Broussard v. Heebe's Bakery, Inc.

268 So. 2d 656, 263 La. 561, 1972 La. LEXIS 5435
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 6, 1972
Docket51881
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 268 So. 2d 656 (Broussard v. Heebe's Bakery, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Broussard v. Heebe's Bakery, Inc., 268 So. 2d 656, 263 La. 561, 1972 La. LEXIS 5435 (La. 1972).

Opinions

McCALEB, Chief Justice.

Cyprien Broussard, a truck driver for Wolf’s Baking Company, Inc., of Lafayette, Louisiana, filed this suit against Heebe’s Bakery, Inc., of Gretna, Louisiana, to recover damages for injuries resulting from an accident allegedly due to Heebe’s negligence. The Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, compensation insurer of Wolf, intervened, seeking reimbursement by priority for compensation and expenses paid to and for plaintiff, in the event his tort suit against Heebe is successful.

After answering, Heebe moved for a summary judgment and was successful in [566]*566having plaintiff’s suit dismissed on the .ground of no cause of action in tort because plaintiff's right to compensation as an employee of Wolf, an alleged sub-con'tractor of Heebe, was exclusive under R.S. 23:1061,1 barring any action in tort against Heebe as the principal. The Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit affirmed that judgment (see 254 So.2d 284) and we granted certiorari.

In this Court plaintiff contends, as he did below, that the appellate court erred (1) in finding the relationship between Heebe and Wolf was that of principal-contractor, instead of vendor-vendee, and that (2) in any case, it makes no difference whether a principal-contractor relationship actually existed as it was not the intent of the legislature in adopting R.S. 23:1061 “to prevent injured employees of a contractor from recovering in tort against a negligent principal.”

We consider these assignments of error in reverse order because, if the postulation of plaintiff, joined by amicus curiae,2 that the injured employee of the contractor has two causes of action against the principal (one for compensation and the other for tort) is sound, then the much debated question as to legal relationship (principal-contractor or vendor-vendee) is immaterial and moot. However, we reject this argument, for this Court has decided on more than one occasion that the remedy afforded by R.S. 23:1061 to the employee of the sub-contractor against the principal is exclusive and has the effect of conferring tort immunity on.the principal. See, Thibodaux v. Sun Oil Co., 218 La. 453, 49 So.2d 852 (1950); Benoit v. Hunt Tool Co., 219 La. 380, 53 So.2d 137 (1951); and Coal Operators Casualty Co. v. Fidelity & Casualty Co., 223 La. 794, 66 So.2d 852 (1953).

[568]*568' In Benoit v. Hunt Tool Co., supra, the Court said: “Under the Workmen’s Compensation Act and the jurisprudence of this state, the exclusive remedy of the employees of the contractor against the principal, as these two terms are used in the act, is for workmen’s compensation, and there is no remedy in tort against the principal, as the principal is not a third person under the provisions of Section 7 of the act. Sections 6, 7, and 34, Act 20 of 1914, as amended, LSA-R.S. 2!3:1061, 23:1101, 23:1032; Thibodaux et al. v. Sun Oil Co. et al., La.App., 40 So.2d 761, affirmed 218 La. 453, 49 So.2d 852. The effect of Section 6 is that the principal shall be considered the employer of the employees of the contractor, in contemplation of the statute, so that such employees shall have the right to demand compensation from the principal, and this is their exclusive remedy, and the principal cannot be held liable to the employees of the contractor in tort.”

In view of our settled jurisprudence, the contention of plaintiff is one which addresses itself more properly to the legislature. That body has met time and time again and is presumed to be aware of our rulings. Yet it has not seen fit to amend the statute to conform to the views and contentions advanced by the plaintiff and amicus curiae.

Conversely, however, with respect to the-first assigned error, we believe the rulings, below are incorrect. There is no serious, disagreement as to the facts. The controversy is over the legal relationship between. Wolf and Heebe resulting therefrom.3 The courts below concluded that a .principal-contractor relationship existed, bringing Heebe within the purview of the compensation act, and rendering it immune to-tort action. Plaintiff’s position is that the-facts establish a vendor-vendee relationship, placing Heebe without the purview of the act, and, thus, as a third person, subject to an action in tort.

The affidavits and depositions reveal', that Heebe’s Bakery, Inc., bakers of various kinds of bread, rolls, and pastries in a. shop where the equipment required expensive labor for hand manufacture and packaging, discovered as long ago as 1964 that it could purchase many of the products, from Wolf’s Baking Company, Inc., and supply them to its retail outlets more economically than it .could manufacture them, because Wolf’s automated modern equipment permitted large voluipe production.

Accordingly, it entered into an oral contract under which Wolf supplied Heebe exclusively with certain items. These were-baked in Wolf’s Lafayette plant, packaged' there in wrappers carrying Heebe^s name: [570]*570or tradename, loaded there on Wolf’s trucks by Wolf’s employees, and delivered by Wolf’s truck driver to Heebe’s Gretna plant. They were there unloaded by Wolf’s driver with the use of Wolf’s ramps (made by Wolf at its plant but kept on hand at the Heebe plant for convenience) without any supervision by Heebe, although it did furnish the driver with a helper to assist in the unloading. Heebe had no control whatever over the baking, away from its plant, of these items and their delivery, Wolf alone being responsible for procuring the ingredients, doing the baking, and effecting delivery to Heebe. Nor did Heebe have any control over the manner in which Wolf operated its business, or to whom it sold its products. Heebe only became the owner of the items manufactured from the time the delivery was completed with their unloading at its Gretna plant.

Wolf periodically billed Heebe for the products thus manufactured and delivered, and received payment. Heebe cancelled its contract when it discovered, almost two years after the incident here involved, that some of the identical items Wolf was purportedly producing exclusively for Heebe were, in fact, being sold to Heebe’s competitors in wrappers of the competitors, contrary to the oral agreement. During this time Heebe also secured other products from at least one other bakery in another city, and, since the accident here, has expanded this practice, with the result that, for all intents and purposes, Heebe, a wholesaler and baker, had gone out of the business of manufacturing most, if not all, of the items it originally baked, particularly those it purchased from other bakeries.

In its decision, the appellate court recognized that the relationship under this oral contract contained elements of vendor-purchaser, that what Heebe "purchased from Wolf was essentially a personalized baking- and wrapping service,” and that the case in the jurisprudence most analogous is Wilson v. Roberts, La.App., 194 So. 88 (1940), where the relationship was found to be that of vendor-vendee. However, in concluding that Heebe’s operations vis-a-vis Wolf came within the scope of R.S. 23 :- 1061, rendering Broussard a “statutory employee” of Heebe, the court held the status of principal-contractor existed. It reasoned that Heebe controlled the manufacture and delivery of these items, thus applying one of the generally accepted tests for determining whether the relationship of principal-contractor exists between the parties. (The emphasis is supplied.)

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268 So. 2d 656, 263 La. 561, 1972 La. LEXIS 5435, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/broussard-v-heebes-bakery-inc-la-1972.