Russell v. TMT Transportation Corp.

This dispute concerns a worker’s compensation claim arising out of the hiring of the plaintiff as an independent contractor. The plaintiffs claim must rest upon the manual labor exception to the independent contractor rule under the Worker’s Compensation Act. The defendants challenged the claim as premature based upon an arbitration provision in the parties’ contract. The worker’s compensation judge (“WCJ”) denied defendants’ exception of prematurity and the defendants appeal. Finding that the parties’ contract did not provide for the arbitration of a worker’s compensation claim, we affirm…