigate whether Lopez was qualified to haul sugar beets.
The court also briefly affirmed that the appeals court properly granted summary judgment to Menholt on the case. The court found itself evenly divided on this matter as new Justice Sarah Hennesy’s replacement of Anderson brought the 9-member court down to 8 for this case.