A principal, intermediate, or subcontractor is liable for compensation to any employee injured while in the employ of any subcontractor and engaged upon the subject matter of the contract, to the same extent as the immediate employer. Any principal, intermediate, or subcontractor who pays compensation under the provisions of this section may recover the amount paid from any person, who, independently of this section, would have been liable to pay compensation to the injured employee. Each claim for compensation under this section shall in the first instance be presented to and instituted against the immediate employer, but such proceeding does not constitute a waiver of the employee’s rights to recover compensation under this title from the principal or intermediate contractor. However, the collection of full compensation from one employer bars recovery by the employee against any others. The employee may not collect from all a total compensation in excess of the amount for which any contractor is liable. This section applies only in cases where the injury occurred on, in, or about the premises on which the principal contractor has undertaken to execute work or which are otherwise under the contractor’s control or management.

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Source: SL 1917, ch 376, § 12; RC 1919, § 9447; SDC 1939, § 64.0108; SL 2008, ch 278, § 9.