Matthews v. Buff Hottle Shows, Inc.

109 So. 2d 261, 1959 La. App. LEXIS 783
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 5, 1959
DocketNo. 4716
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 109 So. 2d 261 (Matthews v. Buff Hottle Shows, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Matthews v. Buff Hottle Shows, Inc., 109 So. 2d 261, 1959 La. App. LEXIS 783 (La. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

FRUGÉ, Judge ad hoc.

This is a suit in tort, and alternatively for workmen’s compensation brought by the tutrix of a minor to recover for injuries which resulted in the loss of his right hand.

Edward Jackson was a minor, only fifteen years of age on April 28, 1957. He was injured while operating a carousel or merry-go-round owned by Buff Hottle Shows, Inc. Edward Jackson had been working about the Buff Hottle Shows, Inc. fair grounds for two days prior to his accident and injury. The operating mechanism of the carousel contained exposed gears in which Edward Jackson’s glove became entangled and his hand was drawn into the gears and mangled, requiring amputation between the wrist and elbow.

At the time of the said accident Buff Hottle Shows, Inc. was engaged along with the City of Thibodaux and its fire department in staging a fair known as “The Fireman’s Fair” for the benefit of the Thibodaux fire department. The said fair was being conducted on the land of the Lafourche Parish School Board which had been made available to the city and Buff Hottle Shows, Inc. for this said use. The defendants are: Buff Hottle Shows, Inc., a corporation domiciled in the State of Illinois and its insurer from liability arising out of the negligence or the negligent operation, Reserve Insurance Company; (2) Houston Fire and Casualty Insurance Company, maintaining a policy insuring the City of Thibodaux, including all [262]*262its agencies, specifically its fire department for liability arising out of any negligence; (3) Employers’ Liability Assurance Corporation, Ltd., having a policy of insurance in force on behalf of the La-fourche Parish School Board and its agencies and specifically the Thibodaux public school grounds; (4) Exchange Insurance Association, a foreign corporation insuring plaintiff Buff Hottle Shows, Inc. against liability for injuries to employees.

Plaintiffs contend in their petition that a valid, legal relationship of employment is necessary to the application of workmen’s compensation law to this accident. Plaintiff further contends that no valid or legal employment relationship existed in this instance, and in fact, no contract or relationship of employment existed in this case; and that, therefore, the law of torts following LSA-Civil Code, Article 2315 is applicable. In the alternative, plaintiff pleads application of the workmen’s compensation law.

Every defendant filed various exceptions. We are particularly concerned however, at this time, with the exceptions filed by Buff Hottle Shows, Inc. and Reserve Insurance ■Company; Employers’ Liability Assurance ■Corporation, Ltd., and Houston Fire and ■Casualty Company. These particular exceptions are exceptions of no cause or right .of action.

The exception of no right or cause of action filed by Employers’ Liability Assurance Company 'Corporation, Ltd., was maintained by the trial court. The exception of Buff Hottle Shows, Inc. and Reserve Insurance Company was maintained only insofar as any liability other than workmen’s compensation.

In a separate decree an exception of no cause or right of action was filed by Houston Fire & Casualty Company and maintained. There is apparently no appeal from the latter judgment.

The judgment of the District Court on the date of March 28, 1958, gave reasons as follows:

“The exceptions of no right of action and of no cause of action filed by the defendant Buff Hottle and Reserve Insurance Company, and by the Employers’ Liability Assurance Corporation, Limited, relate particularly to the right of plaintiff to bring this action in tort.
“It is our opinion that this proceeding comes completely within the purview of the jurisprudence established in the case of Bourgeois v. [J. W.] Crawford Construction Company [213 La. 992], 36 So.2d 13, which holds that such employment was presumed to be subject to the provisions of the compensation act, and was governed thereby, and that ‘so long as that presumption is permitted to remain it must be considered that plaintiff’s claim for damages is excluded from the provisions of Article 2315 of the 'Civil Code.’
“For these reasons, the exceptions were maintained as to Employers’ Liability Assurance Corporation, Limited; and maintained as to Buff Hottle and Reserve Insurance Company insofar as any liability other than workmen’s compensation is concerned.”

Plaintiff appeals from this judgment and urges that the District Court’s ruling based on Bourgeois v. J. W. Crawford Construction Company, 213 La. 992, 36 So.2d 13 did not consider plaintiff’s primary contentions that there can be no application of the workmen’s compensation law unless there be a contract of employment and that if such employment be illegal, then the application of the workmen’s compensation law is restricted to the “Street Trades” alone. Fie then quotes from Act 20 of 1914 prior to the 1948 Act as follows:

“ * * * Provided, that this act shall not apply to [employees] of less [263]*263than the minimum age prescribed by law for the employment of minors in the trades, businesses or occupations specified in paragraph 2 of Section 1, or engaged in the trades, businesses or occupations that may be determined to be hazardous under the operation of paragraph 3 of Section 1.” Act No. 20 of 1914, § 3, subd. 4.

He then argues that this provision specifically prohibited application of the Act to minors employed legally or illegally in the trades or occupations specified therein. He states that a number of cases were decided by the courts interpreting that statutory provision and interpreting the rights of minors illegally employed.

He then refers to Kennedy v. Johnson Lumber Company, La.App., 33 So.2d 558, and states that a thorough review of the application of workmen’s compensation to minors illegally employed was thoroughly discussed in this well reasoned decision, and he points out that it concludes that an attempt to illegally employ a minor does not give rise to the contract of hiring essential to the application of the workmen’s compensation act.

Plaintiff then further reasons that the court in the Johnson case did not rely solely on the provisions of the quoted section of Act 20 of 1914, but that the court clearly and implicitly established that the contractual relationship of employer and employee must exist, in the absence of specific statutory provisions for workmen’s compensation to apply. He then points out that in addition, the court established that an attempt to contract in contravention of a prohibitory law was void ab initio and would be given no force and effect.

Plaintiff then states that the law of Louisiana was thus recognized by the United States Court of Appeal, Fifth Circuit in the New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. Soileau, 167 F.2d 767, 6 A.L.R.2d 128 and he quotes from that decision. He then points out that this case reflected the deciding factor to be that the want of employer-employee relationship then obtained in both state and federal courts. Plaintiff further contends that unless plaintiff was competent to contract, then no relationship of employer and employee could arise, the said relationship arising only out of a contract. Then he quotes the Louisiana law further to show how the contract of employer and employee shall apply. And, in so doing, he refers us to LSA-C.C.

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Bluebook (online)
109 So. 2d 261, 1959 La. App. LEXIS 783, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matthews-v-buff-hottle-shows-inc-lactapp-1959.