Clackamas Gastroenterology Associates, P. C. v. Wells, 538 U.S. 440, 12 (2003)

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Cite as: 538 U. S. 440 (2003)

Ginsburg, J., dissenting

agreements or contracts"). Rather, as was true in applying common-law rules to the independent-contractor-versus-employee issue confronted in Darden, the answer to whether a shareholder-director is an employee depends on " 'all of the incidents of the relationship . . . with no one factor being decisive.' " 503 U. S., at 324 (quoting NLRB v. United Ins. Co. of America, 390 U. S. 254, 258 (1968)).

III

Some of the District Court's findings—when considered in light of the EEOC's standard—appear to weigh in favor of a conclusion that the four director-shareholder physicians in this case are not employees of the clinic. For example, they apparently control the operation of their clinic, they share the profits, and they are personally liable for malpractice claims. There may, however, be evidence in the record that would contradict those findings or support a contrary conclusion under the EEOC's standard that we endorse today.11

Accordingly, as we did in Darden, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to that court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Justice Ginsburg, with whom Justice Breyer joins, dissenting.

"There is nothing inherently inconsistent between the coexistence of a proprietary and an employment relationship." Goldberg v. Whitaker House Cooperative, Inc., 366 U. S. 28, 32 (1961). As doctors performing the everyday work of petitioner Clackamas Gastroenterology Associates, P. C., the physician-shareholders function in several respects as

11 For example, the record indicates that the four director-shareholders receive salaries, Tr. of Oral Arg. 8, that they must comply with the standards established by the clinic, App. 66, and that they report to a personnel manager, ibid.

451

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