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When is a Person an Employee of Another?
Headline News |
2011/07/20 08:16
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On July 19, 2011, the Indiana Court of Appeals issued a decision which I found surprising in McCann v. City of Anderson, ___ N.E.2d ___ (Ind. Ct. App. 2011), Cause No. 48A02-1009-PL-1060. At issue was whether a trial court had properly granted summary judgment on the question of whether a warrant officer was an employee of the Anderson City Court. Despite the procedural posture of the case and factors that weighed in favor of finding an employer-employee relationship, the Court affirmed a decision granting summary judgment to the defendants.
In this case, McCann was a police officer, who eventually became warrant officer for the Anderson City Court in 1998. He held that post until 2005, when the judge asked that McCann be reassigned. As a result of this dismissal, McCann filed suit based on the Indiana Wage Statute, arguing that he had been an employee of the Court and was entitled to funds that had been allocated to the position of warrant officer by that court. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment and the trial court granted the defendants' motion.
On appeal, the Court quoted GKN Co. v. Magness, 744 N.E.2d 397, 402 (Ind. 2001), for the seven factors that a court should consider when determining whether an employer-employee relationship exists. The Court then analyzed each of these factors and determined that three weighed in favor of the existence an employer-employee relationship and four against, with the "most important" factor weighing against.
Thus, over all, four of the seven factors, including the most important, "Control over the Means Used," indicate McCann was not an employee of the City Court. Because the City Court was not McCann's employer, he cannot be due any "unpaid wages" from the City Court. Therefore, he cannot assert a claim against the City Court under the Indiana Wage Statute.
The aspect of this decision that is most surprising is that the Court reached this conclusion despite the procedural posture of the case. It could have easily held that, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to McCann, the seven factors weighed both for and against a finding of an employer-employee relationship between McCann and the City Court created a genuine issue of material fact. This indicates that the factor the Court identified as being "most important", whether the purported employer exercised control over the means used by the purported employee to perform work, is very important indeed.
Lesson:
1.It will be exceedingly difficult to prove the existence of an employer-employee relationship if the purported employer did not exercise control over the means that the purported employee used to perform his work.
Brad A. Catlin
Price Waicukauski & Riley, LLC
http://www.indianalawupdate.com/entry/When-is-a-Person-an-Employee-of-Another |
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Vt. judge denies bid to keep nuke plant open
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/07/19 16:53
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A federal judge said Monday he would not order that Vermont's only nuclear plant be allowed to remain open while a lawsuit to determine its long-term future plays out. The state is moving to close the Vermont Yankee plant, with both the governor and the state Senate on record as wanting it to close when its initial 40-year license expires next March. The plant's owner, New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., got a 20-year license extension for Vermont Yankee from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and filed a lawsuit arguing that the federal action pre-empts the state's effort to close the plant. Last month, Entergy went to court asking for a preliminary order allowing it to stay open while the underlying lawsuit works its way through the courts — possibly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Monday's order, Judge J. Garvan Murtha said there was no need for such an order because the main trial in the case is scheduled for mid-September, only eight weeks away. "The motion is denied, because Entergy has failed to show that any irreparable harm it may incur between now and a decision on the merits" of its lawsuit, Murtha wrote. During two days of hearings in late June, Entergy lawyers and witnesses told Murtha that they needed a decision on the preliminary injunction by July 23 so the company could order the specially fabricated nuclear fuel it needs to load into the reactor core during a refueling outage set for October. |
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San Francisco to shutter courtrooms, lay off 200
Headline News |
2011/07/19 16:53
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The San Francisco Superior Court announced Monday that it's laying off more than 40 percent of its staff and shuttering 25 courtrooms because of budget cuts. Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein said the actions were necessary to close a $13.75 million budget deficit caused by state budget cuts. She said the cuts mean it will take many more hours to pay a traffic ticket in person, up to 18 months to finalize a divorce and five years for a lawsuit to go to trial. "The civil justice system in San Francisco is collapsing," Feinstein said. Some 200 of the court's 480 workers will be let go by Sept. 30, including 11 of 12 commissioners who preside over a variety of cases. And she said it could get worse if optimistic revenue projections don't materialize by January. "The future is very, very bleak for our courts," Feinstein said at a Monday press conference. Feinstein said criminal cases would remain largely unaffected because of constitutional guarantees of speedy trials. Every other type of court, though, is facing significant cutbacks. The San Francisco courts aren't the only courts facing cutbacks, only the most dramatic. The Judicial Council, which manages the judicial branch's budget, will decide Friday whether to cut funding of local courts by 8.8 percent or about $305 million. Other courts are considering unpaid furloughs for workers, shorter hours for clerks and other cost-cutting measures. None are going as far as San Francisco, but the budget woes have caused discord within the judiciary. The Alliance of California Judges was formed almost three years ago by judges unhappy with the Judicial Council's fiscal management. In particular, the Alliance is demanding administrators scrap plans for a new computer system projected to cost $2 billion to fully install state wide. Instead, court administrators are proposing delaying the project for a year, which would save $100 million. |
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Wife of NY pharmacy suspect pleads not guilty
Court Feed News |
2011/07/19 12:54
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A woman accused of driving the getaway car after her husband allegedly massacred four people in a holdup for prescription painkillers pleaded not guilty to an upgraded robbery charge on Tuesday.
Melinda Brady now faces a first-degree robbery charge, which carries up to 25 years in prison if she's convicted. She had previously been charged with third-degree robbery.
The judge ordered her held without bail. She had been jailed on $750,000 bail since she and her husband were arrested last month.
Police said Brady told investigators that she and her husband, David Laffer, plotted the Father's Day robbery in Medford, N.Y., but that she did not know the plan involved killing.
About 20 relatives of the victims watched from the gallery of the crowded courtroom.
Brady, 29, was arrested on robbery and obstruction charges. She blamed her husband when she was led from police headquarters to a nearby precinct holding cell following her arrest last month. |
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DC killing suspect escapes by switching identities
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/07/18 15:17
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Authorities searched Saturday for a man charged with first-degree murder who allegedly swapped identities with another prisoner and walked out of a Washington courthouse. U.S. Marshals spokesman David Neumann said officials are looking for 24-year-old James Brewer, a suspect in a fatal shooting in Washington in June. Neumann said authorities are still investigating how Brewer escaped Friday. D.C. Superior Court records, however, say that before Brewer was called before a judge, he switched identification bracelets with a prisoner arrested on a drug charge. Brewer then apparently posed as the other person and was released because the charge, possession of PCP, is a misdemeanor. Brewer is described as a black man, 5 feet, 9 inches tall, about 180 pounds with dreadlocks. Brewer, who also goes by "Sticky," is considered armed and dangerous. Officials say he is known to travel to Newport News, Va., where he was arrested Thursday. He may also be interested in traveling to Philadelphia. |
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Man in court for NY-to-LA flight stowaway charges
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/07/18 12:14
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A Nigerian American man is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Los Angeles on charges he breached airport security in New York and got a free ride on an LA-bound flight.
Twenty-four-year-old Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of being a stowaway and attempting to enter a secure area of an airport by fraud or false pretense.
Authorities say he boarded a flight in New York June 24 using an expired boarding pass with someone else's name on it. The Virgin America crew didn't realize until mid-flight that an extra passenger was in a premium seat that was supposed to be empty.
Noibi spent several days in Los Angeles and was arrested when he tried to board a Delta flight with another expired pass. |
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