Zellers v. Playa Pacifica, Ltd.

Opinion

VOGEL (Miriam A.), J.

— A property owner hired a licensed contractor to repair a stairway. Several months later, the contractor hired James H. Zellers to help with the work. About a month after that, the contractor’s license expired. Three weeks later, Zellers was injured while working on the owner’s property. When the owner’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier determined that the unlicensed contractor was also unlawfully uninsured, the owner’s carrier paid Zellers’s workers’ compensation claim. Zellers then switched hats, decided he was an independent contractor and not the…