## Facts

- Joan Kime was a passenger in a vehicle stopped on U.S. Highway 83 near Valentine, Nebraska, preparing to turn left into a farm driveway.
- A tractor–livestock trailer combination driven by Edward F. Yelli struck the vehicle from the rear, killing the driver and causing Kime permanent paraplegia.
- Yelli owned the tractor; William A. Hobbs, a cattle operator, owned the livestock trailer being used.
- Hobbs did not own tractors and relied on multiple truckers to pull his trailers on an as-needed, per-load basis.
- Hobbs used a dispatcher (his son-in-law) to contact drivers, arrange availability, and provide pickup and delivery logistics.
- Yelli paid his own operating costs, received no employee benefits, had no taxes withheld, and could accept or reject hauling jobs.
- Kime sued Hobbs asserting (1) vicarious liability based on agency/employment, (2) liability based on inherently dangerous activity, and (3) negligent hiring.
- The district court granted summary judgment for Hobbs on all theories, and Kime appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether Yelli was Hobbs’s employee or agent (rather than an independent contractor) such that Hobbs could be vicariously liable for Yelli’s negligence.
2. Whether hauling cattle by tractor–trailer on public highways is inherently dangerous, imposing liability on Hobbs despite independent-contractor status.
3. Whether Hobbs negligently hired Yelli to haul cattle.

## Decision

- The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for Hobbs.
- The court held the undisputed record established Yelli was an independent contractor, defeating vicarious liability.
- The court held livestock hauling by tractor–trailer on public highways is not inherently dangerous under Nebraska law, so no nondelegable-duty exception applied.
- The court held the evidence did not raise a genuine issue of material fact that Hobbs was negligent in selecting or retaining Yelli.

## Legal Principles

- Independent-contractor status turns primarily on the hirer’s right to control the details and manner of the work, not merely the ability to specify the desired result, timing, or delivery logistics.
- Factors supporting independent-contractor status include use of the worker’s own equipment, payment by the job, responsibility for operating expenses, lack of tax withholding and benefits, and freedom to accept or decline work.
- The inherently dangerous (peculiar risk) exception applies only where the activity presents an unreasonably high risk even when reasonable care is used or requires special precautions to avoid a peculiar risk; ordinary regulated trucking does not qualify.
- Negligent hiring requires proof the hirer knew or should have known, through reasonable care, that the contractor was incompetent or unfit and likely to create an unreasonable risk of harm; a serious accident alone does not establish breach.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed judgment for Hobbs because the hauler operated as an independent contractor outside Hobbs’s control over driving details, livestock hauling on public highways was not inherently dangerous for nondelegable-duty purposes, and the record did not support a triable claim that Hobbs unreasonably hired an incompetent hauler.


Kime v. Hobbs, 562 N.W.2d 705 (Neb. 1997)