Gill v. Prehistoric Ponds, Inc.

634 S.E.2d 769, 280 Ga. App. 629, 2006 Fulton County D. Rep. 1788, 2006 Ga. App. LEXIS 671
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJune 8, 2006
DocketA06A0461
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 634 S.E.2d 769 (Gill v. Prehistoric Ponds, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gill v. Prehistoric Ponds, Inc., 634 S.E.2d 769, 280 Ga. App. 629, 2006 Fulton County D. Rep. 1788, 2006 Ga. App. LEXIS 671 (Ga. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

Mikell, Judge.

We granted Louis Gill’s application for discretionary appeal to determine whether an employee of an alligator farm is a “farm laborer” within the meaning of OCGA § 34-9-2 (a), which provides that the Workers’ Compensation Act (“Act”) shall not apply to “farm laborers” or their employers. We conclude that an alligator farm is not a “farm” as that term is used in the Act. Therefore, we reverse the judgment of the superior court.

In the absence of legal error, the factual findings of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation must be affirmed by the superior court and by the Court of Appeals when supported by any evidence in the administrative record. However, erroneous applications of law to undisputed facts, as well as decisions based on erroneous theories of law, are subject to the de novo standard of review.1

In the case at bar, the superior court reversed the award of the appellate division of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation (“Board”), which had concluded that an alligator farm was not a “farm” as that term is used in OCGA § 34-9-2 (a). In so holding, the appellate division reversed the opposite conclusion reached by an administrative law judge (“ALJ”). Because “neither the superior court nor this court has any authority to substitute itself as a fact finding body in lieu of the Board,”2 we set forth the relevant facts as found by the appellate division.

The employer/appellee, Prehistoric Ponds, Inc. (“Prehistoric”), is a corporation whose business is to “breed, feed, rear, grow out, and slaughter alligators.” After the alligators are slaughtered, their meat, hides, and heads are sold. The appellate division found that the sale of hides constituted the majority of Prehistoric’s business. Gill was employed by Prehistoric to clean out the pens in which the alligators [630]*630were kept, and he held that position at various times over a five-year period. On January 6, 2003, Gill’s right thumb was bitten while he was cleaning out a pen. Gill developed a bone infection, or osteomyelitis, as well as salmonella. He was hospitalized for four days and missed one week of work. Prehistoric paid Gill’s salary in lieu of compensation but disputed liability for certain medical bills.

The ALJ denied Gill’s claim for workers’ compensation benefits after concluding that Prehistoric operated a farm and that Gill was a “farm laborer” under OCGA § 34-9-2 (a), so that neither party was subject to the Act. The ALJ reasoned that because “farming” includes the raising, feeding, and care of livestock,3 and Prehistoric raised, fed, and tended alligators for ultimate use or sale, then alligators should be equated with livestock for the purpose of coverage under the Act.

In reversing the AL J’s decision, the appellate division concluded that alligators could not be treated as “livestock” because they are defined as “game animals” in the Code. OCGA § 27-1-2, a game and fish provision, designates alligators as “game animals”4 and defines “alligator farming” as “the possession, propagation, and any other act involved in the production of live alligators.”5 Alligator farms are regulated by the Department of Natural Resources.6 The term “livestock,” on the other hand, is defined as “all animals of the equine, bovine, or swine class, including goats, sheep, mules, horses, hogs, cattle, and other grazing animals, and all ratites, including . . . ostriches, emus, and rheas.”7 Livestock production is regulated by the Department of Agriculture.8 Because alligators are “game animals” and not “livestock,” the appellate division determined that Gill was not a “farm laborer” to whom OCGA § 34-9-2 (a) applied. The appellate division also relied on cases defining farming. In Pridgen v. Murphy,9 for example, we held that “ ‘farming,’in its ordinary sense, signifies the cultivation of land for the production of agricultural crops, with incidental enterprises.”10 Ga. Power Co.11 traced the history of farming to its Biblical inception and expanded the definition to ranching or raising livestock.12

[631]*631Further, the appellate division cited as controlling precedent Free v. McEver,13 in which this Court held that an employee who cared for cattle and hogs held for slaughter by a meat packer was not a “farm laborer” because his work was essential to the business of slaughtering, butchering, and processing the livestock and not to any “farming.”14 In applying Free, the appellate division reasoned that although Gill’s work in cleaning out animal pens may have seemed agricultural, the work was essential to the business of harvesting animal hides, which is not agricultural, so Gill was not a “farm laborer” excluded from coverage under the Act.

Finally, the appellate division distinguished Lumber City Egg Marketers v. Piercy,15 in which this Court held that in determining the “farm laborer” exemption, we must focus on the status of the employee, not the total activities of the employer, so that a worker who performs a nonfarming function may still be doing work incidental to farming and therefore be deemed a “farm laborer.”16

In reversing the appellate division’s award, the superior court held that its reliance on OCGA § 4-3-2 to define livestock was error; that its application of OCGA§ 27-1-2 (34) to exclude alligators and to decide that the breeding and raising of alligators is a nonagricultural industry is contrary to law; that it failed to consider testimony that the employer also raised goats; and that it did not properly apply Lumber City Egg Marketers and Free. Gill enumerates each of these rulings as error.

1. We agree with Gill that the superior court erred in ruling that the appellate division should have credited testimony that Prehistoric raised goats in deciding the ultimate issue of whether Gill was a farm laborer. Neither the ALJ nor the appellate division chose to credit this testimony. Assessing the credibility of witnesses and weighing the evidence is the sole function of the ALJ and the appellate division,17 and, as noted above, the superior court is not authorized to substitute itself for the Board as a factfinding body.18

2. Whether an alligator farm worker is a “farm laborer” pursuant to OCGA § 34-9-2 (a) is a matter of first impression.

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Bluebook (online)
634 S.E.2d 769, 280 Ga. App. 629, 2006 Fulton County D. Rep. 1788, 2006 Ga. App. LEXIS 671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gill-v-prehistoric-ponds-inc-gactapp-2006.