Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. McCullum

75 S.E.2d 257, 87 Ga. App. 686, 1953 Ga. App. LEXIS 829
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 28, 1953
Docket34379
StatusPublished

This text of 75 S.E.2d 257 (Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. McCullum) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. McCullum, 75 S.E.2d 257, 87 Ga. App. 686, 1953 Ga. App. LEXIS 829 (Ga. Ct. App. 1953).

Opinion

Felton, J.

The claimant and the aluminum company in March of 1951 entered into an agreement for the painting of certain of the company’s property. The injuries for which claim is made occurred when the claimant fell from a water tank he was painting for the aluminum company under such agreement. The question for determination is whether the claimant was the company's employee or an independent contractor when the injuries were sustained. The claimant contends that he was an employee because the company assumed the right to and actually did control the time, manner, and method of executing the work he was performing. Construing the claimant’s testimony against him, it shows that he was an independent contractor and not an employee. He testified in part as follows: “Q. But what relations did you have with the Enterprise Aluminum Company in March and April of last year? A. Well, Mr. Jack Mosley sent me a message by Andrew Martin that works there in Shady Dale that Mr. Miller and Mr. Mosley wanted to see me about doing some work. We went down there, we—me and my boy. . . So, we go down there. He told me he wanted a smokestack, two cyclones, and a water tank cleaned and painted. Now, I am going at it as near and true, in the best of my knowledge of how it was. He asked me what it would cost. I said: Well, I just really don’t know. I can’t exactly tell you, sometimes you can get fooled. You want to use the Huglor paint? It is a good kind of paint. I tell you what I’ll do. I’ll take it on hours figured and hours worked basis. Whatever gallons of paint it takes for the job, that’s all you will pay for.’ He said: ‘Go ahead, get the paint, and come on down there.’ I went to work. He told me, he said: ‘When you go to work you can go in at 7, you don’t have to come out with the shift, if you want to stay along with the [688]*688work, 'just do it, and do it right.’ Q. He told you to go to work at 7? A. He said it was up to me, if I was called to work, to go to work and do whatever I was doing, and then we went to work in there. . . Q. Now, what about the pay? Was he going to pay you by the hour? A. There was no understanding on what I charge an hour, exactly, nothing on that question. Q. What about the job? A. That’s what I said. Mr. Miller has confidence in my work, he told me to go ahead and do it. I said: T don’t think it will run over four hundred dollars’. . . Q. Did you buy that paint in Atlanta, yourself? A. Yes. Q. Did you pay for it, or who paid for it? A. I still owe $55 on it. Q. You still owe? A. Yes, sir. Q. Understanding was you were to pay for it at the time? A. As far as the Huguley knew, yes. . . Q. AVell, now, how much did you get for doing this job? A. Mr. Miller brought me out to the hospital a check for $400. That’s what the check was. Q. $400. How many hours work did that cover? A. AVell, now, that one thing has come up. He come out there and asked me, I told him, he said there, it ranges from a little better than 37 days. I always liked Mr. Miller, and I always done a lot of work. He said: ‘Will $400 be all right?’ I said: ‘Yes’. That is what was settled. Q. Isn’t the amount he paid you the amount agreed on when you took the job? A. Not that. I told him I would try to keep it from going over that. . . Q. Now, this check was for everything, it balanced you out with him? A. Yes, sir. . . Q. Mr. Mc-Cullum, what other equipment did you need to use on that work down there? Did you have to have any equipment? Did you have hooks, rope, a car, or ladders? A. Yes, I had hooks, ropes, blocks, brushes, wire brushes and spray guns. Q. Who does that equipment belong to? A. Belongs to me, that’s right. . . A. There was just no agreement on what paint it would take, or what amount of hours, or the cost. Only thing I said: T don’t believe it will go over $400.’ Now, that’s as near straight and correct as I possibly know. Q. Was anyone helping you on this job? A. My boy was helping me. Q. Who paid him? A. I paid him. Q. Enterprise didn’t pay him? A. No, I paid him. . . Q. Did you have any understanding with the company about hiring your son or-somebody else to work for you? A. No more than him, no. Q. No more than him? A. He is the only [689]*689one helped me on it. Q. He had no understanding with the company as to pay he was to receive from the company, is that what you are trying to say? A. No, he wasn’t working for the company. He was looking to me because I traded with them on it. . . Q. Now, you were told you could work as long as you wanted to, he left it up to you, when you wanted to, just get the job done? A. Yes, that’s right. Q. The company didn’t exercise any control over you? All they wanted was results, is that right? A. Well, I don’t know what you are getting at there, I suppose so. That’s all, only I was to do it right and do it like they wanted it done. Q. The agreement was, you was to paint this tower, do it right and get your money? A. Cracks, and corking, and all, yes. Q. Let me ask you this. Who was that paint charged to? You or the aluminum company, who was it billed to? A. It was ordered in my name, it was billed and charged to me, yes.”

This evidence shows that the claimant was hired to paint the water tank as an independent contractor, and that the aluminum company did not reserve the right to control the time, manner, and method of executing the work, but rather the right merely to require certain definite results in conformity to the agreement. Richards v. Marco Realty Co., 57 Ga. App. 242 (194 S. E. 880); Employer’s Liability Assurance Corp. v. Smith, 86 Ga. App. 230 (1, 2) (71 S. E. 2d, 289). The claimant relies strongly on one incident to show that the aluminum company retained the right to control the manner and time of executing the work. He contends that he was stopped from painting one day by the company because paint was being blown by a high wind onto cars in a parking lot below the tank. Concerning the incident the claimant testified: “Now, I was laid off two or three days on account of high winds on the automobiles. Q. Who told you to lay off? A. Mr. Jack come up and—come up there and said Mr. Miller told us to watch that. He moved the cars. He said: ‘You better stop on account of the wind.’ Q. That was where the aluminum paint was blowing off on somebody else’s car? A. Yes, they worked there. I imagined the cars—it was blowing on the ones that worked there. In fact, I know that, but who’s it was, I don’t know that, and outside of that—that’s as far as I know on it. . . Q. Mr. McCul[690]*690lum, do you generally paint on a tower when the wind is blowing-strong? Was it your practice to get on a high tower and paint if it was bad weather? A. Well, I have in high wind, but not in the rain.- Q. But you quit of your own accord, because it was windy or raining, and you didn’t.work? A. Not when I can get by, I have done it a lot. Q. You couldn’t get by with it that day? A. I was getting by until they told me to stop. . . Q. Well, tell me his exact woz’ds. What did he say, if he stopped you? A. He first moved some of the caz’s. Then the wind was still blowing it. Mr. Jack Mosley said: 'You are going to have to stop, or the wind is going to ruin these cars.’ I said: T can’t stop this wind.’ It was terrific and high speed. I didn’t come back. . . Q. Now, one thing I want to get you to clazúfy. When you were painting and the wind was blowing on this tower, you testified someone, I never did get it clear, sozneone told you you better quit. Now, you have been doing this steeple-jack work for years. Do you have to be told to quit, if you find the paint is falling, on people’s cars, or do you quit of your own accord? A.

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Related

Employer's Liability Assurance Corp. v. Smith
71 S.E.2d 289 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1952)
Richards v. Marco Realty Co.
194 S.E. 880 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1938)

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Bluebook (online)
75 S.E.2d 257, 87 Ga. App. 686, 1953 Ga. App. LEXIS 829, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aetna-casualty-surety-co-v-mccullum-gactapp-1953.