Court rules against GateHouse in carrier case

Court rules against GateHouse in carrier case:

Newspaper carriers for GateHouse Media Massachusetts must be classified as employees, not independent contractors, a Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled, according to MassLive.com.  

The case was Suzanne Carey vs. GateHouse Media Massachusetts.

"We're disappointed in the ruling," said Robert Ambrogi, executive director of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. "It's potentially a blow to the newspaper industry."

Attorneys, including Ambrogi, said ruling was based on the facts of the case, and the court did not rule on the question of whether federal or state law governs cases such as this, the paper said. Newspapers' attorneys argued here and in other cases that a more lenient federal rule involving independent contractors should govern, not the state law, according to the paper.

"This is a fact-specific ruling based on the facts of this case," said attorney James Simpson, who represents the newspaper carriers. "I don't think it's a blanket ruling every newspaper carrier is an employee under Massachusetts law."

Mark Batton, an attorney for GateHouse, said GateHouse had no comment on the case for the paper.