Michigan: Truck Driver Held to Be Steel Company’s Employee for Exclusive Remedy Purposes

A driver who leased a semi-truck and trailer from one firm and, pursuant to an arrangement with a transportation broker, transported steel for the defendant corporation was the latter’s employee for purposes of workers’ compensation since the driver did not maintain a separate business, did not hold himself out to and render service to the public, and was not subject to the Michigan Worker’s Disability Compensation Act (WDCA) as an employer. The Michigan appellate court, citing the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Michigan, in Auto Owners Ins. Co. v. All Star Lawn Specialists Plus, 497 Mich. 13, 857 NW2d 520 (2014) held that plaintiff’s civil action against the defendant corporation alleging that plaintiff sustained personal injuries due to the negligence of the defendant was barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of the WDCA. Plaintiff was an “employee” under Mich. Comp. Laws § 418.161(1)(n) and subject, therefore, to the exclusive remedy provision in Mich. Comp. Laws § 418.131.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Hodnett v. Alro Steel Corp., 2015 Mich. App. LEXIS 814 (Apr. 21, 2015) [2015 Mich. App. LEXIS 814 (Apr. 21, 2015)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 61.03 [61.03]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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