The Virginia Workers Compensation Act prohibits employees from suing their employers for injuries incurred in the ordinary scope of employment. The Act provides an exclusive avenue of recourse for injured employees to recover against their employers. Section 65.2-307 of the Act provides that:
The rights and remedies herein granted to an employee when his employer and he have accepted the provisions of this title respectively to pay and accept compensation on account of injury or death by accident shall exclude all other rights and remedies of such employee, his personal representative, parents, dependents, or next of kin, at common law or otherwise, on account of such injury, loss of service, or death.
Va. Code § 65.2-307 (1950) (emphasis added).
With the ubiquitous subcontracting arrangements in the workplace, liability for injured employees may become complicated. Often employees of a general contractor will file personal injury lawsuits against subcontractors for injuries resulting from the ordinarily course of business. Such lawsuits may be barred by the Act’s exclusivity provision. Specifically, the Act provides that when a general contractor subcontracts all or part of the work undertaken by the general contractor in “his trade, business or occupation” then the general contractor is deemed a “statutory employer” of the subcontractor and his employees. Va. Code § 65.2-302 (1950). As a statutory employer, the general contractor is liable under the Act for the injuries caused by the employees of the subcontractor but is immune from cause of action falling outside the Act’s remedies—such as those under the state common law. The following three cases exemplify this rule.
If you have questions about the Virginia Workers Compensation Act and personal injury lawsuits as a contractor, subcontractor or owner of a project, consider seeking legal counsel. Our litigation and workers’ compensation teams at Vandeventer Black LLP are familiar with the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act and previously litigated cases involving the Act’s exclusivity provision and statutory employer doctrine.
*Junior Ndlovu is a summer associate with Vandeventer Black. He is a third-year law student at the Washington & Lee School of Law.