Commercial Standard Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Hood

474 S.W.2d 522, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2318
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 9, 1971
Docket603
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 474 S.W.2d 522 (Commercial Standard Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Hood) 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
Commercial Standard Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Hood, 474 S.W.2d 522, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2318 (Tex. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinions

DUNAGAN, Chief Justice.

This suit was brought by Lewis Hood and his wife, Patricia Hood, to recover workmen’s compensation benefits as provided by Article 8306, sec. 8, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Civ. St., for the death of their son, Van Allen Hood, who was alleged to have been killed [523]*523during the course and scope of his employment for the insured, Chamness T. V. and Appliance Center.

The case was tried to a jury which returned a verdict generally favorable to the appellees. Simultaneous with overruling appellant’s motion for judgment non ob-stante veredicto filed after verdict, the trial court entered judgment thereon against appellant in the sum of $4,054.19 plus interest and costs.

Amended motions for a new trial filed by both parties were subsequently overruled, but appellant only has perfected an appeal from the judgment.

Appellant by its first two points of error contends that the trial court erred in overruling its motion for instructed verdict and motion for judgment non obstante veredicto because the evidence established as a matter of law that Van Allen Hood was employed by the insured in a dual capacity and was killed while he was employed in a capacity as, and performing the duties of, a farm laborer, which occupation is. not covered by the Texas Compensation Act by virtue of Article 8306, sec. 2, V.T. C.S.1

Van Allen Hood entered the employment of Chamness T. V. and Appliance Center, a corporation, the insured herein, on August 3, 1968. He worked part-time for Chamness T. V. which engaged in the general sale of household appliances until his accidental death on April 7, 1969.

Hood’s duties at the store were varied; however, his primary duty was to unpack and uncrate appliances, deliver them to customers, straighten up the store, change the displays and carry away trade-ins to the warehouse and to haul off trash, as Chamness T. V. was out of range of the normal city trash pickup. During the week Hood worked after school for approximately two hours. His hours on Saturday were from 1:30 p. m. until 5:30 p. m.

Quintan Chamness, at the time the owner of 70% of the insured’s corporate stock, owned (in his own name) a farm outside the city of Tyler. The farm was used by Chamness T. V. as a place to dump excess heavy trash from the corporation and to store or dispose of appliances taken by the corporation in trade. Accordingly, at various times Quintan Chamness would direct the store’s part-time employees to haul the trash to his farm or to transport the trade-in appliances thereto, the useable ones being stored in the barn and the unrepairable ones being dumped in a gulley behind the barn.

Sometime prior to the Easter school holidays in 1969, Quintan Chamness decided to clear and prepare a portion of the land at his personal farm in order to plant a stand of Coastal Bermuda grass. He made inquiry as to whether his part-time employees would like to do the work for him. He called Van Allen Hood and Steve Calhoun, another part-time employee, into his office and offered them the job. The fol[524]*524lowing testimony from Steve Calhoun gives the particulars of that conversation:

“Q. Now, Van,2 prior to the Easter holidays, did Mr. Chamness approach you and Van and ask you about working at the farm ?
“A. Yes.
“Q. Will you describe that? When it happened, how it happened, and under what circumstances it happened. As best you recall?
“A. Well, I can’t remember what day it was on, but it was prior to the Easter holidays. And we were in the office of Mr. Chamness, and he asked Van and I if we wanted to do any farm work, and we accepted.’’ (Emphasis supplied).

Subsequent to Hood and Calhoun’s acceptance of the work at the farm and prior to April 7th, the day of the fatal accident, and the Easter holidays, Quintan Chamness had a conversation with appellee, Patricia Hood, Van Allen’s mother, during which they discussed what Hood and Calhoun would be doing at the farm as opposed to the work they had been doing at the store. This is the only conversation Chamness had with Mrs. Hood concerning Van Allen’s work at the farm insofar as the record shows.

Hood and Calhoun were driven straight to the farm Monday morning from their homes by Patricia Hood, and they did not report to the store. On Monday, the boys proceeded to work as they had been instructed either on that or on a previous day by Quintan Chamness. Their work at the farm on all occasions included cleaning up persimmon sprouts, cutting small trees, shrubs, and sassafras sprouts, hauling and stacking limbs, and generally clearing the land for planting. At the time of the fatal accident Hood and Calhoun were using a tractor to remove limbs. While Hood and Calhoun worked only during the late afternoon during the week and one-half day on Saturday for Chamness T. V., they apparently worked an entire day at the farm. Payment for the work at the farm was made from the funds of the corporation.

There were four special issues submitted to the jury and in response thereto they made the following findings to said issues:

Special Issue No. 1 “that VAN ALLEN HOOD received his injuries in the course of his employment by Chamness T. V. and Appliance Center,”
Special Issue No. 2 that Van Allen Hood was not employed by Quintan Chamness in two capacities, that is, at a part-time employee of Chamness T. V. and Appliance Center and as a part-time farm or ranch laborer on Quintan Chamness’s farm,
Special Issue No. 3 “that at the time of this accident VAN ALLEN HOOD was performing services as a farm or ranch laborer,” and
Special Issue No. 4 that the amount of Van Allen Hood’s average weekly wage as of the date of the fatal accident in question, which would be just and fair to all parties was $20.00.

The jury’s finding “that at the time of this accident VAN ALLEN HOOD was performing services as a farm or ranch laborer” is before this court unchallenged. However, the record reflects that there is ample evidence to support such finding. Beyond question, cutting trees and shrubs, hauling limbs, clearing persimmon sprouts, small trees, sassafras sprouts and that sort of thing and clearing the land in preparation of putting out Coastal Bermuda grass is farm or ranch work. Guerrero v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, 128 Tex. 407, 98 S.W.2d 796 (1936); Ellis v. Continental Casualty Company, 115 F.2d 1006 (5th Cir., 1940).

[525]*525Since there is no question, therefore, that the deceased, Van Allen Hood, was killed while performing the duties of a farm or ranch laborer, the remaining question is whether he was “employed” by the insured in that exempted capacity, as appellant contends he was, or whether, as appellees contend, he was only “temporarily directed” into that work within the meaning of the proviso to the definition of the term “employee” as found in Article 8309, sec. 1, V.T.C.S.3

Unlike the factual situation presented in Texas Employers Insurance Association v.

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Related

Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Estate of Thomas
547 S.W.2d 694 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1977)
Commercial Standard Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Hood
474 S.W.2d 522 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1971)

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474 S.W.2d 522, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commercial-standard-fire-marine-insurance-co-v-hood-texapp-1971.