Metropolitan Gas Repair Service, Inc. v. Kulik

In Metropolitan Gas Repair Service, Inc. v. Kulik, 621 P.2d 313, 317 (Colo. 1980), recognize that a contractual obligation is not the measure of one's tort liability. In Kulik, an explosion in decedent's home was caused by a malfunction of a safety relief valve on a boiler. One of the defendants was called to replace the pump motor on the boiler and a repairman wrote in his report that he had "checked boiler." It was virtually undisputed that a plugged safety valve creates a serious hazard to the boiler system. While the defendant did not perform work directly on the safety valve, there was also evidentiary support for reasonable inferences that the safety valve was in plain view.