Appeals Granted

Case

CECILIA RODRIGUEZ, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF UBALDO RODRIGUEZ v. LEESBURG BUSINESS PARK, LLC, ET AL.
(Record Number 122029)

From

The Circuit Court of Loudoun County; J. Chamblin, Judge.

Counsel

Barbara S. Williams, Cory R. Ford, (Barbara S. Williams, P.C.) and Andrew K. Thomas (Dulaney, Lauer & Thomas, L.L.P.) for appellant.

Robert G. Harrington (Robert Harrington & Associates) for appellees.

Assignments of Error

1. The trial court violated Rule 1:1 by granting Leesburg Business Park, LLC’s (“LBP”) Motion for Reconsideration which was filed more than two years after the trial court’s original order had been entered and after this case was reversed and remanded by the Supreme Court of Virginia for further proceedings.
2. The trial court erred in refusing to consider evidence on the issue of LBP’s Plea in Bar even though the case had been remanded to the trial court by the Supreme Court of Virginia for “further proceedings.”
3. The trial court erred in refusing to allow Plaintiff to present evidence that LBP waived any claim to immunity as Rodriguez’s “statutory employer” because LBP had not purchased Workers’ Compensation insurance yet the trial court allowed LBP to reverse and revise its position that it was Rodriguez’s “statutory co-employee” (as stated in LBP’s briefs, arguments and pleadings in this case) to a defense that LBP was Rodriguez’s statutory employer.
4. The trial court erred by not ruling, nor even considering, based upon the evidence that it had, that even if LBP was a statutory employer, LBP lost its immunity by virtue of Virginia Code § 65.2-805.
5. The trial court erred in finding that construction was part of the trade, business, or occupation of Leesburg Business Park, LLC (“LBP”) where the evidence showed that LBP had never constructed a building or performed any other kind of construction work, and thus the trial court erroneously dismissed LBP as a party to a premises liability suit brought by an electrocuted worker’s widow.
6. The trial court erred in sustaining the Plea in Bar of LBP, a single member LLC which derives one-hundred percent of its income from the sale or lease of buildings once built, and dismissing all claims against it as a party defendant on the grounds that the premises owner, LBP, a single Member LLC not engaged in the construction of buildings, but rather which made its business income exclusively from the sale or lease of buildings once built, was the “statutory employer” of an electrocuted construction worker employed by LBP’s general contractor simply on the grounds that LBP claims it is a “developer.”
7. The trial court erred in sustaining the Plea in Bar of LBP where LBP failed to meet its burden of proving, under the governing law and the facts, that the premises liability suit brought by an electrocuted worker’s widow was precluded by the exclusivity bar of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act.

Date Granted

  4-10-2013