A public entity is liable for injury proximately caused by a tortious act or omission of an independent contractor of the public entity to the same extent that the public entity would be subject to such liability if it were a private person. Nothing in this section subjects a public entity to liability for the act or omission of an independent contractor if the public entity would not have been liable for the injury had the act or omission been that of an employee of the public entity.
Cal. Gov. Code § 815.4
Liability of Public Entities
Known as the Government Claims Act
The act spans §§ 810–998 (301 sections).
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case Van Arsdale v. Hollinger (1968)
Most recently applied in 254 F. Supp. 3d 1168 - Villarreal v. County of Monterey (May 2017)
Added by Stats. 1963, Ch. 1681.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.