A worker seriously injured from a ladder fall during demolition work at a building in Washington, D.C., in June 2020 was improperly denied workers compensation benefits, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
Jose Sanchez Lopez was out of work for 10 months following the workplace incident, which occurred while he was working for Cris & G Painting LLC, a subcontractor for general contractor Foundry Construction LLC.
Mr. Sanchez Lopez sought temporary total disability benefits and medical expenses for his injuries, but an administrative law judge denied the claim for disability benefits because of questions over employment relationship.
The judge determined Mr. Sanchez Lopez failed, under a “relative nature of the work” test, to prove that he was an employee of Cris & G Painting.
The appeals court, in reversing and remanding, said the judge engaged in a “formulaic recitation and overly literal application” of the relative nature of work test, and that employee status was still unclear.
The court said while Mr. Sanchez Lopez admitted he was a day laborer, the fact that he was provided with “instructions, tools, and schedule, compelled a finding that Mr. Sanchez Lopez did not have a ‘separate calling or business’ and weighed in favor of concluding that he should not have been expected to carry his own accident burden.”
The court also said a compensation review board wrongly upheld the administrative law judge’s findings.
