FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 207

93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY


 

 

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE COOPER (120).

         Read 1st time January 12, 2005 and copies ordered printed.

STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk

0955L.01I


 

AN ACT

To repeal sections 287.020 and 288.035, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof three new sections relating to for-hire motor carriers.





Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:


            Section A. Sections 287.020 and 288.035, RSMo, are repealed and three new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 287.020, 287.041, and 288.035, to read as follows:

            287.020. 1. The word "employee" as used in this chapter shall be construed to mean every person in the service of any employer, as defined in this chapter, under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, or under any appointment or election, including executive officers of corporations. Any reference to any employee who has been injured shall, when the employee is dead, also include his dependents, and other persons to whom compensation may be payable. The word "employee" shall also include all minors who work for an employer, whether or not such minors are employed in violation of law, and all such minors are hereby made of full age for all purposes under, in connection with, or arising out of this chapter. The word "employee" shall not include an individual who is the owner, as defined in section 301.010(43), RSMo, and operator of a motor vehicle which is leased or contracted with a driver to a for-hire [common or contract] motor [vehicle] carrier operating within a commercial zone as defined in section 390.020 or 390.041, RSMo, or operating under a certificate issued by the [motor carrier and railroad safety division of the department of economic development] Missouri department of transportation or by the [interstate commerce commission] federal Department of Transportation or any of its subagencies.

            2. The word "accident" as used in this chapter shall, unless a different meaning is clearly indicated by the context, be construed to mean an unexpected or unforeseen identifiable event or series of events happening suddenly and violently, with or without human fault, and producing at the time objective symptoms of an injury. An injury is compensable if it is clearly work related. An injury is clearly work related if work was a substantial factor in the cause of the resulting medical condition or disability. An injury is not compensable merely because work was a triggering or precipitating factor.

            3. (1) In this chapter the term "injury" is hereby defined to be an injury which has arisen out of and in the course of employment. The injury must be incidental to and not independent of the relation of employer and employee. Ordinary, gradual deterioration or progressive degeneration of the body caused by aging shall not be compensable, except where the deterioration or degeneration follows as an incident of employment.

            (2) An injury shall be deemed to arise out of and in the course of the employment only if:

            (a) It is reasonably apparent, upon consideration of all the circumstances, that the employment is a substantial factor in causing the injury; and

            (b) It can be seen to have followed as a natural incident of the work; and

            (c) It can be fairly traced to the employment as a proximate cause; and

            (d) It does not come from a hazard or risk unrelated to the employment to which workers would have been equally exposed outside of and unrelated to the employment in normal nonemployment life;

            (3) The terms "injury" and "personal injuries" shall mean violence to the physical structure of the body and to the personal property which is used to make up the physical structure of the body, such as artificial dentures, artificial limbs, glass eyes, eyeglasses, and other prostheses which are placed in or on the body to replace the physical structure and such disease or infection as naturally results therefrom. These terms shall in no case except as specifically provided in this chapter be construed to include occupational disease in any form, nor shall they be construed to include any contagious or infectious disease contracted during the course of the employment, nor shall they include death due to natural causes occurring while the worker is at work.

            4. "Death" when mentioned as a basis for the right to compensation means only death resulting from such violence and its resultant effects occurring within three hundred weeks after the accident; except that in cases of occupational disease, the limitation of three hundred weeks shall not be applicable.

            5. Without otherwise affecting either the meaning or interpretation of the abridged clause, "personal injuries arising out of and in the course of such employment", it is hereby declared not to cover workers except while engaged in or about the premises where their duties are being performed, or where their services require their presence as a part of such service.

            6. A person who is employed by the same employer for more than five and one-half consecutive work days shall for the purpose of this chapter be considered an "employee".

            7. The term "total disability" as used in this chapter shall mean inability to return to any employment and not merely mean inability to return to the employment in which the employee was engaged at the time of the accident.

            8. As used in this chapter and all acts amendatory thereof, the term "commission" shall hereafter be construed as meaning and referring exclusively to the labor and industrial relations commission of Missouri, and the term "director" shall hereafter be construed as meaning the director of the department of insurance of the state of Missouri or such agency of government as shall exercise the powers and duties now conferred and imposed upon the department of insurance of the state of Missouri.

            9. The term "division" as used in this chapter means the division of workers' compensation of the department of labor and industrial relations of the state of Missouri.

            10. For the purposes of this chapter, the term "minor" means a person who has not attained the age of eighteen years; except that, for the purpose of computing the compensation provided for in this chapter, the provisions of section 287.250 shall control.

            287.041. Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 287.030 and 287.040, under no circumstances shall a for-hire motor carrier operating within a commercial zone as defined in section 390.020 or 390.041, RSMo, or operating under a certificate issued by the Missouri department of transportation or the federal Department of Transportation or its subagencies, be determined to be an employer of a lessor, as defined in 49 CFR Part 376.2(f), or of a driver receiving remuneration from a lessor, as defined in 49 CFR Part 376.2(f); provided, however, the term "for-hire motor carrier" shall not include an organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or any governmental entity.

            288.035. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 288.034, RSMo, in the case of an individual who is the owner, as defined in section 301.010(43), RSMo, and operator of a motor vehicle which is leased or contracted with driver to a for-hire common or contract motor vehicle carrier operating within a commercial zone as defined in section 390.020 or 390.041, RSMo, or operating under a certificate issued by the [motor carrier and railroad safety division of the department of economic development under the provisions of this chapter] Missouri department of transportation or by the [interstate commerce commission] federal Department of Transportation, or any of its subagencies, such owner/operator shall not be deemed to be an employee, provided, however, such individual owner and operator shall be deemed to be in employment if the for-hire [common or contract vehicle] motor carrier is an organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or any governmental entity.