Statutory Employment

"Statutory Employment" is found in Section 171 of the Workers Disability Compensation Act.

"Statutory Employment" unfortunately occurs all too frequently with employers who do not carry workers compensation insurance. It is a criminal misdemeanor to operate without the insurance.

An example is illustrative: Assume contractor A is without workers compensation insurance for its employees. Assume also that Contractor A enters into a contract with Principal B to perform some service. Assume also that Employee C is hired by Contractor A and performs some work for Principal B, and is hurt on Principal B's job-site. Because Contractor A is uninsured for workers compensation purposes, Principal B becomes the "statutory employer" of Employee C, and Employee C can make a workers compensation claim against Principal B.

In Peck/Auto Club Ins. Asso, vs. Elliott's Amusements, LLC, 2005 ACO #140the Workers Compensation Appellate Commission addressed the differences between a statutory employer and a direct employer.

Peck was hired by Elliott's to build and operate an amusement park game. When the carnival season ended in Michigan, Elliott's permitted its manager to use the carnival equipment for a three week carnival in Florida. The manager asked Peck to come to Florida and erect and operate the equipment. Peck was involved in a serious accident en-route to Florida, sustaining injuries. Was Peck an employee of Elliot's at the time of the accident? Or was Peck an employee of the manager for the independent venture in the State of Florida? Elliott's had workers compensation insurance while the manager did not, so it was to Peck's benefit to assert that he was an employee of Elliott's.

Peck won. The Workers Compensation Appellate Commission determined that Peck was a direct employee of Elliott's at the time of the automobile accident. It also commented that even if Peck was not a direct employee, then Elliott's was a statutory employer because its manager had hired Peck and the manager was uninsured. The Commission determined that Elliott's and its manager were in a joint venture together. Whenever there is a joint venture, each entity involved in the joint venture has liability and therefore must be insured.

Comments

[Julie Weight]

In the medical transcription industry, there a lot of companies classifying workers as independent contractors and statutory employees, so I find this particularly interesting (even if it is a bit dated). There's a good reason for running one's business operation decision past a good attorney.

[construction injury compensation]

In most of the New York personal injury cases, negligence is critical to file a personal injury lawsuit. However, it is often difficult to dicuss negligence during personal injury cases and only an experienced attorney can help you resolve various issues involving injury cases. If you are injured within New York injury cases, and you want to file a personal injury lawsuit, then you must contact a Personal injury lawyer immediately.

[business liability insurance]

It is very important legislation which provide a solution to cases in which the employee should receive any compensation. A single worker will find it difficult to recieve his rights without such laws. it is a formal recognition on workers' rights

[idaho dui lawyer]

Every state has a statute of limitations that determines the time limit for filing a lawsuit. A victim may not be eligible for compensation if there is a delay in filing the lawsuit.

[Insurance Quotes]

Well first i would like to say thanks to post an important and precious thing that is need to discuss and i found very informative knowledge from this post keep it on.

[Adrien]

Hey,
Thanks! Great post you have written on "Statutory Employment". Really I can say that your post is very informative, I'll come across your blog again when you will update it with new.
Thanks,
Adrien
http://www.jrlaw.org/

[john]

Where can I find Michigan workers compensation appellate board and magistrate decisions in a searchable format? The Michigan wcac and magistrate websites list some of the decisions in PDF format however there's no way to search those decisions by using keywords; you only have the option to find a decision by party name, date of decision or docket number. There's virtually thousands of those decisions on the board's website but no way to search the collection of decisions by keyword, rendering the database pretty much useless.

I would also like to find the older board decisions, prior to 1996, if anyone has those perhaps they would like to share (prefer the electronic copies), and in exchange I would be willing to set up a searchable database to use for searching those older decisions.

Please respond here. Thanks everyone!

John