Aguirre v. Turner Constr. Co., No. 08-3999

In plaintiff's tort case against defendant-general contractors arising from an injury sustained while working on renovation of Soldier Field, district court's failure to give a joint control instruction to the jury was a harmless error and the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is a red herring in this case as the question is not whether and in what sense defendant controlled the scaffold, but whether it failed to make a timely inspection of it.  Here, this was a reasonable delegation of responsibility to the subcontractor, and so the general contractor did not breach its duty of care by not checking all the scaffolds when they were first assembled. 

Read Aguirre v. Turner Constr. Co., No. 08-3999

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division

Argued June 2, 2009
Decided September 30, 2009

Judges

Before Posner, Kanne, and Ripple, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Posner, Circuit Judge