Henshaw v. Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n

282 S.W.2d 928, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2096
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 19, 1955
DocketNo. 6516
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 282 S.W.2d 928 (Henshaw v. Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henshaw v. Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n, 282 S.W.2d 928, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2096 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

PITTS, Chief Justice.

This is a workman’s compensation case, wherein appellant, Leon H. Henshaw, an employee of Great Western Drilling Company, employer, seeks recovery of compensation benefits from appellee, Texas Employers’ Insurance Association, for injuries sustained by him on October 14, 1953, when the automobile of a fellow employee in which he and four other members of the drilling crew were riding home from work overturned on a public highway about 4:45 o’clock p.m., approximately 25 miles from the rig on which they were employed to work daily from 8:00 o’clock a.m. to 4:00 o’clock p.m. At the trial of the case the trial court instructed a verdict in favor of appellee after the evidence was heard and rendered judgment accordingly from which an appeal has been perfected. The controlling question to be here determined is whether or not the record supports the holding of the trial court to the effect that as a matter of law appellant was not engaged within the scope of his employment or was not performing some substantial mission for his employer at the time he received his injuries.

The record reveals that on the date of the accident in question the employer was drilling on a location known as Rig No. 4, about 26 miles from Brownfield, Texas. Appellant was a member of one of the five-men crews drilling the well and the driller under whpm appellant worked was Troy. Boyles, who was a member of the crew himself and who also employed appellant to work for the employer. The accident in question occurred while the crew, riding in the automobile of crew member, Gerald Hopkins, with appellant riding in the back seat thereof, was riding home from work at a point about one mile from Brownfield, where the crew members all resided. The crew was not furnished transportation to and from work by employer but they took daily turns driving their respective automobiles hauling the crew as a result of an arrangement made among themselves. On the day in question it was Gerald Hopkins’ turn to use his automobile in taking the crew to and from work, which he did. Appellant and other crew members were not paid any mileage or any expenses for transportation. They were paid by the hour and only for the hours they actually worked on the job. It is not here contended that Gerald Hopkins, who hauled the crew on the day in question, was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the accident. The said driver was not directed by the employer in the route the crew should take in going home, in the manner in which he drove or the speed at which he drove. Such matters were left entirely with the driver. The employer did not make any requirements as to the arrangements of the crew in going to and from work. Such was left entirely up to driller Boyles and the other members of the crew, including appellant. The arrangements this crew made in taking turns to haul the crew or “swap rides” was not unusual among such crews working in the oil field. On the occasion in question appellant’s day’s work was over, he had changed clothes and was riding home in the back seat of the automobile of a fellow employee at the time he received his injuries as a result of the accident. On the occasion in question appellant had no control over the said automobile or any interest therein.

Appellant recognizes the general rule to the effect that an employee is not covered under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306 et seq., for injuries received by him while going to and returning from his place of [930]*930employment (Brief, Page 10) but he contends he has established an exception to the general rule or has at-least raised an issue of fact concerning an exception. Appellant contends that he was required to place a water can in the Hopkins automobile on the day in question before the crew left the rig and that he was also required to remove the said can when the crew got to Brownfield so he could fill the can with ice water and take it back to the field the next day when it would have been his turn to drive the crew to and from work, for which reason he contends that he was engaged within the scope of his employment and the furtherance of his employer’s affairs at the time of the accident in question, since his employer furnished the water can and the ice to cool the water for the crew members to drink while working. According to the record the employer made no requirements as to the water, the water can or the transportation thereof. These matters were arranged by the crew members, including the driller under whom the others worked, in the same manner that the transportation arrangements were made. The employer furnished the can and the' ice but had nothing further to do with the matter.

In the case of Smith v. Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n, 129 Tex. 573, 105 S.W.2d 192, 194, the court said in part:

“It appears to be the settled rule that even though the contract of employment contemplates that the employee, .while engaged generally in the performance of his duties,- may be subjected to the perils and hazards of the streets and highways, nevertheless in order that an injury resulting from the risks of the streets may be compensable, the employee, at the time of the injury, must be actually engaged in the performance of some particular duty of his employment, or must be upon some substantial mission of his employer in the course of his employment, which subj ects him to such perils.” '

In the case of Insurers Indemnity & Ins. Co. v. Lankford, Tex.Civ.App., 150 S.W.2d 288, a judgment in the trial court for plaintiff upon a jury verdict was reversed and judgment was rendered for the insurance carrier. In that case'a member of a drilling crew previous to riding with a fellow worker on the way home after working hours, had been asked by a superior to stop on his way home and deliver a message to a mechanic to come out to a well and repair a generator. While on the way home and before the message was delivered a collision occurred on a public highway that resulted in injuries to the said member of the drilling crew, who sued for compensation benefits, claiming that because of the request that he stop and deliver a message while on his way home, he was engaged in the course of his employment while he was on his way home. The appellate court refused to accept his views in the matter and held that the delivery of the message requested of him was incidental to the trip that he must make -home anyway, for which reason he was not to be compensated.

In the case of Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n v. Beach, Tex.Civ.App., 213 S.W.2d 60, 70, a judgment in the trial court for plaintiff upon a jury verdict was reversed and.rendered for the insurance carrier. In that case a crew driver of his own automobile was killed in a motor vehicle accident while he was driving home from work hauling a water can for the use of the crew, the ownership of the can not having been shown. His survivors sued for compensation benefits. ’ The facts in that case were similar in many respects to the facts in the case at bar. The court there said in part:

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Bluebook (online)
282 S.W.2d 928, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2096, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henshaw-v-texas-employers-insurance-assn-texapp-1955.