N.Y. General Obligations Law § 18-201: Specifications of liability for employers and employees

§ 18-201. Specifications of liability for employers and employees. 1.

As used in this section:

(a) "Person" means any individual, firm, company, partnership, joint

venture, joint-stock association, corporation, association, trust or

other legal entity.

(b) The words "employer", "employee", "employment", "compensation",

"injury" and "death" shall have the same meaning as set forth in section

two of the workers' compensation law.

(c) The terms "indemnity" and "contribution" shall not include a

claim or cause of action for contribution or indemnification based upon

a provision in a written contract entered into prior to the accident or

occurrence by which the employer had expressly agreed to contribution to

or indemnification of the claimant or person asserting the cause of

action for the type of loss suffered.

2. The liability of an employer and his or her employees set forth in

sections ten, eleven and twenty-nine of the workers' compensation law

shall be exclusive and in place of any other liability whatsoever, to

employees, their personal representatives, spouses, parents, dependents,

distributees or any person otherwise entitled to recover damages,

contribution or indemnity, at common law or otherwise, on account of

injury or death or liability arising therefrom, except that if an

employer fails to secure the payment of compensation for its injured

employees and their dependents as provided in section fifty of the

workers' compensation law, an injured employee, or his or her legal

representative in case death results from the injury, may, at his or her

option, elect to claim compensation under the workers' compensation law,

or to maintain an action in the courts for damages against the employer

on account of such injury; and in such an action it shall not be

necessary to plead or prove freedom from contributory negligence nor may

the defendant plead as a defense that the injury was caused by the

negligence of a fellow servant nor that the employee assumed the risk of

his or her employment, nor that the injury was due to the contributory

negligence of the employee.