Castillo-Mota v. Med. Delivery Servs.

• Decision Date: 04 June 2020
• Docket Number: 528917
• Citation: 184 A.D.3d 924,123 N.Y.S.3d 553 (Mem)
• Parties: In the Matter of the Claim of Ulises CASTILLO–MOTA, Respondent. v. MEDICAL DELIVERY SERVICES, Appellant. v. Commissioner of Labor, Respondent.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

184 A.D.3d 924
123 N.Y.S.3d 553 (Mem)

In the Matter of the Claim of Ulises CASTILLO–MOTA, Respondent.
v.
MEDICAL DELIVERY SERVICES, Appellant.
v.
Commissioner of Labor, Respondent.

528917

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.

Decided and Entered: June 4, 2020
Calendar Date: May 21, 2020

Peter Fidopiastis, Queensbury, for appellant.

Carolyn B. George, Albany, for Ulises Castillo–Moto, respondent.

Letitia James, Attorney General, New York City (Dawn M. Foshee of counsel), for Commissioner of Labor, respondent.

Before: Egan Jr., J.P., Mulvey, Aarons, Pritzker and Colangelo, JJ.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Colangelo, J.

Medical Delivery Services (hereinafter MDS) is a logistics broker that arranges transportation of time-sensitive radioactive medication that is regulated by state and federal law. MDS engaged the services of Subcontracting Concepts Inc. (hereinafter SCI) as a third-party administrator to vet couriers, as well as to handle payroll and

123 N.Y.S.3d 554

other employment-related matters. Upon responding to an advertisement seeking a courier, claimant entered into an owner/operator agreement with SCI and was subsequently hired by MDS to use his own vehicle to transport the radioactive medicine. Following claimant's application for unemployment insurance benefits, the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, in a combined hearing, ultimately found that an employer-employee relationship existed between MDS and claimant and ruled that MDS was liable for additional unemployment insurance contributions on remuneration paid to claimant and others similarly situated. MDS appeals.

We affirm. As noted in the Board's decision, this Court in Matter of Crystal (Medical Delivery Servs.-Commissioner of Labor) , 150 A.D.3d 1595, 55 N.Y.S.3d 518 (2017) affirmed findings by the Board that certain claimants performing similar courier services for MDS, under materially indistinguishable circumstances and during the same time period herein, were employees entitled to unemployment insurance...