ZORN v. CARL R. SMITH POTATOES
11/24/1997
[ 1] The employee, Jennifer Zorn, appeals from a decision of the Workers' Compensation Board denying her petition for award based on the determination that her employer, Carl R. Smith Potatoes (Smith), is exempt from the requirement to secure the payment of workers' compensation pursuant to 39-A M.R.S.A. ยง 401(1) (Supp. 1996). Concluding that the Board correctly construed the statutory provision, we affirm.
[ 2] Zorn was injured on October 7, 1993, while employed as a seasonal laborer by Smith, a family agricultural business that raises and sells potatoes and other crops. Smith employs fourteen to eighteen workers on a seasonal basis and has one year-round employee. Smith does not maintain workers' compensation insurance, but has an employer's liability insurance policy in the amount of
$500,000, with coverage for medical payments of not less than $100,000.
[ 3] Zorn filed a petition for award with the
1. Private employers. Every private employer is subject to
this Act and shall secure the payment of compensation in
conformity with this section and sections 402 to 407 with
respect to all employees, subject to the provisions of this
section. A private employer who has not secured the payment of
compensation . . . is not entitled, in a civil action brought
by an employee . . . for personal injuries or death arising out
of and in the course of employment, to the defense set forth in
section 103. The employee of any such employer may, instead of
bringing a civil action, claim compensation from the employer
under this Act.
The following employers are not liable under this section for
securing the payment of compensation in conformity with this
section . . . with respect to the employees listed, nor
deprived of the defenses listed in section 103:
B. Employers of employees engaged in agriculture or
aquaculture as seasonal or casual laborers, if the employer
maintains coverage by an employer's liability insurance
policy with total limits of not less than $25,000 and medical
payment coverage of not less than $1,000.
(1) As used in this subsection, `casual' means occasional
or incidental. `Seasonal' refers to laborers engaged in
agricultural or aquacultural employment beginning at or
after the commencement of the planting or seeding season
and ending at or before the completion of the harvest
season; and
C. Employers of 6 or fewer agricultural or aquacultural
laborers, if the employer maintains an employer's liability
insurance policy with total limits of not less than $100,000
multiplied by the number of agricultural or aquacultural
laborers employed by that employer and medical payment
coverage of not less than $1,000.
(1) In computing the number of agricultural or
aquacultural laborers under this paragraph, immediate
family members of unincorporated employers, immediate
family members of bona fide owners of at least 20% of the
outstanding voting stock of an incorporated agricultural
employer and seasonal and casual workers are not included.
For purposes of this subparagraph, `immediate family
members' means parents, spouse, brothers, sisters and
children.
(2) This exemption does not apply if the employer has
employed more than 6 agricultural or aquacultural laborers
in regular and concurrent manner, as computed under
subparagraph 1, at any time during the 52 weeks immediately
preceding the injury.
The burden of pr
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