DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.
When an employee elects to receive Workers' Compensation benefits from his general employer, a special employer is shielded from any action at law commenced by the employee ( see Kramer v. NAB Constr. Corp., 282 A.D.2d 714; cf. Thompson v. Grumman Aerospace Corp., 78 N.Y.2d 553). A person's categorization as a special employee is usually a question of fact ( see Thompson v. Grumman Aerospace Corp., supra at 557; Hintze v. Brookhaven Natl. Lab., 278 A.D.2d 456). Here, the defendant failed to establish that it directed the work and exercised such a degree of control over the plaintiff Ernest Smith that he must be considered its special employee. Thus, the defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint was properly denied.
RITTER, J.P., H. MILLER, CRANE and COZIER, JJ., concur.