The Texas Supreme Court has announced it will grant a rehearing in the Entergy Gulf States Inc. v. John Summers case. Refer to our previous coverage for a more detailed description of the case, but the basic issue was whether a premises owner who hires an independent contractor and provides workers-compensation insurance for the contractor’s employees can be a “statutory employer” for workers comp purposes. Last August, the court said yes; the decision was immediately met with a barrage of criticism from legislators, labor leaders, and attorneys who said that the Legislature never intended that a premises owner should also be considered a general contractor, and that the court was using a too-literal interpretation of the wording of the law. If the ruling stands, it could create a loophole allowing companies to avoid injury lawsuits that lawmakers did not mean to be written into the law.
The hearing will take place on Oct. 16 at the Southern Methodist University Law School.
This article appears in August 29 • 2008.