Walt Barefoot and Sam Sammataro Represent Large Regional Hospital
They obtain reversal of an award by the Workers’ Compensation Commission. The claimant was a certified registered nurse anesthetist supplied by a local staffing agency. The potential liability of the hospital approached $1,000,000. The hospital disputed the claim by the injured worker and the staffing agency that she was the hospital’s employee, and the court agreed. Applying the even handed analysis required by Wilkerson v. Palmetto State Transportation Company, the court of appeals determined the worker failed to meet a single element of the employment test. Accordingly, the court held the worker was not the hospital’s employee and remanded the case for a determination of whether she was an employee of the staffing agency.