Practice point: Plaintiff is a bus matron employed by a non-party, and she is seeking compensation for injuries that she sustained in an accident that occurred while she was working on a bus registered to the first corporate defendant and driven by the individual defendant. Defendants failed to make a prima facie showing that plaintiff was a "special employee" of the first corporate defendant, so that her claims would be barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of Workers' Compensation Law §§ 11 and 29(6). They did not demonstrate that the first corporate defendant assumed exclusive control over plaintiff's work. In fact, their own witnesses testified that bus matrons were supervised by employees of another company, not by employees of the first corporate defendant. Defendants offered no evidence to support a finding that the second corporate defendant, allegedly liable as the school bus owner, pursuant to Vehicle and Traffic Law § 388, was entitled to rely on the exclusivity bar of the Workers' Compensation Law.
Case: Mohammed v. Kierzowski, NY Slip Op 07525 (1st Dep't October 26, 2017)
Here is the decision.
