Legal Question in Personal Injury in Pennsylvania

Re: personalinjury

The question is whether or not the student was your employee. Are you in the business of removing pools and other similar type work? Did you pay the student a salary? Did you withold taxes? Did you give him instructions as to how to do the job. Did he use his own equipment or yours. If you answer yes to most of these questions, he is your employee and you are responsible for paying him workers comp. benefits. If you did not have WC Insurance, you can be held both criminally and civilly liable.

If you answer "no" to these questions,and he used his own tools, set his own hours, and was paid a lump sum for this job, with no deductions being taken out for taxes, social security, etc., he was probably an independent contractor, and you would not be liable. The question is one of control.

I can't see any circumstances under which the landowner would be responsible unless he or she was somehow negligent.

Re: personalinjury

Unless the seller/owner was negligent somehow and that negligence caused the injury, he/she would not be responsible.

That leaves the question as to whether you would be liable.

Did you pay the student? What was your arrangement with him? It would turn on whether the student could be considered to be your employee, or whether he was an independent contractor.

Are you in the business of removing pools or something similar? How were you paying him? Did you withhold taxes?

Did you control how he did the job (i.e., did you give him directions/insructions as to how to do the job?, set his hours, etc.) Did he use your tools and equipment or did he bring his own?

If you paid him, and you instructed him and he used your tools and he was under your supervision, then he was your employee. You would have been responsible for covering him under workers' comp insurance. To not do so is a violation of the law, both criminal and civil.

If he used his own tools, you paid him for the "job" rather than hourly, if you didn't set his hours and other conditions of work, then he was an independent contractor and you are not responsible.

It really comes down to the specific facts of your relationship with him. The answer given is really the general rule, but could change based on some fact that I'm not aware of.

Is he making a claim for medical bills? How much? Is it worth litigating or would it be better to just pay it? These are questions that you have to decide after getting legal advice and having the entire situation evaluated based on all of the relevant facts.