Allied Interstate Inc. v. Sessions Payroll Management, Inc.

Defendant Sessions Payroll Management, Inc. (Sessions), appeals from a judgment entered after a court trial in which it was found to have breached a contract for workers’ compensation insurance by failing to pay the premium. Defendant contends the trial court erred in finding that it, rather than its successor, was obliged to pay the premium and in finding that the premium was properly increased by application of a 121 percent experience modifier. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

The facts are taken from the reporter’s and clerk’s transcripts and trial exhibits lodged on appeal. There is no material dispute over the facts, only over their legal effect.

Sessions is a payroll company that contracts with motion picture production companies to provide administrative services. It issues payroll checks to movie extras, calculates and deducts appropriate withholding taxes, remits taxes to the appropriate agencies, obtains workers’ compensation insurance *813 coverage, processes workers’ compensation claims, and makes quarterly unemployment reports to California’s Employment Development Department (EDD).

Sessions’s employees fall under two classification codes for purposes of workers’…