Fritts v. Division of Employment Security

11 S.W.3d 721, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 2349, 1999 WL 1101371
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 7, 1999
DocketNo. WD 56687
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 11 S.W.3d 721 (Fritts v. Division of Employment Security) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fritts v. Division of Employment Security, 11 S.W.3d 721, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 2349, 1999 WL 1101371 (Mo. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

HAROLD L. LOWENSTEIN, Judge.

Don and Janet Fritts (the “Appellants”) appeal the determination of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (the “Commission”), upholding the findings and conclusions of respondent Division of Employment Security, and finding Appellants to be “employers” within the meaning of Missouri’s employment security law. Appellants operated a small plumbing and service repair business and hired several plumbers to handle service calls when Mr. Fritts fell to illness. On appeal, Appellants claim the plumbers were not “employees” but were “independent contractors” because Appellants did not have a sufficient right to control the manner and means by which the plumbers were to accomplish the work.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The facts, as determined by an Appeals Tribunal of the Division of Employment Security and the Industrial Relations Commission, are as follows. Appellants Don and Janet Fritts operated a plumbing repair business under the name “The Plumbing Company.” During the years 1995, 1996, and 1997, Appellant Don Fritts found himself in ill health and unable personally to handle the volume of service calls the company received. Consequently, Appellants arranged for other plumbers to accept service calls on Don Fritts’ behalf.

The system developed by Appellants with regard to the plumbers was as follows. Each individual plumber worked on a service call by service call basis. When Appellants received a service call, the call would be referred to one of the plumbers, who had sole discretion to accept or reject it. If a plumber rejected a service call, Appellants would simply call the next plumber on their list. Appellants’ only request to a plumber who accepted a call was that the response to the call be timely.

Plumbers accepting a call were expected to perform the work on any particular service call personally and did not have assistants. If they found any particular service call to be too difficult, they called Appellants for assistance. Appellants provided some on-the-job training and instruction to some of the workers in question. Other plumbers were skilled or semiskilled and required no training at all.

Appellants’ relationship with the plumbers was informal and intermittent. Appellants did not set the hours of work of any of the plumbers and did not require them to work full-time. None of their work was [723]*723done on Appellants’ premises. Appellants set the order and sequence of their work as necessary to respond to the service calls received. Plumbers made no oral or written reports to Appellants. Appellants paid no business or travel expenses. Since the plumbers worked only part-time for Appellants, they were free to work for other Anns at the same time they performed services for Appellants. The plumbers were also free to offer their services to the general public. However, Appellants provided no evidence that any were independently established in personal businesses during the periods in question.

Although the plumbers furnished their own hand tools, they also used large specialized tools belonging to Appellants. Plumbers had no investment in Appellants’ business and had investments only in their own hand tools. The possibility that the plumbers might realize losses as well as profits from the performance of the services for Appellants was remote. The services of the plumbers were highly integrated into Appellants’ business.

The basic cost of each service call was $35 with an additional hourly fee of $35 per hour after the first hour. These rates were set by Appellants. In addition, the plumbers had some freedom to determine what work needed to be done on any particular service call and were free to impose additional charges on customers as the work required. Plumbers were weekly paid 25 to 30 percent of the gross revenues of service calls handled by them. Appellants believed they had the right to discharge a plumber at any time and also believed that the plumbers could voluntarily terminate performing their services for Appellants at any time.

On April 24, 1998, the Division of Employment Security, in its “Determination Concerning Unemployment Insurance Taxes,” found Appellants to be “employers” subject to the employment security law under § 288.032, RSMo 1994.2 The Division also found that those engaged as plumbers performed services for and received wages from “employment” with Appellants under § 288.0343 and § 288.036. Appellants timely appealed this determination to an appeals tribunal within the Division. On August, 10, 1998, the appeals referee issued the decision of the tribunal affirming the earlier determination. The Appellants appealed this decision to the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (the “Commission”). On November 19, 1998, the Commission issued a decision affirming and adopting as its own, the decision of the appeals tribunal. On December 15,1998, Appellants timely filed an appeal against the Division of Employment Security in this court.

On May 26, 1999, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Southern District handed down its decision in Fritts v. Williams, 992 S.W.2d 375 (Mo.App.1999). That case involved an appeal brought by the Appellants in the present case. In the Williams case, Richard D. Williams, one of the plumbers who responded to service calls for the Appellants as detailed above, sued Appellants for workers’ compensation benefits. The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission held Williams was Appellants’ “employee” and was entitled to wage credits. On appeal, the Southern District Court of Appeals reversed, holding that Williams was not an employee of Appellants’, but rather was an independent contractor.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

This court has authority to review a determination of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission under § 288.210. By that statute, findings of fact supported by competent and substantial evidence are conclusive. As to questions of law, this [724]*724court may modify, reverse, remand for rehearing, or set aside the decision of the commission on only four grounds:

(1) That the commission acted without or in excess of its powers;
(2) That the decision was procured by fraud;
(3) That the facts found by the commission do not support the award; or
(4) That there was no sufficient competent evidence in the record to warrant the making of the award.

“Findings and awards of the Commission which are clearly the interpretation or application of the law, as distinguished from a determination of facts, are not binding on the court and fall within the court’s province of independent review and correction where erroneous.” Travelers Equities Sales, Inc. v. Div. of Employment Security, 927 S.W.2d 912, 917 (Mo.App. 1996).

ANALYSIS

The facts in this case are undisputed. This court’s analysis is limited to a determination on one of the four grounds listed above. On appeal, Appellants claim error under the third ground for reversal.

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11 S.W.3d 721, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 2349, 1999 WL 1101371, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fritts-v-division-of-employment-security-moctapp-1999.