The NAM called on the South Carolina Supreme Court to reconsider a decision that leaves countless manufacturers and contractors exposed to unexpected tort liability and upsets the statutory scheme and purpose of having workplace injuries addressed through the no-fault workers’ compensation system. In this wrongful death case involving alleged asbestos exposure, the South Carolina Supreme Court defied 80 years of precedent by upholding a $20M jury verdict against CNA Holdings, even though the decedent was a “statutory employee” of CNA, meaning that he was covered by the workers’ compensation system and barred from pursuing a claim through the civil law tort system. Under the statutory employer doctrine—codified in South Carolina’s workers’ compensation statute—a business which subcontracts out work that is important, necessary, essential or integral to the business is treated as the statutory employer of the subcontractor’s employees and thus responsible for providing workers’ compensation insurance for those employees. That is precisely what CNA did in this case, yet the court deprived CNA of the immunity from civil liability that is the benefit of that bargain.
The NAM filed an amicus brief in support of CAN’s petition for rehearing, emphasizing the significant destabilizing impact on the manufacturing sector should the court’s erroneous construction of the “statutory employer doctrine” not be reconsidered. Our brief further argues that the doctrine must be construed in the broadest manner possible in order to extend workers’ compensation coverage to South Carolina workers, as the state legislature intended.
Unfortunately, in April 2022, the court denied rehearing.