Hobbs-Western Company v. Morris

204 S.W.2d 889, 212 Ark. 105, 1947 Ark. LEXIS 649
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 20, 1947
Docket4-8266
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 204 S.W.2d 889 (Hobbs-Western Company v. Morris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hobbs-Western Company v. Morris, 204 S.W.2d 889, 212 Ark. 105, 1947 Ark. LEXIS 649 (Ark. 1947).

Opinion

Smith, J.

It is sought by this appeal to have reversed and set aside an award of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission, to compensate the widow of J. W. Morris for the death of her husband, which award had been affirmed by the Circuit Court, and from which judgment is this appeal.

The instant case is companion to the case of Hobbs-Western Company, hereinafter referred to as the Company, against Craig, 209 Ark. 630, 192 S. W. 2d 116, in that some of the testimony is similar and much of it is identical in the two cases. The employee was killed in each case while pursuing* his employment as a laborer engaged in the manufacture of ties, both being killed in the same mill.

The- former opinion recited the contract under which one Lea was engaged in the manufacture of the ties and the principal question of fact in the Craig case was whether Lea was a subcontractor or a seller of ties. It was held that Lea was a subcontractor, and that inasmuch as he had procured no compensation insurance covering his operations the Company, .the principal contractor, was liable under § 6 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, for the injury and death of Craig, which occurred while he was worldng as an employee of Lea, the subcontractor.

The first paragraph of § 6 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act reads, as follows: “A contractor in the performance of whose contract one or more persons are employed, either by himself or by a -subcontractor, who subcontracts, all or any part of such contract shall be liable,for and shall pay compensation to any employee injured whose injury arises out of and in the course of such employment, unless the subcontractor primarily liable therefor has secured compensation for such employee so injured as provided in this Act.”

We construed this paragraph in the Craig case, supra, and it was there held, to quote a headnote from that case: “The purpose of the Legislature in enacting § 6 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act (Act 319 of 1939) providing that a contractor shall be liable for and pay compensation to an employee of his subcontractor where the injury arises out of and in the course of the employment unless the subcontractor has secured compensation to the employees in such case was to make the principal contractor a guarantor of the personal injury obligation of the subcontractor.”

Lea testified in the instant case that he was operating the same mill, under the same contract with the Company, when Morris was killed, as he was operating under when Craig was killed, and his testimony established a number of facts recited in the opinion in the Craig case. For the reversal of this judgment on the award against the Company and its insurance carrier, it is insisted that while there are points of similarity in the two cases, they differ in two essential respects and that therefore the opinion in the Craig case is not authority for affirming the judgment here appealed from. It is first insisted that the testimony in the instant case was that Lea was the seller of the ties, and that whether he was or not he had taken out compensation insurance which rendered § 6 inapplicable to his sawmill operations.

Much testimony was heard which is recited in the opinion prepared by the Commission, but without reciting this testimony in detail we announce our conclusion to be that it was sufficient to support the findings of fact announced in the- opinion, the essential portions of which may be summarized as follows. The Company bought the mill used in the manufacture of the ties and paid the entire purchase price. It was sold by that Company to Lea under a contract which permitted Lea to pay for it by manufacturing ties, a certain credit being allowed for each tie manufactured by Lea, and delivered to the Company. Lea gave the Company a note payable one day after demand, which was secured by a mortgage on the mill. In addition the Company bought certain timber which Lea used in his operations, on which Lea paid stumpage as he consumed the timber. It was shown that on certain occasions Lea used the mill with the knowledge and permission of the Company, for persons other than the Company, but in doing so he did not use any of the Company’s timber, except that he did manufacture some lumber from portions of the timber called tie sidings. Lea testified that in manufacturing ties there were strips from the logs called tie sidings, which could not be made into ties, and that he sawed no lumber except from tie sidings. In other words, those sidings were a by-product and to prevent their waste Lea made some lumber from them. He testified that ordinarily these sidings were given to the mill operator, but that he paid stumpage thereon to the Company. He further testified that he sold ties only to the Company, and that he felt obligated both morally and legally to deliver all ties made by him to the Company, and that he was under the apprehension that if he sold ties to anyone else the Company would take the mill from him by a demand that his purchase money note be paid, and representatives of the Company admitted in fact that this demand of payment probably would have been made had Lea sold ties to anyone else. We conclude, therefore, that the Commission was warranted in finding as it did that Lea was a subcontractor.

There was testimony in the Craig case, as in the instant case, as to the manufacture of lumber from the tie sidings, it being contended there, as here, that Lea’s operations were not confined exclusively to the manufacture of ties. We disposed of that contention in the Craig case by saying: “We regard as unimportant the contention that Steve Lea received as his own the slabs and extra pieces of wood (called ‘tie sidings’), remaining after a tree had been manufactured into crossties. There is no finding that this residue amounted to any appreciable item, or that any disposition was ever made of any such residue from the Petty tract. ’ ’

So here, Lea was primarily engaged in manufacturing ties and these exclusively for the Company, although testimony does show that he sawed a few switch ties for the Rock Island- Railway Company, but the Company timber was not used in doing so, and this was done with the consent of the Company’s representative.

Now it was shown that while manufacturing ties for the Company, Lea engaged in the business of producing pulpwood, and that he secured compensation insurance covering those operations. This fact forms the basis for the contention that Lea was operating as a seller, and not as a subcontractor inasmuch as the Company had no interest in the production of the pulpwood, and that this insurance relieved the Company from liability under § 6 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, inasmuch as Lea had insurance for the protection of his pulpwood operations.

The testimony in regard to this insurance will be presently stated. After Craig had been killed, and while the claim for compensation on account of his death was being heard by the Compensation Commission, one of the Commissioners told Lea not to continue to operate the sawmill without insurance. Lea then said to the Company’s manager for this state: “Ted, I can’t run my mill without compensation insurance. I do not’have the money to put up $250 (for insurance premium) and I am not going to try to run it.

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Bluebook (online)
204 S.W.2d 889, 212 Ark. 105, 1947 Ark. LEXIS 649, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hobbs-western-company-v-morris-ark-1947.