Opinion ID: 596464
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Definition of Subcontractor

Text: 10 The Supreme Court defined a subcontractor as one who performs for and takes from the prime contractor a specific part of the labor or material requirements of the original contract. MacEvoy Co. v. United States for the Use of Calvin Tomkins Co., 322 U.S. 102, 109, 64 S.Ct. 890, 894, 88 L.Ed. 1163 (1944). The test for whether one is a subcontractor is based on the substantiality and importance of his relationship with the prime contractor. F.D. Rich, 417 U.S. at 123, 94 S.Ct. at 2162. The Court reasoned, 11 It is the substantiality of the relationship which will usually determine whether the prime contractor can protect himself, since he can easily require bond security or other protection from those few subcontractors with whom he has a substantial relationship in the performance of the contract.... [Whereas] this method of protection is generally inadequate to cope with remote and undeterminable liabilities incurred by an ordinary materialman. 12 Id. at 123-24, 94 S.Ct. at 2162 (quoting MacEvoy, 322 U.S. at 110, 64 S.Ct. at 895). 13