regardless, insurance is not probative of safety. Even if the Casino did not learn of AWR’s lack of insurance until after it hired AWR, we conclude that jurors could have found that the Casino should have sought to learn earlier. In making such a finding, jurors could have relied in part on testimony from a director in strategic sourcing at Caesars Entertainment, which owns the Casino, who stated in his deposition played at trial that he agreed “that responsible contractors are insured contractors.” AWR’s failure to conform to the Casino’s requirements is itself a kind of incompetency.
Next, there was evidence that AWR did not have its own equipment to use in the bird removal. We do not see this alone as sufficient evidence of incompetence, but it could suggest to factfinders that AWR was not a well-established, substantial, and experienced company. Patrick Maher, Director of Facilities at the Casino, testified at trial that he generally expected contractors to provide their own equipment when he hired them. Jurors could have considered the evidence of AWR’s lack of the necessary equipment to support that the Casino should have been concerned about whether AWR was sufficiently experienced to be competent for the work.
There also was evidence that AWR’s permit had expired by the time of the accident on February 16, 2017, and that AWR was short-staffed. AWR acquired a valid work permit when it arrived in New Orleans to begin the project, but the project continued after the permit expired. AWR acquired the permit on February 6, 2017; the start date of the permit was that same day, and it had an end date of February 8, 2017. It is difficult to see the relevance of the expired permit to the negligent-hiring claim because the Casino neither knew nor could have known about its expiration when it hired AWR in January 2017. The same is true regarding the fact that AWR was short-staffed. The evidence at trial showed that two AWR employees quit at the beginning of the project, but there was no evidence presented at trial that the Casino knew or should have known in January that AWR would be short-
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