Nebraska: Self-Employed Subcontractor Was Not Statutory Employee

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 self-employed person fell from a roof, suffering serious injuries, he could not successfully contend that the general contractor was his statutory employer and liable for workers’ compensation benefits. The Court stressed that the state’s statutory employer provisions presupposed that the injured worker was an “employee.” Because the injured worker here was no one’s employee, he could not take advantage of the contractor-under provisions of the Nebraska Act.

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

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See Wright v. H & S Contr., Inc., 29 Neb. App. 581, 2021 Neb. App. LEXIS 69 (Mar. 9, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 70.05.

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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