Lee v. Florida Pine & Cypress

157 So. 2d 513
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedOctober 23, 1963
DocketNo. 32555
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 157 So. 2d 513 (Lee v. Florida Pine & Cypress) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lee v. Florida Pine & Cypress, 157 So. 2d 513 (Fla. 1963).

Opinion

TERRELL, Justice.

This is a workmen’s compensation case that grew out of these facts: The employer, Florida Pine & Cypress, was a citizen of Bainbridge, Georgia, but owned a timber business at Sopchoppy in Wakulla County, Florida, about seventy-five miles from Bain-bridge. The petitioner, Harmon Lee, was one of about a dozen employees of respondent Florida Pine & Cypress, who lived in Bainbridge but worked at Sopchoppy and as part of their contract of employment were conveyed to Sopchoppy every Monday morning and returned to Bainbridge Friday of each week.

October 4, 1961, the regular bus left Sopchoppy Wednesday afternoon carrying a majority of the employees to Bainbridge, the reason being that the sawmill was shut down for the week. The petitioner and two other employees, Jesse Leverett and [514]*514Jesse Williams, remained at Sopchoppy ■cutting logs in order that there would be sufficient logs on hand for the mill to work Monday morning.

About noon Friday, October 6, 1961, petitioner and the said two employees came out of the woods where they were cuttings logs. They expected to catch one of the employer’s lumber buses or trucks which was returning from down the state by way of Sopchoppy and would pick them up and transport them to their home in Bainbridge. For some reason, unknown to the said employees, the lumber bus did not reach Sop-choppy on Friday afternoon. The three employees loafed around Sopchoppy until late in the afternoon when Jesse Leverett, a white employee of the respondent, took one of the log trucks of the employer to make the trip to Bainbridge. He asked the claimant and Jesse Williams if they wanted to make the trip with him. About 5:30 P.M. the log truck was involved in an accident in which Jesse Williams was killed and the claimant was so badly injured that he was bedridden and paralyzed at the time of the hearing January 9, 1962.

After taking testimony and hearing arguments herein, the deputy commissioner found that the employee Jesse Leverett was driving the log truck without permission of the employer. The deputy commissioner further found:

“It was generally understood by all employees that the log trucks were not to be used, although the claimant, according to his testimony which I accept, had never been told by the employer not to ride on the log trucks. (DCO page 2 (T-16) * * *
“7. However, on the other hand, I find as a fact that it has not been shown that the claimant knowingly violated any definite instructions not to ride the log trucks. I find that the claimant did not knowingly violate any safety rule or any other definite instructions not to be a passenger on the vehicle in the event it was in fact making a trip to Bainbridge.” (DCO, page 4)

After full hearing in addition to the foregoing findings, the deputy commissioner found and decreed that the claimant’s injuries did not arise out of and in the course of his employment. On appeal to the full commission the order of the deputy commissioner was affirmed on the theory that it was supported by competent substantial evidence. We are confronted with an appeal by certiorari from the order of the full commission. ■

Counsel do not agree on the statement of the questions that arise from this factual complex. The petitioner states his first question as follows:

“Is a Negro logger working in Wakulla County, who resides in Bainbridge, Georgia, and is regularly furnished transportation to and from his work, barred from workmen’s compensation benefits under the act when he is injured while returning home on one of the employer’s trucks, which is being driven by a fellow employee truck driver without permission of the employer, but which fact is not known to the claimant?”

The record shows that transportation from Bainbridge to Sopchoppy in Wakulla County was a part of petitioner’s employment contract with the employer. The injury complained of took place as petitioner was being transported from Sopchoppy to Bainbridge. Was the deputy commissioner correct in holding that the petitioner’s injuries did not arise out of and in the course of his employment? Petitioner contends that this question should be answered in the negative and relies on 58 Am. Jur., § 218, p. 725, as follows to support his contention:

“WHERE EMPLOYER PROVIDES TRANSPORTATION.- — As an exception to the general rule that an employee is not in the course of his employment while going to or returning [515]*515from his work, it is generally held that where transportation to or from work is furnished by the employer as an incident of the employment, an accidental injury sustained by the employee while being transported arises out of and in the course of the employment * *

Petitioner further contends that the principle of workmen’s compensation law so quoted has been incorporated into the law of this state by Southern States Mfg. Co. v. Wright, 1941, 146 Fla. 29, 200 So. 375, where the court said:

“The question to be determined is, Did the injury arise out of and in the course of the employment?
“[1] While, as stated, the employee was paid by the hour, he was the regular employee of the employer and under the agreement of employment it was at least his implied duty to take advantage of the conveyance arranged for by the employer and thus go to the place where actual work was required to be performed. His employment contemplated the incident of being transported, as stated, to and from work. Terms of a contract may be implied from the actions of both of the parties and considered as adopted by them as a part of the employment contract. * * *
“[2] Generally it appears that the employer’s liability in such cases depends upon whether or not there is a contract between employer and employee, express or implied, covering the matter of transportation to and from work. * * *
*' ⅜ * * * *
“[3] So, in this case where the employer required the services of the employee in its milling plant at Bonifay, and as an incident to procuring such services there, arranged for the transportation of the employee on the employer’s truck to and from Marianna, the place where the employee lived, to and from Bonifay, there existed an implied, if not expressed, contract that the employer would provide such truck for such transportation and that the employee would use such truck for such transportation under whatever terms were agreed upon. Such transportation so had, received and used was an incident to the employment and was exercised in the furtherance of the employment.”

Povia Bros. Farms v. Velez, Fla.1954, 74 So.2d 103, supports this view.

Since we hold that Southern States Mfg. Co. v. Wright, 200 So. 375, supra, allies this state with the law as expressed in § 218 of 58 Am.Jur., supra, the deputy commissioner was in error in finding and decreeing that the claimant’s injuries did not arise out of and in the course of his employment. Then it follows that the full commission was in error in affirming the order of the deputy commissioner on the theory that it was supported by competent substantial evidence, there being no question that transportation from Bainbridge to Sopchoppy and return was a part of the contract.

In Cardillo v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 330 U.S. 469, 67 S.Ct.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Shaw v. Cambridge Integrated Services Group, Inc.
888 So. 2d 58 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2004)
Ago
Florida Attorney General Reports, 1996
Metropolitan Dade County v. Sykes
557 So. 2d 228 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1990)
Britton v. United States
659 F. Supp. 448 (S.D. Florida, 1987)
Chain of Lakes Groves v. Giddens
410 So. 2d 984 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1982)
FLA. ERECTION SERV. INC. v. McDonald
395 So. 2d 203 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1981)
Wert v. Tropicana Pools, Inc.
286 So. 2d 1 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1973)
Allen v. Estate of Carman
281 So. 2d 317 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1973)
Atkinson v. Florida Sugar Corp.
28 Fla. Supp. 135 (Palm Beach County Circuit Court, 1967)
Swartzer v. Food Fair Stores, Inc.
175 So. 2d 36 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1965)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
157 So. 2d 513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lee-v-florida-pine-cypress-fla-1963.