Court Opinion

ID: 9787834
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:25:42.27991+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:01.107930
License: Public Domain

Chief Judge Cooke
(concurring). I concur in the majority’s reasoning and result. There is an additional ground for reversal, however. Five Boro was already determined by the Workers’ Compensation Board to be the decedents’ employer. Duncan Petroleum claims that it was a coemployer because it and Five Boro were merely alter egos. Thus, the only question to be resolved is the relationship between the two companies: if alter egos, then Duncan Petroleum is an employer; if not alter egos, then Duncan Petroleum is not an employer. In short, the issue here is not “the availability of [workers’] compensation” as such (O’Rourke v Long, 41 NY2d 219, 228), but rather the legal identity of two corporations. Deciding whether companies are alter egos, so that it is appropriate to pierce the corporate veil, is a task for which the courts are well suited, and as to which there is no need for mandatory deferral to the board in the circumstances here.