Borrowed Employee Status of Subcontractor’s Employee Bars Suit by Employee of Principal
Borrowed Employee Status of Subcontractor’s Employee Bars Suit by Employee of Principal
By: Jamie Johnson
Crawford v. BP Corp. North America, Inc., 2015 WL 1190123, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32104 (E.D. La. March 16, 2015) (Morgan, J.).
Crawford was employed by BP. He sued both BP, his employer, and Danos & Curole for personal injuries after an employee of Danos & Curole dropped a vacuum pump on his back. On a Motion for Summary Judgment by Danos & Curole, the court found that, as a matter of law, the offending employee of Danos & Curole was a borrowed employee of BP. “If there is no cause of action against Matthew, the predicate for respondeat superior liability is missing, and there can be no cause of action against Matthew's nominal employer, Danos.” Finding eight of the nine factors to determine borrowed employee status in favor of Danos & Curole, the Motion for Summary Judgment was granted dismissing the suit in its entirety with prejudice. As there was no viable action against Danos & Curole, BP’s intervening claim for subrogation was also dismissed.
