Concho Sand Gravel Company v. Monday

1957 OK 118, 311 P.2d 812, 1957 Okla. LEXIS 433
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 21, 1957
DocketNo. 37456
StatusPublished

This text of 1957 OK 118 (Concho Sand Gravel Company v. Monday) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Concho Sand Gravel Company v. Monday, 1957 OK 118, 311 P.2d 812, 1957 Okla. LEXIS 433 (Okla. 1957).

Opinion

BLACKBIRD, Justice.

The award of workmen’s compensation totalling $14,000, at $28 per week, herein reviewed, was to James B. Monday, hereinafter referred to as claimant, for permanent and total disability he suffered as a result of injuries he received when a truck he was driving collided with a truck driven by a stranger to the proceedings. There is no question of the cause and extent of the disability. The only issue involved is whether or not, at the time of the collision, claimant was the employee of Concho Sand & Gravel Company, against whom, together with its insurance carrier, the Travelers Insurance Company, the award was entered, or whether said claimant was the employee of a Mr. I. A. Ringer, who owned the truck claimant was then driving. If Ringer’s relationship to the Sand & Gravel Company, hereinafter referred to individually as “Concho”, was that of an independent contractor, and, contrary to the finding in said award, claimant was Ringer’s employee, rather than Concho’s, then the award cannot stand, for the State Industrial Commission, hereinafter referred to merely as the “Commission”, was without jurisdiction to make it.

The evidence concerning claimant’s employment reasonably tends to show the following facts. At "the time of the collision, August 20, 1955, Concho was engaged in performing a contract it had previously obtained to furnish gravel for the construction of a new runway, under the supervision of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, at the United States Air Force Base near Altus, Oklahoma. The gravel was obtained at a gravel pit belonging to one A. H. Hughes, several miles from the Base, and transported to it in various trucks, one of which was the “Ringer truck”, driven by claimant. According to the undisputed testimony, no truck could be engaged in the work unless it was covered by public liability and property damage insurance; and the security rules and regulations, under which the Base operated, required that the driver of each truck, engaged in said hauling, have what was called a “Temporary Pass” to enter the Base. These passes were issued by the Provost Marshal stationed there, and each had written on it the driver’s name, address, height, weight, and other identifying information. Mr. Robert L. (“Chief”) Walker, Concho’s Superintendent, testified, without contradiction, that it was the practice on the project, for each company, or contractor, performing a part of it, to delegate to a certain one of its employees the task of obtaining one of these passes from the Provost Marshal’s office, there on the Base, for each person engaged in its part of the work; and, that for all of those engaged in Concho’s part, he was the man who secured the passes. In accord with this system, when the truck owner, Ringer, who, at that time, was himself driving one of his trucks in the gravel-hauling work, learned from Walker that another of his trucks could be used therein, the truck involved here, driven by claimant, was put into said service immediately after Walker, on August 8th, 1955, performed the necessary preliminary of obtaining one of the aforesaid passes for claimant, its driver, or chauffeur.

For the hauling of the gravel in his truck, Concho paid Ringer (apparently at the end of certain prescribed periods) a certain rate per yard per mile, which, originally, amounted to $3.60 per truckload. Record of how many loads of gravel each truck hauled from the Hughes pit to the “stock” pile, or piles, on the Base, was kept by a person called a “checker”, whom Walker had stationed at said pile, or piles. Each time one of these trucks was unloaded at a stock pile by Concho’s hydraulic hoist, the checker gave its driver a “ticket” as evidence of that fact. According to the undis[814]*814puted evidence of the arrangement between Ringer and the claimant, the claimant was compensated for his services by Ringer’s paying him therefor, i/jrd of the revenue he obtained from Concho, at the aforesaid rate, for the loads of gravel the truck hauled.

As the work progressed, the road over the more direct route between the gravel pit and the Base, which covered a distance of only 10 miles, became so rough that some of the drivers so engaged, began using another road that was smoother, but 2 miles longer in distance. Because of this longer hauling, Walker was asked to, and did, raise the rate paid for the hauling, so that at the time of the collision in question, Ringer was receiving from Concho $4 for each load of gravel his trucks hauled in the aforesaid manner.

The petitioners contend that, on the basis of the evidence, Ringer could have borne no other relationship to Concho than that of an independent contractor, and that claimant was his, rather than Concho’s, employee. Respondents maintain that there was a conflict in the evidence on this point that was properly resolved by the Commission’s finding and award; and that said finding, and order, or award, is conclusive, and cannot be disturbed by this court. For the latter proposition, they cite Briscoe Construction Co. v. Miller, 184 Okl. 136, 85 P.2d 420, and Harley v. Smith, 152 Okl. 56, 3 P.2d 666, which they concede were expressly overruled by Williams v. Branum, 192 Okl. 129, 134 P.2d 352. In their further argument they call attention to the fact that House Bill No. 553 (Tit. 85 O.S.1955, Supp. sec. 69.1) enacted by the Twenty-Fifth Legislature, refers to members of the State Industrial Commission as “Judges” and requires them to be licensed attorneys for at least five years preceding their initial appointment. On the premise that these statutory provisions make of the Commission, as now constituted, a “Court” in fact, respondents urge us to now accord its findings, on judicial and jurisdictional matters, what they characterize as “the same respect * * * given any of the other inferior courts or judicial tribunals of the State.” We do not think this argument meets the issue in this case. Here, as we see it, we are concerned not so much with any conflict in the evidence, as we are with the view to be taken of uncontradicted evidence and the significance of certain undisputed facts in the purely legal (as distinguished from factual) aspect of determining the question: Was claimant the employee of Concho, or was he an independent contractor, or the employee of an independent contractor? If we determine that the claimant’s contractual relationship was with Ringer, and that there was no such relationship, or privity, between claimant and Concho, then, regardless of the precise nature of, or name to be given, his relationship with Ringer, the Commission had no jurisdiction to award him compensation as an employee of Concho.

Ordinarily, the manner in which a worker is paid is a significant fact to be considered in determining whether or not he is an employee. Here, as already pointed out, there is no question, even on the basis of his own testimony, that claimant was paid by Ringer, and that his pay, or wage, consisted of, or was equivalent to, one-third of the amount of money Concho paid Ringer for the loads of gravel the truck hauled. Of course, such method of payment is not alone determinative of the matter, and would not preclude claimant from being Concho’s employee, as shown by State Highway Commission v. Brewer, 196 Okl. 437, 165 P.2d 612, 613, if Concho retained “superior control and direction of the manner, method and time of performance * * * ” of the claimant’s work.

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Related

Miller v. Steelman Construction Company
1955 OK 113 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1955)
Imperial Paving Company v. Russell
1957 OK 43 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1957)
Williams v. Branum
1943 OK 7 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1943)
Harley v. Smith
1931 OK 498 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1931)
State Highway Commission v. Brewer
1945 OK 253 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1945)
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1938 OK 631 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1938)
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1946 OK 236 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1946)

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Bluebook (online)
1957 OK 118, 311 P.2d 812, 1957 Okla. LEXIS 433, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/concho-sand-gravel-company-v-monday-okla-1957.