Heintz v. Labbee

469 P.2d 203, 2 Wash. App. 663, 1970 Wash. App. LEXIS 1180
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMay 12, 1970
DocketNo. 53-40495-3
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 469 P.2d 203 (Heintz v. Labbee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heintz v. Labbee, 469 P.2d 203, 2 Wash. App. 663, 1970 Wash. App. LEXIS 1180 (Wash. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

Evans, C. J.

This is an action by an employee, Joe Heintz, against his employer, Jack Labbee, and the Carborundum Company seeking damages for personal injuries received by plaintiff in a grinding-wheel accident. The trial court ruled that plaintiff’s employment at the time in question fell within the compulsory classifications of the Industrial Insurance Act and granted a summary judgment of dismissal only as to defendant Labbee. The Carborundum Company is not a party to this appeal by plaintiff Heintz.

[664]*664The matter is before this court upon a short record. The stipulation reads as follows:

The plaintiff, Joe Heintz, has been employed by the defendant, Jack Labbee, as foreman of Labbee’s Harrah ranch which consists of approximately 1400 acres devoted principally to the raising of mint and sugar beets, as well as pasture and cattle. The number of acres devoted to mint growing was approximately 450 acres in 1964. The plaintiff’s duties have been the general overseeing of the workmen and all of the operations.
The defendant, Labbee, also owns a mint distillery located on the Harrah ranch, and generally does some custom mint distilling for neighboring farmers. In the year 1964, custom distilling was done for two farmers, Harold Heins and Joe Fa villa. When custom mint distilling is done by Labbee, he undertakes the entire operation connected with the harvesting and distilling process. The mint is first mowed and windrowed. It is then allowed to wilt for a period of time. A chopper then picks up the mint, chops it and blows it into a truck which, in turn, carries it to the distillery where a lid is placed over the hopper on the truck and steam injected to extract the mint oils. The mint hay does not leave the truck, but is discarded after the oil is extracted. The chopper used to pick up the mint and chop it is the same chopper that is used to harvest corn silage. The plaintiff’s duties as foreman include seeing that the chopper knives are kept in a sharpened condition, and whenever time permits, interspersed with his other duties of overseeing operations both connected and disconnected from the mint operations, he sharpens the blades at the farm machine shop where all general farm machinery repair and adjustments are made. The manual function of sharpening the mint knives is done sometimes by other employees. The sharpening of the knives was usually done as a time filler, sometimes by employees who are not connected with the mint harvesting.
On September 13, 1964, the defendant, Jack Labbee, was engaged in doing custom mint distilling for a neighboring farmer, Harold Heins. When the defendant Jack Labbee does custom mint distilling, his entire mint operation, including the necessary machinery and the distillery, is devoted exclusively to doing custom work, such that there is no intermingling of mint operations between Labbee’s own mint and that of anyone else. On said date [665]*665the mint chopper was operating in the mint field of Harold Heins.
On Sunday, September 13, 1964, at about 5:30 p.m., the plaintiff had occasion to sharpen the mint chopper’s knives for use in the custom work for Harold Heins. He was using the grinding stone used for this purpose. While sharpening one of the blades a wire which was wrapped around the grinding stone became disconnected and injured him. The removal of the blades from the chopper was not performed by the plaintiff. The farm machine shop where plaintiff was injured while sharpening the mint knives is situated approximately 1000 feet from the mint distillery on Labbee’s Harrah ranch. The machine shop in no way serves the distillery other than incidentally such as for the sharpening of chopper knives or the repair of equipment.

Plaintiff makes five assignments of error, all of which concern a single issue: Did the court err in holding as a matter of law that the work plaintiff was engaged in falls within the compulsory coverage provisions of the Washington State Industrial Insurance Act?

In arriving at this conclusion, the trial court first observed that agricultural pursuits per se are not within the compulsory provisions of the Industrial Insurance Act. Counsel for both parties agree. Wineberg v. Department of Labor & Indus., 57 Wn.2d 779, 780, 359 P.2d 1046 (1961).

The trial court next determined that defendant’s mint distillery constituted a “factory” as defined in RCW 51.08.090 as follows:

“Factories.” “Factories” means undertakings in which the business of working at commodities is carried on with power driven machinery, either in manufacture, repair, or change, and includes the premises, yard, and plant of the concern.

With this we agree. Power-driven machinery is applied to a product (mint hay) which undergoes “manufacturing” or “change” into mint oil. In this respect, a mint distillery is distinguishable from a hay baler (Barney v. Anderson, 116 Wash. 352, 199 P. 452 (1921)); a bean recleaning and picking machine (DeHaas v. Cascade Frozen Foods, Inc., 23 [666]*666Wn.2d 754, 162 P.2d 284 (1945)); and a hop-picking and recleaning machine (Blanco v. Sun Ranches, Inc., 38 Wn.2d 894, 234 P.2d 499, 235 P.2d 830 (1951)); The distinguishing feature is pointed out in Blanco v. Sun Ranches, Inc., supra, wherein the Supreme Court stated at page 898:

While the operation involved in the instant case is thus more complete than that involved in the DeHaas case, the two operations are alike, in that agricultural products are dealt with in their natural state without any processing which changes the character of the original product.

While Blanco was concerned with the contention that the hop-picking machine was a factory within the factory act (RCW 49.20), the above analysis relies upon DeHaas which did involve the Industrial Insurance Act. It supports the trial court’s finding that defendant was engaged in manufacturing which did effect a change in the basic product.

Plaintiff argues that the product ultimately sold by the farmer is mint oil, and not mint hay, and that the distilling process is no different than routine hay baling or hop cleaning, all of which activities are necessary for the farmer to put his product in a marketable form. The trial court recognized the merit of this argument in observing that if a farmer distilled his own mint hay, the total process of raising, harvesting and distilling would be an agricultural pursuit. While it may well be that a farmer distilling mint hay which he has grown can be said to be engaged in an overall agricultural pursuit, the custom distiller, who need not be a farmer at all, does not necessarily fall within the same category. While defendant Labbee engaged in his own farming operations, he also engaged in commercial distilling for others. The distinction has been recognized by the Supreme Court in Berry v. Department of Labor & Indus.,

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Bluebook (online)
469 P.2d 203, 2 Wash. App. 663, 1970 Wash. App. LEXIS 1180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heintz-v-labbee-washctapp-1970.