An attorney discusses injured workmen

It is standard operating procedure for building owners, landlords and developers to require contractors to provide Certificates of Insurance before beginning any work on a commercial project. They will require them to name the owner, landlord or developer as an additional insured, as well as the managing agent. The paperwork is handed in, the work commences and no one thinks about it any further unless and until a workman is injured. The scenario I want to discuss in this article is when the workman who is injured is an employee of the contractor. That is a specific category, because it is excluded under most general liability policies. "How can that be?" you may ask. The idea is that the workman will be covered under the contractor's workers compensation policy and therefore, coverage under the general liability policy is not needed. What happens is that owners, landlords and developers learn this lesson the hard way. Under the law, the workman cannot sue his employer, the general contractor, for exactly the reason described above; however, the injured worker can sue the building owner, landlord or developer under the Labor Law, usually section 240, which deals with falling from a height. This includes falling from a ladder. The building owner, landlord or developer can then sue the contractor for indemnification in a third-party lawsuit. When the contractor reports the lawsuit to his carrier, coverage will likely be denied under that injured employee exclusion. This kind of surprise occurs because people are looking for the best and lowest premium prices and are hoping that the odds of this kind of lawsuit occurring are small. I am frequently consulted about these kinds of situations after the lawsuit is started and retained to defend the lawsuits. However, I advise everyone to try seek legal counsel and insurance counsel on this subject before beginning a project. C. Jaye Berger, Esq. is a principal at the Law Offices C. Jaye Berger, New York, N.Y.