Reversing itself, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal held that a public utility’s obligation to maintain its equipment and facilities was the sort of activity that could be subcontracted to another firm and that when it had properly... Read More
Where a self-employed individual opted not to bring himself within the coverage of the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act, he was not an “employee,” as that term is defined in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-115. Under those facts, where the... Read More
While the provision of electricity to its Florida customers required that a Florida utility company maintain its equipment, a company with whom the utility contracted for maintenance work did not do so on the basis of any subletting of the utility's... Read More
A divided Pennsylvania appellate court held a well owner and a separate firm that provided specialized services at the well were not statutory employers of a truck driver who contended he sustained injuries when a faulty storage tank value caused the... Read More
The Arizona Department of Corrections was the statutory employer of a clinical social worker supplied to the department by means of a staffing agreement between the department and an employment services agency. Because the department retained the right... Read More
In a decision that may produce ripples within the Texas construction industry, a state appellate court held that in order to enjoy the exclusive remedy defense, Tex. Lab. Code Ann. § 406.123(a) requires a general contractor to do something more than... Read More
A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a non-operating partner in a joint-venture qualifies as a “statutory employer,” as that term is used in the Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Act, even though the operating... Read More
A provision in Oklahoma’s Administrative Workers’ Compensation Act (“the Act”), 85A Okl. St. § 5, which favors operators and owners of oil and/or gas wells with extended immunity in tort actions filed against them by plaintiffs... Read More
Reversing a judgment rendered in favor of plaintiffs after an eight-day trial in which the jury in relevant part found a general contractor liable to its statutory employee for an “intentional act,” a Louisiana appellate court ruled that the... Read More
Where a health care system (“the system”) owned a children’s clinic and contracted with a service company for the latter to provide cleaning services at the clinic, the system was not the statutory employer of the service company’s... Read More
A parking attendant, who worked for a staffing company that contracted with a resort hotel to supply workers for valet parking is barred by the exclusive remedy doctrine from suing the resort in tort for injuries he sustained when he slipped on water... Read More
Where a truck driver was employed by a trucking company that, in turn, contracted with a building materials supplier to provide delivery services related to materials purchased at the supplier’s stores, the building materials supplier was the driver’s... Read More
Where a worker was employed by a subcontractor who supplied staff to an employer that set the worker’s schedule, assignments, and training, the employer was the worker’s statutory employer and, since it was a workers’ compensation subscriber... Read More
In a case with a bizarre factual background, the Supreme Court of Idaho affirmed a state trial court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of the Idaho Department of Fish & Game (IDFG) on exclusive remedy grounds in a wrongful death action... Read More
Acknowledging that the concept of a statutory employer is to prevent an employer from avoiding liability under the workers’ compensation statutes by sub-contracting the work to others, the Supreme Court of Idaho recently held nevertheless that a... Read More