Havey, Julia v. 2024-60-3630

2025 TN WC 21
CourtTennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims
DecidedApril 23, 2025
Docket2024-60-3630
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 TN WC 21 (Havey, Julia v. 2024-60-3630) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Havey, Julia v. 2024-60-3630, 2025 TN WC 21 (Tenn. Super. Ct. 2025).

Opinion

FILED Apr 23, 2025 11:35 AM(CT) TENNESSEE COURT OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMS

TENNESSEE BUREAU OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION IN THE COURT OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS AT NASHVILLE

Julia Havey, ) Docket No. 2024-60-3630 Petitioner, ) v. ) SageHome, LLC d/b/a New Bath ) State File No. 38543-2024 Today, ) Respondent, ) And ) Judge Kenneth M. Switzer American Fire & Cas. Co., ) Carrier. )

EXPEDITED HEARING ORDER

Julia Havey, who worked as a sales representative for New Bath Today, slipped and fell while carrying heavy sample bags outside a customer’s home. New Bath Today did not dispute the event or her injuries but instead raised the defense that Ms. Havey is an independent contractor and therefore ineligible for benefits.

New Bath Today mostly contended that the agreement between them characterizes her as an independent contractor. Ms. Havey countered that the Court should look beyond those words and consider the level of control New Bath Today exerted, which is characteristic of an employer-employee relationship. After an April 16, 2025 hearing, the Court concludes that Ms. Havey is likely to prevail at a hearing on the merits that she was an employee. New Bath Today must offer a panel of physicians.1

Claim History

Ms. Havey began working for New Bath Today in May 2023. She had been looking for “a 1099 job that would give [her] autonomy and freedom,” and was less rigorous than 1 Ms. Havey named “New Bath Today” as her employer on the petition, but the dispute certification notice lists the employer as “CC 1 US Holdings, Inc.” New Bath Today’s counsel clarified at the hearing that CC 1 US Holdings is the parent corporation and SageHome, LLC d/b/a New Bath Today is its subsidiary and the correct respondent. 1 her previous, high-pressure sales job. A recruiter told her she could “work a lot or a little” to include a four-day work week if she wanted.

This case centers on an agreement she signed when hired. The 21-page, single- spaced document includes two exhibits and is entitled, “Sales Representative Agreement (Independent Contractor).” Ms. Havey understood she would be an independent contractor, emphasizing, “I was promised not to be treated like an employee.” Specifically, she wanted to get leads, pursue them at her leisure, and place fewer physical demands on her body than her previous jobs.

Ms. Havey testified that did not happen. Despite the agreement, New Bath Today treated her as an employee, mostly by controlling her work in several ways.

The job began with two weeks of required onsite intensive training in Indiana. Ms. Havey was not reimbursed for her mileage driving there and back. New Bath Today fronted her lodging but later took $1,000 from her pay as reimbursement. It provided sandwiches and snacks during the day and a per diem for other meals.

At training, New Bath Today loaded software and an app, which she had to purchase and pay a monthly fee to use, onto Ms. Havey’s personal tablet computer. She was required to use her own mobile phone. Training consisted mostly of memorizing a lengthy “timeline,” or six-page script, for required use when making sales calls. They were to recite the script verbatim, but some customization was permitted with the company’s approval. Training culminated with “graduation,” after Ms. Havey performed the script for management. Ms. Havey was then given business cards with the New Bath Today logo identifying her as a “design consultant.” The cards gave her phone number along with the number of New Bath Today’s corporate office. Ms. Havey also received marketing materials and New Bath Today branded bags for carrying samples to sales calls.

Once she was on the job, the daily procedure kicked in. Ms. Havey would check the app the night before a workday, which would give her leads. Ms. Havey was free to also find her own leads, too. The leads consisted of appointments at either 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., or 6:00 p.m. at a prospective customer’s home. For example, one day she had appointments in Greenville, Kentucky; Goodlettsville; and then Spring Hill. This was a 15-hour day, she said. Ms. Havey said she was not free to alter these appointment times and had no way to directly contact the customers before they met.

Ms. Havey testified that some days she would have three appointments, and other times she would go for “weeks” without a single appointment. Whenever she had no appointments, she was required to be on “standby” and available to attend any last-minute appointments that New Bath Today might set. This meant she had to stay home while standing by. When Ms. Havey requested to work Mondays through Thursdays, she received negative feedback from the company, including threats of termination.

2 In addition to making sales calls, Ms. Havey testified that approximately six times over the course of her ten months’ work for New Bath Today, she had to attend follow-up, two-hour “trainings” whenever New Bath Today changed lenders to learn the new criteria.

Ms. Havey agreed that the agreement did not give her a quota, but the pressure to sell was intense, nonetheless. New Bath Today required her to attend weekly Monday meetings. The purpose of the meeting was to “incentivize” staff by discussing a 30% sales goal and recapping who sold the most the previous week. Her direct supervisor, Matthew Melton, “frequently admonished” her if she did not reach the 30% goal. He also told her she could be “taken off the schedule”—in effect fired—for not selling enough. She said, “It was the most grueling sales environment I’ve ever been in.”

Ms. Havey testified that she asked whether attendance was mandatory at the Monday meetings, and a corporate supervisor, Mike Rouser, told her that nonattendance was “unacceptable.” In addition, Mr. Melton sent a text that “[y]our job is to be on a company call once a week for 8am. If you think that’s too much to ask, then you can work elsewhere.”

New Bath Today required Ms. Havey to be accessible and responsive during work hours. She offered a group text from Mr. Melton saying, “From 8am your time zone to 4pm, if someone calls you like myself, Mike R, call center, or anyone from corporate, there is no option to not immediately return that call or message unless you’re in a meeting in [sic] or some emergency.”

As for compensation, the agreement states that Ms. Havey would earn a up to a 35% commission on all sales. She received commission only and no salary, and no taxes were withheld. She received a 1099. Ms. Havey said she never received the full 35% commission on any sale; “costs” were frequently deducted. More often she earned 6-8%. For example, on a sale of $19,300, she earned a commission of 2.79%, or $538.52. Mr. Melton earned the same on that sale.

Commissions were split 50/50, Ms. Havey explained, when a supervisor attended a presentation, “ran the appointment,” and made the sale, while she observed and assisted. The sales representative could alternatively ask to take the lead. The supervisor visits were unscheduled; sometimes she would arrive at a home and see her supervisor’s vehicle. Other times, she knew he would be attending. A supervisor attended three appointments during her time with New Bath Today.

Ms. Havey did not hire helpers, despite the agreement giving her that right. She explained that she would have been unable to allow a helper access to the app or sales software. She further testified that she never heard of anyone’s “team” making a sale, but

3 rather it was always an individual. She conceded, however, that she did not know for certain if no other sales representative had helpers.

Ms. Havey did not work for other entities during her tenure at New Bath Today. She stated that, between being on standby or attending appointments, she had no time to seek other employment.

As to the accident, Ms.

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Related

§ 50-6-114
Tennessee § 50-6-114(a)
§ 50-6-239
Tennessee § 50-6-239(d)(3)

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Bluebook (online)
2025 TN WC 21, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/havey-julia-v-2024-60-3630-tennworkcompcl-2025.