Patton v. Worthington Associates, Inc.

OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.

The issue presented concerns whether Appellant is a statutory employer per the Workers’ Compensation Act and, as such, enjoys immunity from civil liability for injuries sustained by Appellee Earl Patton.

*645Pursuant to Section 302(b) of the Workers’ Compensation Act,1 77 P.S. § 462, general contractors bear secondary liability for the payment of workers’' compensation benefits to injured workers employed by their subcontractors. See McDonald v. Levinson Steel Co., 302 Pa. 287, 294-95, 153 A. 424, 426 (1930). In this sense, general contractors have been denominated “statutory…