Patterson v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board

485 A.2d 886, 86 Pa. Commw. 608, 1985 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 752
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania·Decided January 2, 1985·No. Appeal, No. 2908 C.D. 1983·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Rogers,

Roger Patterson has appealed from an order of the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (board) affirming a referee’s action denying him benefits because he was not the employee of the corporation which he named in his claim petition as his employer.

The claimant, a resident of Ohio, suffered injuries in an accident in Cleveland, Ohio,1 while he was delivering coal by a tractor-trailer owned by Ray Fluke, identified as the president of Valley Feed & Trucking, Inc. (Valley Feed), an Ohio corporation. Fluke had leased the tractor-trailer to Wayne W. Sell Corporation (Wayne Sell), a Pennsylvania corporation. Valley Feed paid the claimant’s wages and reimbursed the claimant for his percentage of the load. Fluke paid the license fees, taxes, fuel, and maintenance of the tractor-trailer. Fluke also selected the driver and could dismiss him. Fluke also instructed the claimant to contact Wayne Sell to solicit the load to deliver in Ohio on the return trip to Ohio. The question in this litigation is that of whether Wayne Sell was the employer as alleged or whether the employer was Valley Feed.

After hearings, the referee found:

3. On December 4, 1981, this Referee issued an Interlocutory Order joining Valley [610] Feed & Trucking, Inc., and Ray E. Fluke as additional party defendants.
5. Tour Referee finds that the claimant suffered an injury on April 15, 1981 as a result of which he became totally disabled from performing his usual employment duties.
6. Your Referee finds that the Worker’s [sic] Compensation Bureau of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has jurisdiction over Mr. Fluke and Mr. Fluke’s corporation, Valley Feed & Trucking, as a result of his submission to the jurisdiction by appearing at the hearing of November 10, 1981 before this Referee.
7. At the time of the claimant’s injury, he was driver of a vehicle owned by Mr. Ray Fluke.
8. Your Referee finds as a fact that in the two month period between February of 1981 and April of 1981, the claimant was employed by Mr. Ray Fluke as a driver on 8-10 jobs.
9. The claimant’s check was drawn on the account of Valley Feed, a corporation of which Mr. Ray Fluke is the president.
10. Your Referee finds as fact that the claimant was employed by Valley Feed & Trucking at the time of the incident in question. This finding is based on the testimony of record which indicates that the claimant was under the control of Mr. Fluke and received his pay from Valley Feed & Trucking and further on testimony of record which indicates that claimant was never hired by Wayne Sell Corporation.

The referee concluded that the claimant was not entitled to benefits under The Pennsylvania Work[611] men’s Compensation Act because he was not Wayne Sell’s employee.

On appeal, the board affirmed, the referee’s decision, observing that Section 101 of The Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act, Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, as amended, 77 P.S. §1, describes the Act as applying to injuries occurring within the Commonwealth, irrespective of where the contract of hiring was made, “and extraterritorily as provided by Section 305.2,” 77 P.S. §411.2, and that the claimant’s case was not one in which any of the conditions of Section 305.2 for benefits for extraterritorial injuries applies. Section 305.2(a) describes four conditions each of which if met would permit an employee injured outside of Pennsylvania to have the benefits of the Pennsylvania Act. None of these four conditions applies in this case because, as to the first condition, the claimant’s employment was not principally localized in Pennsylvania and as to the remaining three, because he was not working under a contract of hire by Wayne Sell, the only named employer.2

The claimant nevertheless contends that he was Wayne Sell’s employee. The board in affirming the referee’s determination that Valley Feed was the only employer cited Jay Lines, Inc. v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board, 66 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 299, 443 A.2d 1370 (1982) and North Penn Transfer, Inc. v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board, 61 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 469, 434 A.2d 228 (1981), for the propositions that the existence of an employer-employee relationship must be determined on a case-[612] by-case basis and that tbe crucial test in determining whether the employee of one person becomes the employee of another is that of whether the latter had the right to control the work to be done by the employee and the manner of its performance.

The well-established principles of Mature v. Angelo, 373 Pa. 593, 97 A.2d 59 (1953), provides:

A servant is the employe of the person who has the right of controlling the manner of his performance of the work, irrespective of whether he actually exercises that control or not. . . .
Where one is engaged in the business of renting out trucks, automobiles, cranes, or any other machine, and furnishes a driver or operator as part of the hiring, there is a factual presumption that the operator remains in the employ of his original master, and, unless that presumption is overcome by evidence that the borrowing employer in fact assumes control of the employe’s manner of performing the worlc, the servant remains in the service of his original employer____
Facts which indicate that the servant remains the employe of his original master are, among others, that the latter has the right to select the employe to be loaned and to discharge him at any time and send another in his place, that the lent servant has the skill of a technician or specialist which the performance of the work requires, that the hiring is at a rate by the day or hour, and that the employment is for no definite period. . . . (Citations omitted.) (Emphasis in original.)

Id. at 596-97, 97 A.2d at 60-61 (1953).

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Patterson v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board, 485 A.2d 886, 86 Pa. Commw. 608, 1985 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 752 (Pa. Ct. App. 1985).

485 A.2d 886 (Patterson v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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