Claim of Paly v. Lane Brush Co.

6 A.D.2d 50, 174 N.Y.S.2d 205, 1958 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5780
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMay 23, 1958
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 6 A.D.2d 50 (Claim of Paly v. Lane Brush Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Claim of Paly v. Lane Brush Co., 6 A.D.2d 50, 174 N.Y.S.2d 205, 1958 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5780 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

Reynolds, J.

This is an appeal by the alleged employer and his insurance carrier from a decision and award of the Workmen’s Compensation Board, which reversed a previous decision of a referee finding no industrial accident and disallowing the claim, and found that the claimant, Harry Paly, sustained accidental injuries on January 6, 1953, while in the employ of the Lane Brush Company.

Appellants contend first that there is no substantial evidence to support the finding that there was an employer-employee relationship between claimant and the Lane Brush Company, and second, that if it he found that there was an employer-[52]*52employee relationship, the injuries sustained by the claimant did not arise out of and in the course of his employment.

On or about December 20, 1952, Harry Paly, the claimant, was' living at Greensboro, North Carolina, and was employed by Star Housecraft, Inc., and Coastal Home Developers, Inc., of Savannah, Georgia. Both corporations were owned by the same people. He was a canvasser crew chief, training new men and canvassing himself in the daytime, procuring leads, and returning at night, as he testified, when the man of the house was home, to close sales. He was selling siding. His territory did not exceed 100 miles from Greensboro, N. C.

He left for a vacation in New York City on December 20, 1952. While in New York City he had a conversation with Mr. Leonard Lane of the Lane Brush Company and it was agreed that he was to sell brushes for the Lane Company in his spare time On a fixed commission of 7% of gross sales. While he intended to sell the brushes principally in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, he was free to sell in the South generally, except in Washington, D. C., and Richmond, Va. He planned to retain his previous employment, as above described, and to sell the brushes on some evenings while on his regular work and in his spare time.

At about 11:00 p.m. on January 3, 1953, claimant left New York City en route to Greensboro, North Carolina. The trip takes about 14 hours from New York City to Greensboro, and he had intended to drive straight through, with no stops, arriving at Greensboro about noon on January 4, 1953. He had no intention of selling brushes on the return trip from his vacation. When he reached Elkton, Maryland, Sunday morning, January 4, 1953, a bearing in his car burned out. A day and a half was required to repair it and he stayed at a hotel in Elkton.

While at Elkton, awaiting repairs, he made inquiries concerning painting contractors, and, learning of a Jackson Paint Company nearby, hired a car and went out on Route 301, where he sold $60 to $70 worth of paint brushes. He returned to Elkton, and at about 7:30 p.m. on January 5,1953 he left Elkton on a direct route for Greensboro, N. C. He had no intention of selling paint brushes between Elkton and Greensboro, N. C. Shortly after midnight, on January 6, 1953, on his way to Greensboro, he had an accident sustaining the injuries which form the basis of this claim.

No claim for compensation was made by the claimant until January 4, 1955, and no report of injury was made by the employer until January 25, 1955. In the interim, claimant sued a third party for his injuries, in which suit he was unsuccessful. [53]*53At the time of the compensation hearings the employer, the Lane Brush Company, had ceased business and Mr. Lane had left the State of New York. No testimony was presented by the State Insurance Fund on behalf of the employer, as the representative of the Fund stated There is no one I can produce ”. The board in its memorandum of decision found that the employer was not prejudiced by the failure to give notice of the injury, and excused the failure. The board found that an employer-employee relationship existed and that the injuries sustained by the claimant arose out of and in the course of his employment.

On these facts, the first issue that we are confronted with is: was this claimant an independent contractor, or did an employer-employee relationship exist?

At the outset, of course, it is necessary to recognize that as the concept of an employee, for the purpose of a master’s vicarious tort liability, was fashioned to fit a particular purpose, so the term employee when used in social and labor legislation has been interpreted in the light of the purpose of the legislation (National Labor Relations Bd. v. Hearst Publications, 322 U. S. 111; United States v. Silk, 331 U. S. 704). As a result, the concept of the independent contractor relationship gradually has been weakened in New York in compensation cases. Compare Matter of Mace v. Morrison & Fleming (267 App. Div. 29 [1943]), where Mace, an automobile salesman, was held to be an independent contractor, and Matter of Gordon v. New York Life Ins. Co. (300 N. Y. 652 [1950]), where an insurance salesman was held to be an employee. In the latter case the Court of Appeals, by a 4-to-3 decision, affirmed the finding of the board that claimant was an employee. The reason assigned was that, because the evidence permitted conflicting inferences, the courts were without power to rule, as a matter of law, that the claimant was an independent contractor. Thus, in effect, the Court of Appeals adopted the reasoning of Justice Foster in the dissenting opinion in the 3-to-2 decision of the Appellate Division (275 App. Div. 135, 138-139). It should be clearly understood that the dissenting members of the Appellate Division and the majority in the Court of Appeals do not say that in their opinion Gordon was not an independent contractor, but merely that they could not as a matter of law disturb the adjudication and findings of the board, because the evidence permitted conflicting inferences. Thus, this decision cannot be interpreted fairly to issue a ‘‘ carte blanche ’’ to the board to scrap the independent contractor doctrine, because such would be clearly contrary to the intention of the Legislature when it drafted the [54]*54Workmen’s Compensation Law. It is felt by many that the responsibility for the extreme relaxation in this and other fields falls squarely on the shoulders of the Workmen’s Compensation Board; that unless and until the Legislature changes the definition of “ employee ”, they look to the board, and to the courts, with their limited review, to interpret and enforce the act as it now exists.

The two tests to be used are said by Larson to be (see Larson on Workmen’s Compensation, §§ 43.30, 43.42, 43.51, 43.52) the “ right to control ” test and the “ relative nature of the work ” test, which, in substance at least, Larson believes the Court of Appeals actually applied in Matter of Gordon v. New York Life Ins. Co. (300 N. Y. 652) (Larson, § 43.54).

Applying the ‘‘ right to control ’’ test, we find this claimant had presumptively full-time employment with Star Housecraft, Inc., and was to solicit for the brush company only in his spare time; was free to use his own judgment as to when, where, and how and to whom he might attempt to sell brushes; was to pay his own expenses; was to use his own car; his remuneration was by commission solely, not by time; there is no claim that leads were to be furnished by the employer; there was no direction or control as to the selling except that he couldn’t sell in Washington, D.

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6 A.D.2d 50, 174 N.Y.S.2d 205, 1958 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/claim-of-paly-v-lane-brush-co-nyappdiv-1958.