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Harris v. Thompson Contractors2/5/2002
defendants.
The Workers' Compensation Act is broad and covers all employers and employees unless they are specifically excluded.
From and after January 1, 1975, every employer and employee, as hereinbefore defined and except as herein stated, shall be presumed to have accepted the provisions of this Article respectively to pay and accept compensation for personal injury or death by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment and shall be bound thereby. G.S. § 97-3 (emphasis added).
Here, plaintiff and defendants entered into a pre-trial agreement which was signed on 2 March 1999. Among other things, this agreement provided that: "1. Employee is Wayman Harris. 2. Employer is Thompson Contractors Inc. . . . 4. Employee-Employer relationship existed." The Opinion and Award by Deputy Commissioner Cramer and the Opinion and Award by the Full Commission contained similar stipulations. This stipulation found in both documents stated that " he parties were subject to and bound by the provisions of the North Carolina Workers' Compensation Act" and an "employee-employer relationship existed between the parties at all relevant times . . . ." A stipulation regarding the employer-employee relationship is binding on the parties. Sorrell v. Sorrell's Farms and Ranches, Inc., 78 N.C. App. 415, 417, 337 S.E.2d 595, 596 (1985).
Other jurisdictions have held that a claimant's status as a prisoner will not prevent the existence of an employer-employee relationship between a claimant-prisoner and a private employer. See Benavidez v. Sierra Blanca Motors, 922 P.2d 1205, 1211 (N.M. 1996) (holding that claimant's "status as an inmate does not preclude the existence of an employer-employee relationship for the purpose of receiving workers' compensation benefits."); Courtesy Construction Corp. v. Derscha, 431 So.2d 232, 232-33 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1983) (holding that " ork-released prisoners engaged to work in private enterprise, for compensation paid them by private businesses that are `employers' in every practical sense of the word, are not excluded from [the Workers' Compensation Act]."); Hamilton v. Daniel International Corp., 257 S.E.2d 157, 158 (S.C. 1979) (holding that defendant required to provide workers' compensation benefits due to the existence of an employer-employee relationship and that "[claimant] transcended his prisoner status and became a private employee entitled to workmen's compensation benefits."). However, due to the stipulations that exist here, we need not reach the issue of whether plaintiff and defendant Thompson meet the statutory definitions of employee and employer respectively.
Since the requisite employer-employee relationship exists, plaintiff will be covered by the Act unless the Act specifically excludes him. G.S. § 97-3. Employers and employees not covered by the Act are enumerated in G.S. § 97-13. Those excluded by this provision are: "(a) Employees of Certain Railroads." "(b) Casual Employment, Domestic Servants, Farm Laborers, Federal Government, Employer of Less than Three Employees." "(c) Prisoners." "(d) Sellers of Agricultural Products." G.S. § 97-13. Section "(c) Prisoners" states:
This Article shall not apply to prisoners being worked by the State or any subdivision thereof, except to the following extent: Whenever any prisoner assigned to the State Department of Correction shall suffer accidental injury or accidental death arising out of and in the course of the employment to which he had been assigned, if there be death or if the results of such injury continue until after the date of the lawful discharge of such prisoner to such an extent as to amount to a disability as defined in this Article, then suc
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