Snow contractors look for relief from liability issues
Photo | Courtesy of Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Massachusetts State House
Joe Szczechowicz has spent 11 years calling on state lawmakers to address liability issues that snow and ice removal service providers face across Massachusetts.
Szczechowicz, the president of SLS Outdoor Living, recalls first contacting Sen. Bruce Tarr and former Rep. Lenny Mirra in 2014 about the issue, and seeing an initial bill filed in the Senate the following year.
Snow removal service providers like Szczechowicz, who have been held liable for incidents they say are out of their control, are backing a longtime Tarr bill (S 1370) that would further regulate contracts for snow and ice removal services between providers and their customers.
In 2021, when Doug McDuff's company Landscape America had its first "slip and fall" in 19 years, the issue hit with full force.
Several days after McDuff's company finished plowing operations and multiple corresponding property checks, an individual pulled into the property's parking lot with snow still on the roof of their car.
"The sun hit the snow, it melted down the tailgate, formed a puddle behind the vehicle. The individual was moving into this complex, and so at the end of the day, they came out of the apartment, they slipped on the ice that had formed, and fell and then sued our company," McDuff told lawmakers at a hearing Tuesday.
His insurance company settled the claim two years later for $365,000 and subsequently dropped McDuff's business, he said.
Even if a company is contracted to begin plowing when there's two inches of snow on the ground, companies are taking a risk by not proactively treating because they're liable for any slip and fall, Brian Paige, owner of Paige Landscape Company, said Tuesday.
If they proactively plow the property when there's one inch of snow on the ground to create a safer environment for whoever's there, they might not be paid for that precautionary service, Paige explained.
"We're forced to assume liability while being restricted from plowing or treating services in certain conditions," Paige said.
A representative of the Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals and the Snow and Ice Management Association, McDuff said liability factors are causing insurance rates to skyrocket and decreasing the willingness of insurance companies to insure companies like his.
"If a janitor were to come outside and throw a bucket of water with no snow prep present — if it froze and someone slipped, we're going to be held responsible for the issue," McDuff said. "What we're looking for is just fair terms in regards to liability and to avoid absorbent insurance costs."
Whenever McDuff would cross out or amend terms based on his attorney's recommendations — like indemnification clauses and hold harmless agreements — contracts were often rescinded and given to another contractor who he said "was either ignorant to what they were signing, and/or didn't have the correct insurance needs that required contracts."
Those decisions make it difficult for snow and ice removal companies to grow their businesses, especially when they already struggle to retain a workforce, he said.
The Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development reported the Tarr-sponsored bill out favorably in 2022 and 2024. It stalled in Senate Ways and Means both sessions.
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