In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Court of Appeals released a notice to the bar on April 6, 2020 stating that it will not hear oral argument during its April/May session and that the Clerk’s Office will contact counsel to provide information regarding further consideration of their appeals. The court’s building in Albany will not be open to the public until further notice, but the court will continue to consider previously filed pending matters and issue decisions.

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The Court of Appeals recently addressed an issue of increasing importance in today’s gig economy. In The Matter of the Claim of Luis A. Vega v. Postmates, the court decided that an individual who served as a courier for the delivery service Postmates qualified as an “employee” and Postmates was therefore required to make contributions to the unemployment insurance fund for him and other similarly situated individuals. In a majority opinion authored by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and joined by Judges Leslie Stein, Eugene Fahey and Paul Feinman, the court determined that substantial record evidence supported the determination of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board that the couriers were employees. Judge Jenny Rivera concurred in the result but wrote separately to encourage the adoption of a new standard for defining an employee, drawn from the Restatement of Employment Law. Judge Rowan Wilson authored a dissent, joined by Judge Michael Garcia, criticizing the court’s historical precedent on categorizing “employees” as inconsistent and concluding that Mr. Vega is not an employee under the common-law multi-factor test.

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