Dobson's Case

128 A. 401, 124 Me. 305, 42 A.L.R. 603, 1925 Me. LEXIS 23
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedApril 2, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 128 A. 401 (Dobson's Case) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dobson's Case, 128 A. 401, 124 Me. 305, 42 A.L.R. 603, 1925 Me. LEXIS 23 (Me. 1925).

Opinion

Barnes, J.

Petitioner claimed and was awarded compensation for incapacity to work, and for medical, surgical and hospital services, incident upon an injury caused by a kick of one of his pair of horses, [306]*306while preparing to stable them, after a day’s work in the service of appellant. In lieu of evidence, an “agreed statement” is submitted, and from this we are to determine:

First, whether petitioner was, at the time of the accident, within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, an employee of the appellant, or a-n independent contractor; and, if .an employee,

Second, whether the injury was sustained in the course of such employment, and arose therefrom.

Petitioner had been personally managing and working his horses, through the day of the accident, presumably with a plow or scraper furnished by the appellant, scraping snow from the ice on Otter Pond under a contract with appellant, for the wage of 75c per hour, or 16.75 a day, and, according to the agreed statement, “in-addition to the agreed price of 75c per hour, for services of said Dobson and his team the.said Portland Sebago Ice Co. was to furnish, and did furnish, stable or housing accommodations for the horses of said Dobson.” Further, according to the agreed statement, petitioner ‘ 'was under the direct orders of Mr. Files, the team boss or superintendent at the plant or was subject to take orders from superiors if there was cause to change in the nature of his work and he was to do the work when and where directed by those men.”

Appellant contends Dobson was an independent contractor. Generally speaking, it may be said that right to control the work, control not only of the result of the work, but also of the means and manner of the performance thereof, reserved to or possible of exercise in the employer, establishes and maintains the relation of master and servant, and negatives that of proprietor and independent contractor.

“If subject to the control of the person for whom the work is done, and as to what should be done and how,” the employee is a servant and not an independent contractor.

Messmer v. Bell, etc. Co., 133 Ky., 19; 19 Ann. Cases, 1.

What is important is whether the contractor or the employer has the power to dictate the particular manner in which the appliances shall be used and laborers do their work.

“The driver of a coal wagon, who owned the team and the running-gear of the wagon, and whose service it was to load coal upon the wagon, deliver it as directed by the coal company, and collect the money therefor, and who received a fixed sum per load, was not an [307]*307independent contractor, but a servant of the company whose coal he delivered.” Waters v. Pioneer Fuel Co., 52 Minn., 474, 38 A. S. R., 564, and cases cited in note, 19 A. L. R., 230.

In Messmer v. Bell, etc. Co., supra, the court say: ‘‘An independent contractor is one who is independent of his employer in the doing of his work, and may work when and how he prefers. A servant is one who is employed by another and is subject to the control of his employer.”

‘ ‘In determining whether the relation is that of master and servant or that of proprietor and independent contractor, the mode of payment is not the decisive test; the test lies in the question whether the contract reserves to the proprietor the power of control over the employee.” 1 Thompson on Negligence, Section 629.
“If work is done under a general employment and is to be performed for a reasonable compensation or for a stipulated price, the employer remains liable, because he retains the right and power of directing and controlling the time and manner of executing the work or of refraining from doing it if he deems it necessary or expedient.” Brackett v. Lubke, 4 Allen, 138.

The later cases do not make either the mode of payment or the right to discharge the decisive test, but look to the broader question, whether the employee is in fact, independent or subject to the control of the person for whom'the work is done, as to what should be done and how it should be done. It is not easy to frame a definition of the term ‘ ‘independent contractor” that will happily classify each laborer, in the multifold conditions of the modern laborer’s life.

In a discussion of the English Employers’ Liability Act, Sir Henry Jackson, upon this point, said: “The relation of master and servant exists where the master can not only order the work, but how it shall be done. When the person to do the work may do it as he pleases, then such person is not a servant.”

In a Federal Case: “The relation of master and servant exists whenever the employer retains the right to direct the manner in which the business shall be done, as well as the result to be accomplished; or, in other words, not only what shall be done, but how it shall be done.” Singer Mfg. Co. v. Rahn, 133 U. S., 518.

“A master is one who not only prescribes the end, but directs, or at any time may direct, the means and methods of doing the work. [308]*308If he merely prescribes the end and contracts with another to accomplish the end by such means and methods as such other may in his discretion employ, the latter is as to such means and methods not a servant but a master.” ' Bailey v. Troy & B. R. Co., 57 Vt., 252.

“The question in these cases whether the relation be that of master and,servant or not is determined by ascertaining from the contract of employment whether the employer retains the power of directing and controlling the work, or has given it to the contractor. Forsyth v, Hooper, 11 Allen, 419; Morgan v. Smith, 159 Mass., 570; McAllister’s Case, 229 Mass., 193; Goff’s Case, 234 Mass., 116; Chisholm’s Case, 238 Mass., 412.

In an action for compensation for the pecuniary injuries resulting in the death of a laborer, in a lime rock quarry, where one of the defenses was that laborer was an independent contractor: “Upon the general averments in the declaration and in the absence of the particular allegations hereinbefore specified, the operations in the quarry from which the injury resulted must be deemed the work of an independent contractor, who represented the will of the owner only as to the result of his work and not as to the manner of conducting it, or the means by which the result is to be accomplished; and in such a case it is settled law that, as the contractor is not the agent or servant of his employer in relation to anything but the specific results which he undertakes to produce, the employer is not responsible for the contractor’s negligence.” Boardman v. Creighton, 95 Maine, 154.

“The determination of this question depends upon who- had the right to direct and control the work of the claimant. Was he a law unto himself, responsible only for the results, or was he subject to the' dictation of the superintendent of the quarry? Clearly the latter. Under the well-settled principles of law he could not be regarded as an independent contractor.” Mitchell’s Case, 121 Maine, 455.

' As each new case-arises, it must be disposed of by looking to and reasoning from the particular facts which it presents.

Appellant contends that the reasoning in two recent Massachusetts cases,

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Bluebook (online)
128 A. 401, 124 Me. 305, 42 A.L.R. 603, 1925 Me. LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dobsons-case-me-1925.