Grahn

I.

Introduction

This is an appeal from a jury award of $1,074,420 in favor of respondents Gerald Grahn and his wife, Bonnie Grahn, for personal injury and loss of consortium resulting from his occupational exposure to asbestos. Grahn was the employee of an independent contractor, J. L. Thorpe & Sons (Thorpe), which performed insulation work at various locations throughout the Bay Area, including appellant Tosco Corporation’s oil refinery (Tosco). The jury found Grahn’s injuries partially resulted from Tosco’s negligence and allocated 3 percent fault to Tosco, 60 percent fault to Grahn’s employers, including Thorpe, and 37 percent fault to all others.

Tosco appeals, principally questioning whether, under the Supreme Court’s decision in Privette v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.4th 689 [ 21 Cal.Rptr.2d 72 , 854 P.2d 721 ] (Privette), a hirer of an independent contractor can be held liable in negligence for its own acts or omissions when an independent contractor’s employee sustains work-related injuries that are also compensable by workers’ compensation. As we explain in this opinion, we find Privette did not abrogate the law in California that a hirer of an independent…