Jeffrey Manufacturing Company v. Hannah

105 So. 2d 672, 268 Ala. 262, 1958 Ala. LEXIS 476
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedOctober 9, 1958
Docket6 Div. 220
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 105 So. 2d 672 (Jeffrey Manufacturing Company v. Hannah) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jeffrey Manufacturing Company v. Hannah, 105 So. 2d 672, 268 Ala. 262, 1958 Ala. LEXIS 476 (Ala. 1958).

Opinion

*264 LAWSON, Justice.

This is a suit to recover damages for personal injuries brought in the Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa County by Ed Cleveland Hannah against The Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, a corporation, T. J. Hill, John Doe and Richard Roe. The plaintiff, in open court, struck John Doe and Richard Roe as parties defendant. There was a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff and against The Jeffrey Manufacturing Company. Judgment was in accord with the verdict. The defendant T. J. Hill, who was exonerated by the jury’s verdict, was not an agent, servant or employee of The Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, which will be referred to hereafter as Jeffrey. Its motion for new trial having been overruled, Jeffrey has appealed to this court.

The case was tried on Count 2 of the amended complaint, which was challenged by demurrer taking the point that it failed to show any duty owed the plaintiff by the defendant. Count 2 alleges that the plaintiff at the time he was injured was at a place where he had a right to be on the premises of his employer, The Central Foundry Company, a corporation, hereafter referred to as Central, where the agents, servants or employees of Jeffrey were engaged in carrying out Jeffrey’s contract with Central to install certain heavy machinery; and that plaintiff sustained his injury while he was rightfully at work in assisting the agents, servants or employees of Jeffrey in the operation and installation of the heavy machinery. Such averments, in our opinion, sufficiently show a duty on the part of Jeffrey to exercise due care not to injure the plaintiff. See Tennessee Coal, Iron and R. Co. v. Davis, 194 Ala. 149, 69 So. 544; Alabama Utilities Co. v. Champion, 230 Ala. 263, 160 So. 346.

The main insistence of Jeffrey is that it was entitled to the general affirmative charge with hypothesis. This is principally based upon the claim, that at the time Hannah was injured he was an employee of Jeffrey and because of such employment the injury comes within the purview of the workmen’s compensation law, Code 1940, Tit. 26, § 253 et seq. In considering this contention, we must review the tendencies of the evidence most favorable to the plaintiff, allowing such reasonable inferences as the jury was free to draw. United States Steel Corp. v. Mathews, 261 Ala. 120, 73 So.2d 239; Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Dunivant, 265 Ala. 420, 91 So.2d 670; Vulcan Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Standifer, 266 Ala. 246, 97 So.2d 568.

In the summer of 1955 when Jeffrey contracted with Central to install machinery in the latter’s plant at Holt, Alabama, the plaintiff, Hannah, had been in the employ of Central for more than ten years. He was rated or classified as a foundry mechanic and worked in the department charged with the responsibility of maintaining and operating machinery. Certain features or parts of the machinery to be installed were different from anything in Central’s plant, so prior to the beginning *265 of the installation or shortly thereafter it was agreed between the management of Central and Jeffrey’s superintendent that Hannah would be assigned to assist Jeffrey in the installation of the machinery so that he would become familiar with it and would thereby be better qualified to keep it in operation after it was turned over to Central.

In the early part of December, 1955, departmental orders were executed to the end that on or about December 13, 1955, Hannah was transferred from Central’s Foundry No. 3 to its Foundry No. 4 wherein the machinery was being installed by Jeffrey. From that date until March 23, 1956, when Hannah was injured, the greater part of the labor performed by Hannah was in connection with the installation of the machinery and was done under the direction of Jeffrey’s superintendent, Atkins. However, on several occasions during that period Flannah performed services on other machinery in accordance with instructions given him by some of Central’s supervisory personnel.

The installation of the machinery was completed a few days prior to the day on which Hannah was injured. The first time an attempt was made to use the machinery in the making of pipe a breakdown occurred. The machinery had not been turned over to. Central and was still under the control of Jeffrey and was being tested. When the breakdown occurred Hannah, under instructions from Jeffrey’s superintendent, Atkins, made an attempt to determine the cause of the breakdown and to make repairs. It was while he was so engaged that he suffered a serious injury.

During all of the time that Hannah was assisting in the installation of the machinery he remained on Central’s payroll and was paid by Central’s checks. However, a chargeback was effectuated whereby Jeffrey was charged with the costs of Hannah’s labor. Hannah received the same rate oj pay as he had received while in Foundry No. 3 and continued to be referred to as the holder of Central’s Badge No. 251. Hannah punched Central’s time clock each day and Central deducted social security payments from his wages and continued to carry insurance on him. When the accident occurred Hannah was sent to the hospital by Central’s safety director and Central paid his hospital expenses, including cost of nurses, and he received medical attention from a group of doctors who were in the employ of Central. During the time that he was unable to work he received workmen’s compensation payments from Central or its carrier. Jeffrey paid no part of the expense resulting from the accident nor did it pay any compensation benefits.

Hannah was looked upon by Central’s management as continuing to be its employee and when directed to assist Jeffrey in the installation of the machinery, Hannah was assured that upon the completion of that assignment he would be returned to his usual duties. However, after the accident the nature of his injuries was such that he was unable to perform the duties of a foundry mechanic or millwright and Central assigned him duties of a less arduous nature. He was an employee of Central at the time the suit was instituted.

Jeffrey takes the position that because it was reimbursing Central for the cost of Hannah’s labor and because Hannah was assigned to Jeffrey to assist in the installation of the machinery and to take instructions from its superintendent, Atkins, and was complying with those instructions at the time of the accident, Hannah was at that time Jeffrey’s employee as a matter of law. We do not agree.

We shall not attempt to discuss the decisions of this and other courts in this field. It seems to be quite generally agreed that in order to transfer the employer-employee relationship from the general employer to the one to whom the employee is loaned there must be some consensual relationship between the loaned employee and the employer whose service he enters sufficient to create a new employer-employee relationship. Where an employee *266 enters the service of another at the command and pursuant to the direction of the master, no new relationship is necessarily-created, particularly where, as here, the employee was assured of his continuing status as an employee of the general employer and was given the new assignment for the purpose of becoming better equipped to perform services for the general employer. Rhinelander Paper Co. v. Industrial Commission, 206 Wis. 215, 239 N.W. 412; Ryan v. Twin City Wholesale Grocer Co., 210 Minn. 21, 297 N.W. 705.

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Bluebook (online)
105 So. 2d 672, 268 Ala. 262, 1958 Ala. LEXIS 476, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jeffrey-manufacturing-company-v-hannah-ala-1958.