Two years ago, the state Superior Court decided the case of Patton v. Worthington Associates, 2012 Pa. Super 74 (March 27, 2012), which represented the most significant change to the statutory employer doctrine since the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in the 1930 case of McDonald v. Levinson Steel, 153 A. 424 (Pa. 1930). As addressed in this space almost a year ago, the high court at that time granted the petition for allowance of appeal filed in the case. It seemed clear that the Supreme Court was not comfortable with the Superior Court’s decision, as it framed the issue using the petitioner’s own words. Essentially, the court asked whether the Superior Court had sub silentio nullified the entire statutory employer doctrine and effectively overruled McDonald, which of course, it had no authority to do. At issue was whether the Patton majority had “grafted a fact question onto the McDonald analysis that can never be answered in a way that allows the statutory employer doctrine to apply.” Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court decided the case and overruled the Superior Court’s actions, thus restoring the statutory employer doctrine to its rightful place.

Traditionally, the statutory employer doctrine could act both as a shield to a general contractor from liability in a common pleas action and a sword used by an employee seeking workers’ compensation benefits when the subcontractor for which he or she was working failed to carry workers’ compensation insurance. In the former instance, the general contractor could seek to establish that it had immunity from liability under the Workers’ Compensation Act due to its ostensible status as a statutory employer.

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