Ishmael v. Henderson

1955 OK 200, 286 P.2d 265, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 461
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 5, 1955
Docket36568
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 1955 OK 200 (Ishmael v. Henderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ishmael v. Henderson, 1955 OK 200, 286 P.2d 265, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 461 (Okla. 1955).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, Vice Chief Justice,

This is an original proceeding instituted by M. W. Ishmael and Standard. Insurance Company to review an order, of the.State Ipdustrial Commission awarding death benefits to Claimant,. Mae Henderson’,. .as sole dependent heir at law of. Hi. T. Henderson, deceased. -,No ■ contention, is .ma.de that claimant, is not entitled to the. award; of death benefits, the only complaint made being that- such award should have been made *266 against respondent Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation and not against petitioners.

Petitioner Ishmael is a' contractor engaged in general oil field work. This work includes contract cleaning and painting; ditching, general lease work and the hiring out or furnishing of roustabout labor. H. T. Henderson was a roustabout laborer employed by Ishjmael and. furnished by him to Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation to do general roustabout work at its gasoline plant No. 3. Ishmael furnished such roustabout labor under an agreement with Mid-Continent whereby he was paid by Mid-Continent for his employees’ services at the rate of $1.50 per hour per employee. Ishmael, in turn, paid his employees at the rate of $1 per hour. It is undisputed that Ishmael hired Henderson, paid Henderson his weekly wages.at the rate of $1 per hour, and that Plenderson’s wages, as well as the wages of other roustabout workers similarly employed, were included in Ishmael’s pay roll for .the purpose of determining the amount of premium due to Standard Insurance Company for workmen’s compensation coverage. On November 13, 1953, Henderson received an injury which later resulted in his death, the details of which are adequately covered in the order of the commission. • Such order, in. so far as is pertinent, is. as follows:

“1. On November 13, 1953, .Harley Thomas Henderson sustained an accidental injury arising.out of.and in the course of his employment in a hazardous occupation within the meaning of the Workmen’s 'Compensation Law of the State of Oklahoma, as a direct and ■proximate result of which he died on November 21, 1953." The accidental injury occurred as follows: During the course of the day of the accident, said deceased worked on an Agitator in a gasoline still in the casinghead gasoline manufacturing plant of the respondent, Mid-Continent Pet. Corp., repairing leaky flanges. His clothing, particularly his trousers, became impregnated with mineral seal oil, an inflammable chemical, which sprayed from the flanges on which he worked. At the conclusion of the day’s work he went to his pickup truck, wearing the same clothing, for the purpose of. returning to his home. The pickup truck was parked adjacent to the enclosure surrounding the plant in an area com- • monly used for ingress and egress by the company and its employees when he struck a match to light a cigarette while sitting in the cab of the truck, his trousers caught fire causing him to receive -severe burns, from which he died.
“2. At the time of said accidental injury, Harley Thomas Henderson was in the employ of the respondent M. W. Ishmael, and was included on said respondent’s payroll for the purpose of determining the amount of the premiums due his Workmen’s Compensation Insurance Carrier, The Standard Insurance Company. He was working at the Mid-Continent- Pet. Corp. plant near Drumright, Oklahoma, under the supervision and direction of said corporation’s plant superintendent, by arrangement between the Mid-Continent Pet. Corp. and said M. W. Ishmael. The deceased workman was furnished by Ishmael to Mid-Continent as contract labor. Ishmael’s insurance carrier had no knowledge of the .specific employment in which Henderson was being used at the time of the accident resulting in his death. MidrContinent Pet. Cqrp. had the authority to supervise; his work, and. did . so, and could . terminate the use of his services by it at any time. But Mid-Continent Pet. Corp. had no authority to terminate his employment .with Ishmael. Under the circumstances the respondent M. W. Ishmael' and his insurance carrier, Standard Insurance Company, are primarily liable to the claimant herein for benefits under the Workmen’s Compensation Law because of the death of said Harley Thomas Henderson, and the respondent Mid-Continent Pet. Corp. is secondarily liable.”

Petitioners contend that the deceased was working for Mid-Continent at the time of his death and- not for Ishmael and that the mére fact that insurance protection *267 is afforded a claimant by an employer who loans the deceased servant to another, does not serve to make the person who loans the servant primarily liable for the death of the servant; that it is the principal employer to whom the servant is- loaned or the employer who was responsible for the death who must pay the benefit.

Petitioners’ contention is based on the fact that the deceased was working at Mid-Continent’s plant and that his work was under the supervision and control of Mid-Continent’s plant superintendent at the time of his death. They say that under such circumstances the “loaned servant” doctrine is applicable and cite Wylie-Stewart Mach. Co. v. Thomas, 192 Okl. 505, 137 P.2d 556; Thomas v. Great Western Min. Co., 150 Okl. 212, 1 P.2d 165; Byrne Doors, Inc., v. State Industrial Commission, 193 Okl. 541, 145 P.2d 754, and Aderhold v. Bishop, 94 Okl. 203, 221 P. 752, 60 A.L.R. 137.

The “loaned servant” doctrine is, in brief, the rule that one who is the general servant of another may be loaned or hired by his master to another for some special service so as to become, as to that service, the servant of such third person. Such doctrine arose and has most often been applied in cases arising out of negligence of a servant resulting in injury to a third party wherein it became necessary to determine who was the employer or master responsible for the acts of the servant. It is an apparent exception to the general rule that the relation of employer and employee is contractual and is created in every instance by a contract, express or implied. The relationship of master and servant under such doctrine is, however, constructive, not real, and is actually a fiction resorted to by the courts to enable them with greater ease and facility to apply the law of negligence, especially the rule of respondeat superior. Some jurisdictions have held that such fiction utilized in the law of negligence has no place in the administration of a workmen’s compensation act. See, for example, McDowell v. Duer, 78 Ind.App. 440, 133 N.E. 839, and cases therein cited, wherein the general or lending nmster alone was held liable for compensation payable under the workmen’s compensation act. Other jurisdictions have held the “loaned servant” doctrine applicable to cases arising under workmen’s compensation acts as well as to those at common law. See, for example, Scribner’s Case, 231 Mass. 132, 120 N.E. 350, 3 A.L.R. 1178, wherein an award against a general or lending employer was reversed. This court has applied the “loaned servant” doctrine in two cases arising under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of this state, namely, Byrne Doors, Inc., v. State Industrial Commission, 193 Okl. 541, 145 P.2d 754, .and Crutchfield v. Melton, Okl., 270 P.2d 642. In both of those cases, however, we merely sustained an award against the special • or borrowing master on the basis of .the facts of the particular case,, and the facts in the case at bar are in no wise identical with the facts in either of those, cases.

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Bluebook (online)
1955 OK 200, 286 P.2d 265, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ishmael-v-henderson-okla-1955.