## Facts

- Oakwood Hebrew Cemetery Association (the association) was a corporation that operated Oakwood Cemetery in Virginia.
- The association had four executive officers but no regular non-officer employees because it contracted with others to perform services connected with the cemetery, including grave opening and grounds maintenance.
- The association contracted with Chester Lineberry to perform maintenance work for the cemetery grounds.
- Lineberry employed Massie Charles Spurlock and sent Spurlock to mow the grass and maintain gravesites at Oakwood Cemetery every Friday.
- Lineberry and Spurlock were also regular, full-time maintenance employees of another cemetery.
- Other cemeteries commonly used maintenance workers to mow and maintain their grounds.
- While mowing at Oakwood Cemetery on a Friday assignment, Spurlock’s foot slipped under the lawnmower, and he lost four toes.
- Spurlock sought Virginia workers’ compensation benefits and named both Lineberry and the association.
- A deputy commissioner dismissed the claim, reasoning that Virginia’s workers’ compensation statute did not apply to entities that regularly employed fewer than three employees, and concluding that neither Lineberry nor the association met the coverage requirement.
- On review, the Workers’ Compensation Commission affirmed the dismissal as to Lineberry but reversed as to the association, concluding that (1) the association’s executive officers counted as employees and (2) the association was Spurlock’s statutory employer because it engaged Lineberry to perform work that was part of the association’s business.
- The association appealed the Commission’s ruling to the Virginia Court of Appeals.

## Issues

1. Whether the association “regularly employed” at least three employees under the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act, including whether the association’s executive officers counted as employees for that threshold.
2. Whether the association was Spurlock’s statutory employer because mowing and gravesite maintenance were part of the association’s trade, business, or occupation as a cemetery operator.
3. Whether the association could be liable for compensation as a statutory employer even though Spurlock’s direct employer (Lineberry) was not liable under the Act due to employing fewer than three employees.

## Decision

- The Virginia Court of Appeals affirmed the Workers’ Compensation Commission’s decision holding the association liable for benefits.
- The court agreed that the association’s executive officers could be counted as employees, bringing the association within the Act’s minimum-employee coverage requirement.
- The court agreed that routine cemetery grounds maintenance was part of operating the cemetery and that, by contracting for that work, the association was Spurlock’s statutory employer.
- The claim against Lineberry remained dismissed.

## Legal Principles

- In determining whether a corporate employer meets the Act’s employee-numerosity coverage requirement, corporate executive officers may be treated as employees.
- A business that contracts out work that is part of its trade, business, or occupation may be treated as the statutory employer of the contractor’s injured employee.
- Routine maintenance of the grounds (including mowing and gravesite upkeep) can constitute work that is part of the business of operating a cemetery for statutory-employer purposes.
- Statutory-employer liability may place responsibility for workers’ compensation benefits on the principal even when the injured worker’s direct employer is not covered by the Act due to an insufficient number of employees.

## Conclusion

Oakwood Hebrew Cemetery Association v. Spurlock held that the cemetery association was covered by Virginia’s Workers’ Compensation Act because its corporate officers counted as employees and that the association was the injured worker’s statutory employer because it contracted for routine grounds maintenance that was part of operating the cemetery, making the association liable for workers’ compensation benefits.


Oakwood Hebrew Cemetery Association v. Spurlock, 1992 WL 441851 (1992)