As Michigan emerges from lockdown, we are beginning to have increased court rulings on pending motions and appeals. We are pleased to report two favorable decisions on cases involving temporary employment. In both cases, Cardelli Lanfear represented labor brokers who placed employees for work at a customer’s location.
In Banda-Taveras v Elwood Staffing Agency, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s ruling granting summary disposition to our labor broker client. The plaintiffs in this case alleged that the labor broker had a duty as part of its hiring process to obtain state drivers’ license records when placing a temporary employee at a customer’s location. The Michigan Court of Appeals agreed that a negligent hiring claim alleging a failure to review state drivers’ licenses records cannot be maintained as a matter of law, especially where the employee is placed in a non-driving position and is involved in an accident during a work commute. Thus, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s ruling that Elwood Staffing was entitled to summary disposition as a matter of law.
In Peets v Inteligente Solutions, Inc, our labor broker client was placed for employment at a customer’s location. While this employee was performing work as assigned by the customer, it was alleged that the employee negligently injured another employee of the customer. We filed a motion for summary disposition on behalf of the labor broker arguing that it could not be vicariously liable for the alleged negligence of the employee, as the employee was under the exclusive control of the customer of the labor broker. The trial court agreed and granted our motion for summary disposition.
Interestingly, both cases involve the subject matter of a video presentation that this firm made to certain clients on June 2, 2020. Our video presentation covered numerous aspects of negligence claims involving labor brokers, as well as a survey of the law of all 50 states on the labor broker relationship. We are pleased to report favorable results in these two cases. If you have any questions regarding negligence and the labor broker relationship, please do not hesitate to contact Thomas Cardelli and/or Anthony F. Caffrey III to discuss same.
