Worker's Comp Lawsuit

[NYCHR]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

In my understanding, if an employee had an accident and is now accepting worker's compensation from his or her employer he/she gives up his/her to sue the company. Correct?

But what if, the employee is suing another company? Here's our situation.

We are a construction company that works on different buildings. The employers of our company are partial owners of the buildings we work with, ownership varies from 80-100%. Now, one of our employees fell in one of the buildings that we partially own (90%). He underwent surgery (that's how bad the fall was). He is getting worker's comp from our company, but he is suing the owners of the building where he fell. In the building where he fell, 10 people own it, 2 of them are our employers.

According to our Labor Attorney, whoever is handling the case, should dismiss it because the employee is receiving worker's comp from the company.

However, according to our building insurance (who is handling the case) it can't be dismissed because the employers of the construction company are not the sole owners of the building.

Does this make sense?

I am just so confused.. please help. Thank you

[NLW]

My thought is that he probably can sue, being that there are others involved beyond owners/employees of your company. That said, you should still have a right to subrogate against anything he receives from the building owners. If an action is filed against the building owners, you should be sure to share that information with your workers' compensation insurer, so a subrogation lien can be filed. This should help mitigate some of your workers' compensation costs.