Intermodal Services, Inc. v. Smith

In this tort action seeking damages for personal injuries, the defendants filed a plea to the jurisdiction asserting that the plaintiffs exclusive remedy was under the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act (the Act). The dispositive question on appeal is whether the trial court correctly ruled that the Act did not apply because the plaintiff was an independent contractor, not an “employee.”

In 1981, appellee Gary Daniel Smith, the plaintiff below, was injured in Alexandria on the premises of appellant Intermodal Services, Inc. (the Services Company), a defendant below. The injuries resulted from…