Michael S. Takacs (Partner-Philadelphia) secured the dismissal of a building owner client on a contested motion for summary judgment in the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, a particularly plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction where even uncontested summary judgment motions are often denied. The client retained the codefendant general contractor to perform a build-out of office space, who, in turn, retained numerous subcontractors to perform the work. The plaintiff, an employee of a sub-subcontractor, was injured while descending a ladder when he stepped on a sheet rock cart allegedly placed at its base by an unknown, never identified individual only moments before the incident. The plaintiff sued our client, the general contractor, and several subcontractors on-site on the date of the accident. Following fact and expert discovery, Mike argued that summary judgment was warranted because: 1) the plaintiff failed to establish that the client created, knew, or should have known and/or had actual or constructive notice about the cart’s placement; and 2) the client owed no legal duty to the plaintiff, a sub-subcontractor of the client’s independent general contractor, under long-established Pennsylvania law holding that a hirer of an independent contractor is not responsible for injuries sustained by the contractor’s employees or subcontractors where the hirer neither controls the work, nor does it present a peculiar risk. Rejecting the plaintiff’s claims asserting the existence of numerous genuine issues of material fact, the court granted summary judgment dismissing all claims and crossclaims against Wilson Elser’s client.