An opera star in New York who was injured several years ago during a performance of “Faust” has gotten clearance to sue the opera house where she sustained the fall, rather than collect workers’ comp benefits, as they were not her employer at the time of injury.

Wendy White worked as an opera singer and has been in over 500 performances at the Metropolitan Opera House. During a performance of “Faust” she fell from an elevated platform and claims that her injuries left her permanently injured, and unable to sing at the level she needs to in order to continue her work as an opera singer. The Met argued that White was their employee and so should receive workers’ compensation benefits as her exclusive remedy.

Under New York’s comp laws, generally a performer would be considered an employee of the venue where they were performing, but she was not an employee of the Met because of other written contracts. Her contracts and payments were not with her personally but with her personal holding company, WW, Inc. A New York appellate court decided that since her performance agreements were between WW, Inc. and the Met, she had an exception to standard contractor agreements and workers’ compensation law as she was, by contract, the employee of another employer. She further argued that the Met did not have total control over her performances and she had “full artistic control” over her performance (work). The Met could not provide the court with enough evidence to convince them that she was their employee.

She was granted permission to proceed with a civil action for negligence against the opera house for her injury.

From WorkCompWriter.com