Connecticut: Employee of Uninsured Roofing Subcontractor May Recover Benefits from City

In a split decision, the Supreme Court of Connecticut held that maintaining and repairing municipality buildings was within the city of Bridgeport's "trade or business," and accordingly, a worker employed by an uninsured roofing subcontractor could recover workers' compensation benefits from the city following his injury at one of the city's facilities. Earlier, a Commissioner determined that the state’s Secondary Injury Fund was responsible for the benefits since the subcontractor had no insurance. The Fund contended, however, that under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-291, the city was the principal employer of the injured worker and should have been required to provide benefits. Citing an old decision, Massolini v. Driscoll, 114 Conn. 546, 551-52, 159 A. 480 (1932), the majority held the city was required to maintain its buildings and it could, therefore, be the principal employer of employees of uninsured contractors.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Barker v. All Roofs by Dominic, 2020 Conn. LEXIS 190 (Aug. 13, 2020)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 70.01.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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