Connecticut: Contractor With Contractor Controlled Insurance Program Enjoyed Immunity

A general contractor that implemented a contractor controlled insurance program (CCIP) to centralize the purchasing of workers’ compensation insurance for a major project has “paid compensation benefits” to the employees of its subcontractors, entitling it to “principal employer” immunity under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31–2911 from further claims by those employees, held the Supreme Court of Connecticut. Plaintiffs, who sustained injuries in an explosion at the job site, received workers’ compensation benefits, but sought to sue the general contractor in tort. The high court agreed that the trial court improperly concluded that the contractor had “paid compensation benefits” on the basis of an incorrect interpretation of that term as used in § 31–291. The Court added, however, that even under the proper construction of the statute, no genuine issue of material fact existed as to whether the defendant contractor paid compensation benefits to the plaintiffs. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the summary judgment of the trial court.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis%20Workers’%20Compensation%20eNewsletter">LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Gonzalez v. O & G Indus., 2016 Conn. LEXIS 232 (Aug. 2, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 111.04.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law