GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1995 SESSION
CHAPTER 555
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. G.S. 97-19 reads as rewritten:
"§ 97-19. Liability of principal contractors; certificate that subcontractor has complied with law; right to recover compensation of those who would have been liable; order of liability.
Any principal contractor, intermediate contractor, or
subcontractor who shall sublet any contract for the performance of any work
without requiring from such subcontractor or obtaining from the Industrial
Commission a certificate, issued by a workers' compensation insurance carrier,
or a certificate of compliance issued by the Department of Insurance to a
self-insured subcontractor, stating that such subcontractor has complied with
G.S. 97-93 hereof, shall be liable, irrespective of whether such subcontractor
has regularly in service fewer than three employees in the same business within
this State, to the same extent as such subcontractor would be if he were
subject to the provisions of this Article for the payment of compensation and
other benefits under this Article on account of the injury or death of any
such subcontractor, any principal or partner of such subcontractor or any
employee of such subcontractor due to an accident arising out of and in the
course of the performance of the work covered by such subcontract. If the
principal contractor, intermediate contractor or subcontractor shall obtain
such certificate at the time of subletting such contract to subcontractor, he
shall not thereafter be held liable to any such subcontractor, any principal
or partner of such subcontractor, or any employee of such subcontractor for
compensation or other benefits under this Article.
Any principal contractor, intermediate contractor, or subcontractor paying compensation or other benefits under this Article, under the foregoing provisions of this section, may recover the amount so paid from any person, persons, or corporation who independently of such provision, would have been liable for the payment thereof.
Every claim filed with the Industrial Commission under this section shall be instituted against all parties liable for payment, and said Commission, in its award, shall fix the order in which said parties shall be exhausted, beginning with the immediate employer.
The principal or owner may insure any or all of his contractors and their employees in a blanket policy, and when so insured such contractor's employees will be entitled to compensation benefits regardless of whether the relationship of employer and employee exists between the principal and the contractor."
Sec. 2. This act is effective upon ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 10th day of June, 1996.
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Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate
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Harold J. Brubaker
Speaker of the House of Representatives