The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled third-party general contractors can't use the state's workers' compensation law to escape lawsuits from other companies' workers, even if they paid workers' compensation benefits to workers injured on their job sites.
The Jan. 21 decision was composed by Justice Robert Carter, with concurrence from Chief Justice Anne Burke and Justices David Overstreet, Mary Jane Theis, P.Scott Neville Jr., Michael Burke and Rita Garman. The ruling favored Donovan Munoz in his action against Bulley & Andrews, a Chicago general contractor.
Bulley & Andrews has a subsidiary, Bulley Concrete, but both are operated as separate corporations with different presidents and employees. Bulley & Andrews employs about 500 carpenters and laborers, while Bulley Concrete has 100 caulkers, finishers and laborers.
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert Carter
| Illinoiscourts.gov
Munoz was working in December 2016 for Bulley Concrete at a construction site in the South Loop, when he said he injured his back. Munoz filed a workers' compensation claim, then filed a personal injury suit in 2019 in Cook County Circuit Court against Bulley & Andrews. Munoz alleged Bulley & Andrews retained control over the work site, and failed to prevent Bulley Concrete from engaging in unsafe practices.
Bulley & Andrews lodged a motion to dismiss, arguing it already had a legal obligation to pay Munoz's compensation benefits and had done so, paying more than $76,000 of his medical bills. The company maintained that the exclusive remedy provision of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act gives it immunity to personal injury suits, because the company covered Munoz' injury-related costs.
Cook County Judge Daniel Gillespie agreed, tossing the suit. Illinois First District Appellate Court upheld Gillespie.
Justice Carter said the two lower courts were wrong.
"Immunity is conferred only on immediate employers of an injured worker. Here, there is no dispute that Bulley & Andrews was not plaintiff’s immediate employer," Carter determined.
Carter elaborated, "The fact that plaintiff’s immediate employer, Bulley Concrete, was a subsidiary of Bulley & Andrews is of no import. If a parent company and its subsidiary are operated as separate entities, only the entity that was the immediate employer of the injured worker is entitled to immunity. There is no dispute that Bulley & Andrews and Bulley Concrete were operated as separate and distinct entities."
Carter noted Bulley & Andrews had no obligation to furnish compensation insurance for Bulley Concrete.
In addition, Carter said the Compensation Act does not let parties, which do not employ an injured worker, to acquire immunity by either paying workers' compensation benefits directly to the worker — as Bulley & Andrews did — or paying the benefits on behalf of the worker's immediate employer.
Carter pointed out the workers' compensation law bars a worker from suing a direct employer, but it does not prohibit action to recover damages from a third-party general contractor.
The case was sent back to circuit court for further proceedings.
The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Munoz.
Munoz has been represented by attorney Milo Lundblad, of Brustin & Lundblad, of Chicago.
Bulley & Andrews has been defended by Patricia J. Hogan, Henry Ortiz and James Maruna, of the Cassiday Schade firm, of Chicago.