Barclay

Plaintiff Randall Barclay was injured by an explosion while working for his employer (nonparty Chico Drain Oil), cleaning fuel tanks on land owned by defendant Jesse M. Lange Distributor, Inc. (Lange), which is in the business of storing and selling gasoline to commercial and agricultural customers. The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of Lange under the doctrine of Privette v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.4th 689 [ 21 Cal.Rptr.2d 72 , 854 P.2d 721 ] (Privette) and its progeny, pursuant to which a nonnegligent property owner is generally not liable for injuries to an employee of an independent contractor hired to perform hazardous work on the property.

On appeal, plaintiff argues summary judgment was improper because Lange could be liable based on Lange’s breach of its own statutory, regulatory, and common law nondelegable duties to warn of and minimize hazards on its property.

We shall conclude plaintiff showed Lange may be liable for breach of its regulatory duty to provide fire extinguishers pursuant to the California Fire Code. We shall therefore reverse the judgment entered in favor of Lange. 1

We need not decide plaintiff’s other theories of…