Ninth Circuit Modifies Opinion in Independent Contractor Driver Case

On August 5, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals modified its decision in Narayan v. EGL, Inc. The text of the modification, which does not impact the outcome, is as follows:

On page 10084, line 20: "This is not all." is deleted. On page 10085, second indented paragraph, first sentence: "The fact that the Drivers here had contracts 'expressly acknowledging that they were independent contractors' is simply not significant under California's test of employment." is replaced with "That the Drivers here had contracts 'expressly acknowledging that they were independent contractors' is simply not dispositive under California's test of employment."

The Court thus recognized that while the contracts may impact the analysis under Borello, they are not determinative. The new citation for the case is --- F.3d ---, 2010 WL 3035487.