A property owner has a duty to warn an independent contractor’s employee of hazards not inherent to the contractor’s job.

The defendants—a building owner, a former tenant who was a shareholder in the current tenant, a finance company and the company’s employee—were not entitled to summary judgment in a premises liability action on the issue of duty to warn an independent contractor’s employee of painted-over skylights on the building’s roof because, inter alia, the dangerous condition of the painted-over skylight was not “patently obvious to all,” and falling through a painted-over skylight was not a “usual hazard” of cleaning and painting a roof or repairing and caulking skylights. An owner owes a business visitor a duty to warn of latent and concealed perils known to the owner; or which, by the exercise of due care, should have been known to him and which were not known by the visitor; or which, by the exercise of due care, could not have been known to him. Moreover, in cases where the facts involve leased premises, the extent of responsibility for injuries occurring on the leased premises depends on the extent the owner maintains control over the premises.

_{Case Law Alerts, 2^nd Quarter, April 2015}

_{Case Law Alerts is prepared by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin to provide information on recent legal developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. Copyright © 2015 Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, all rights reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm.}