Castillo v. United States Fire Insurance Co.

953 S.W.2d 470, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 5256, 1997 WL 612927
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 28, 1997
DocketNo. 08-95-00276-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 953 S.W.2d 470 (Castillo v. United States Fire Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Castillo v. United States Fire Insurance Co., 953 S.W.2d 470, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 5256, 1997 WL 612927 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

CHEW, Justice.

Juana O. Castillo appeals from the denial of her workers’ compensation claim, complaining of the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence and that the trial court erred in: not striking the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission intervention; in allowing in evidence related to the course and scope of employment; in denying her requested jury instruction; and in instructing the jurors that the commission appeals panel “decided that Juana O. Castillo was not an employee of Bruce Foods.” We affirm the judgment.

Castillo was injured September 25, 1992, while working at Bruce Foods Company (“Bruce Foods”), a chile processing plant. She filed a notice of injury and claim for compensation with the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission, alleging she was injured in the course and scope of her employment with Bruce Foods. United States Fire Insurance Company which carries Bruce Foods’ workers’ compensation policy denied Castillo’s claim on the basis that she was not an employee of Bruce Foods.

[473]*473A commission hearing officer determined that Castillo was an employee of Diversified Management Resources Group, an employee leasing agency that had a contract with Bruce Foods. Although Diversified had an agreement with Bruce Foods to provide workers’ compensation insurance, it failed to do so. Castillo pursued an administrative appeal of the hearing officer’s determination and argued that Bruce Foods had borrowed her from Diversified. A commission appeals panel rejected that claim on the ground that there was no evidence presented to the hearing officer of any control by Bruce Foods of the details of Castillo’s work. She brought this action to overturn the Commission’s decision. The Attorney General intervened for the commission, seeking to uphold the panel’s decision.

A jury found that Castillo was not a Bruce Foods’ employee and the trial court entered judgment in favor of the defendant insurance company. Castillo filed a motion for a new trial, which was overruled by operation of law.

Castillo complains in her first two points of error that the trial court erred: (1) in entering judgment on the jury’s verdict because her evidence showed as a matter of law that she was an employee of Bruce Foods; and (2) in faffing to grant her a new trial because the jury’s failure to find that she was a Bruce Foods’ employee was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence.

When a party on appeal attacks the legal sufficiency of the evidence on a matter where she had the burden of proof, she must demonstrate that the evidence conclusively establishes all vital facts in support of the issue. In reviewing a matter-of-law challenge, we first examine the record for evidence supporting the finding, while ignoring all contrary evidence. If no evidence supports the finding, we then examine the whole record to see if the evidence establishes the contrary proposition as a matter of law. Sterner v. Marathon Oil Co., 767 S.W.2d 686, 690 (Tex.1989).

When a party on appeal attacks the factual sufficiency of a verdict on which she had the burden of proof, she must demonstrate the jury’s failure to find is against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. Hickey v. Couchman, 797 S.W.2d 103, 109 (Tex.App.-Corpus Christi 1990, writ denied). In reviewing such a factual sufficiency challenge, we examine the whole record to determine if some evidence supports the finding, if the finding is so contrary to the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and manifestly unjust, or if the great preponderance of the evidence supports its nonexistence. Cain v. Bain, 709 S.W.2d 175, 176 (Tex.1986).

Castillo argues that she was Brace Foods’ borrowed employee. If one employer places its general employees under the control of a second employer in the manner of performing their services, the employees become the second employer’s special or borrowed employees. If the employees remain under the control of their general employer in the manner of performing their services, they remain the employees of the general employer. Producers Chem. Co. v. McKay, 366 S.W.2d 220, 225-26 (Tex.1963). To determine whether an employee remains a general employee or becomes a borrowed employee, the fact finder determines whose work the employee is performing. The fact finder determines this by ascertaining who has the power to control and direct the employees in performing their work. Id., citing Standard Oil Co. v. Anderson, 212 U.S. 215, 29 S.Ct. 252, 53 L.Ed. 480 (1909).

When a contract between the employers expressly provides that one or the other shall have the right to control, that provision determines who is the employer. Archem Co. v. Austin Industrial, Inc., 804 S.W.2d 268, 269 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1991, no writ)(Opin. on Reh’g); Bucyrus-Erie Co. v. Fogle Equip. Corp., 712 S.W.2d 202, 204 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1986, writ ref'd n.r.e.). When the contract contains no such provision, the fact finder determines the right of control from the circumstances of the employment relationship. McKay, 366 S.W.2d at 226.

Examples of the type of control an employer normally exercises include when and [474]*474where to begin and stop work, the regularity of hours, the amount of time spent on particular aspects of work, the tools and appliances used to perform the work, and the physical method or manner of accomplishing the end result. Thompson v. Travelers Indem. Co. of Rhode Island, 789 S.W.2d 277, 278-79 (Tex.1990).

Castillo testified that she filled out a job application at Bruce Foods’ plant in northeast El Paso. The factory had a sign identifying the company as Bruce Foods. She applied for a job with Irene Del Palacio, a Diversified employee, who never told her that she would be working for Diversified. There was no Diversified signage in the plant, before she was injured she had never heard of Diversified, and she had never intended to apply for a job with Diversified.

Castillo told the jury that she had worked for other temporary employment agencies before and that the other agencies helped her find other work when the seasonal work ended. No one at Diversified helped her find other work when the Bruce Foods work ended. She testified that her job was on the production line, peeling chiles and separating the red chiles from the green. Her line supervisor was Matilde “Lupe” or “Lupita” Padilla, who was in turn supervised by Bertha Holguin, and both were Diversified employees. She testified, however, that her work was actually controlled by Sergio Chavez, a Bruce Foods’ employee. Chavez would instruct the line supervisor to make the line work faster and would tell her when the work was not going well. When Castillo was injured, it was Chavez who told her to go to the hospital.

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953 S.W.2d 470, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 5256, 1997 WL 612927, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castillo-v-united-states-fire-insurance-co-texapp-1997.