Hurdle and Son v. Holloway

749 So. 2d 342, 1999 WL 788815
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedOctober 5, 1999
Docket1998-WC-01481-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 749 So. 2d 342 (Hurdle and Son v. Holloway) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hurdle and Son v. Holloway, 749 So. 2d 342, 1999 WL 788815 (Mich. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

749 So.2d 342 (1999)

HURDLE AND SON and Ms Casualty Insurance Company, Appellants.
v.
Michael A. HOLLOWAY, Appellee.

No. 1998-WC-01481-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

October 5, 1999.

*344 George E. Read, Oxford, J. Keith Pearson, Greenville, Attorneys for Appellants.

James Kizer Jones, Holly Springs, Barrett Jerome Clisby, Holly Springs, Attorneys for Appellee.

BEFORE McMILLIN, C.J., BRIDGES, AND PAYNE, JJ.

McMILLIN, C.J., for the Court:

¶ 1. This case originated as a proceeding before the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission. Michael Holloway sought a determination that injuries he sustained in a vehicle accident were jobrelated and, thus, compensable. The Commission found for Holloway and Holloway's employer and the employer's compensation carrier appealed that ruling to the Circuit Court of Marshall County with unfavorable result. The employer and carrier have now appealed to this Court seeking a reversal of the Circuit Court's decision to affirm the Commission. Upon review of the record, this Court has decided that the award of compensation should be affirmed.

*345 I.

Facts

¶ 2. Holloway was employed by Hurdle and Son, a partnership engaged in a farming operation in Marshall County. The partners in the business, according to the record, were J.K. Hurdle and his wife, Kay Hurdle. Holloway worked as a farm laborer, completing those tasks of manual labor that were assigned to him. His primary supervisor was J.K. Hurdle but, in J.K. Hurdle's absence, Holloway received instructions from another employee who was also his uncle, Dornell Holloway. Sam Hurdle, the eighteen-year-old son of J.K. Hurdle by a former marriage, also worked in the farming operation and, on occasion, relayed work instructions from his father to the other laborers on the farm.

¶ 3. The employer waived its statutory exemption and voluntarily assumed liability for benefits to its employees under the state's workers' compensation laws by purchasing workers' compensation insurance as permitted by section 71-3-5 of the Mississippi Code.

¶ 4. Michael Holloway did not own a vehicle and it was his usual custom to catch rides to and from work with his uncle. The evidence indicated that, when Dornell Holloway was unable for any reason to provide transportation, the Hurdles had a standing policy that either Sam Hurdle or J.K. Hurdle would provide the necessary transportation for Michael Holloway to get to and from the farm.

¶ 5. On the day that Holloway was injured, he did not ride home at the end of the work day with Dornell Holloway because Sam Hurdle had asked him to remain and help him work on a non-functioning farm truck. Sam Hurdle planned to replace the engine in the truck and needed assistance in that endeavor. There was testimony that the truck belonged to the farm and that, if the repairs were successful, the truck would be used by Sam Hurdle for his own personal use as well as being available for use on the farm. J.K. Hurdle was out of the country on the day of the accident and there was some dispute in the testimony as to whether Michael Holloway agreed to assist in working on the truck as a personal favor to Sam Hurdle or whether his work was a required duty as a part of his employment. Dornell Holloway, for example, testified that he had assisted Sam Hurdle in working on the truck after Michael Holloway's injury. He said this occurred on a weekend and that he had neither expected nor received payment for that time from Hurdle and Son. However, J.K. Hurdle testified that he "had given permission [to Sam Hurdle] to get the employees to help him work on that truck out there."

¶ 6. Sam Hurdle testified that he and Michael Holloway left the farm temporarily in the late afternoon, at which time Sam Hurdle supplied the money to purchase twelve beers. The beers were actually bought by Michael Holloway because Sam Hurdle was under the legal age to make such a purchase. The two then returned to the farm where they worked on the truck and each consumed a number of beers. Sam Hurdle estimated that he drank approximately six of the beers.

¶ 7. At some time later in the evening, the two ceased work and left the farm together in Sam Hurdle's vehicle, which was also owned by the farm and apparently served a dual role as Sam Hurdle's personal vehicle and, on occasion, as an instrument to perform duties associated with the farming operation. Only a few hundred yards after leaving the farm property and entering a public highway, Sam Hurdle testified that the truck experienced a blow-out of one of its tires, causing him to lose control. The truck flipped over, seriously injuring Holloway. Hurdle was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants and ultimately pled guilty to the charge.

¶ 8. Holloway filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits due him for his injuries, claiming they were job-related. His *346 employer defended and raised several matters in defense, all of which the Commission rejected. Hurdle and Son urges in this appeal that the Commission erred in its rulings on these defenses. The specific issues raised on appeal are as follows:

(A) Hurdle and Son claims that Holloway, at the time of his injury, was not acting within the course and scope of his employment but was on a personal adventure with a fellow employee that was not related to the duties of his employment.

(B) The employer claimed alternatively that Michael Holloway had ceased any duties incident to his employment and was traveling home at the time of his injury—a circumstance that bars compensability under the "going and coming" rule.

(C) Hurdle and Son advances the proposition that Holloway imported the risk that actually caused his injury by participating in the purchase and consumption of beer while on the job—an activity not permitted by his employer and not in furtherance of his employer's interests.

(D) Finally, Hurdle and Son argues generally that certain findings of fact by the Commission were not supported by substantial evidence in the record.

¶ 9. We will deal with those issues in the order set out above after some preliminary observations on the limited scope of our inquiry in matters such as this.

II.

The Scope of Our Review

¶ 10. Determinations of compensability for injuries alleged to be work-related and, thus, covered under Mississippi's workers' compensation statutes, are, in the first instance, vested in an administrative agency known as the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission. Thyer Mfg. Co. v. Mooney, 252 Miss. 629, 638, 173 So.2d 652, 656 (1965); Miss.Code Ann. § § 71-3-1 to 71-3-127 (Rev.1995 and Supp.1998). Though the laws establishing this scheme of compensating laborers for their job-connected injuries contemplate judicial review of the Commission's decisions, that review is substantially limited. It involves an inquiry into whether there is substantial evidence in the record to support the Commission's determination, or whether, because of lack of supporting evidence, the Commission's decision can fairly be said to be arbitrary and capricious. Georgia Pacific Corp. v. Taplin, 586 So.2d 823, 826 (Miss.1991). There is a second area of inquiry that may be appropriate, which involves a determination of whether the Commission has misconstrued or misapplied the law applicable to its decision process. Id.

¶ 11.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
749 So. 2d 342, 1999 WL 788815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hurdle-and-son-v-holloway-missctapp-1999.