N.Y. General Obligations Law 18-201 – Specifications of liability for employers and employees
§ 18-201. Specifications of liability for employers and employees. 1. As used in this section:
Terms Used In N.Y. General Obligations Law 18-201
- Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. Source: FDIC
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
(a) "Person" means any individual, firm, company, partnership, joint venture, joint-stock association, corporation, association, trust or other legal entity.
(b) The words "employer", "employee", "employment", "compensation", "injury" and "death" shall have the same meaning as set forth in section two of the workers' compensation law.
(c) The terms "indemnity" and "contribution" shall not include a claim or cause of action for contribution or indemnification based upon a provision in a written contract entered into prior to the accident or occurrence by which the employer had expressly agreed to contribution to or indemnification of the claimant or person asserting the cause of action for the type of loss suffered.
2. The liability of an employer and his or her employees set forth in sections ten, eleven and twenty-nine of the workers' compensation law shall be exclusive and in place of any other liability whatsoever, to employees, their personal representatives, spouses, parents, dependents, distributees or any person otherwise entitled to recover damages, contribution or indemnity, at common law or otherwise, on account of injury or death or liability arising therefrom, except that if an employer fails to secure the payment of compensation for its injured employees and their dependents as provided in section fifty of the workers' compensation law, an injured employee, or his or her legal representative in case death results from the injury, may, at his or her option, elect to claim compensation under the workers' compensation law, or to maintain an action in the courts for damages against the employer on account of such injury; and in such an action it shall not be necessary to plead or prove freedom from contributory negligence nor may the defendant plead as a defense that the injury was caused by the negligence of a fellow servant nor that the employee assumed the risk of his or her employment, nor that the injury was due to the contributory negligence of the employee.