Pease v. National Council on Compensation Insurance

876 P.2d 839, 128 Or. App. 471, 1994 Ore. App. LEXIS 945
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJune 22, 1994
Docket91-07-003; CA A78347
StatusPublished

This text of 876 P.2d 839 (Pease v. National Council on Compensation Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pease v. National Council on Compensation Insurance, 876 P.2d 839, 128 Or. App. 471, 1994 Ore. App. LEXIS 945 (Or. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

RIGGS, J.

Employer seeks review of a Department of Insurance and Finance (DIF)1 final order requiring employer to pay additional workers’ compensation premiums to its insurer, SAIF. Employer challenges DIF’s determination of what constitutes verifiable records, DIF’s classification of certain employees as general nursery employees and DIF’s classification of certain individuals as employees rather than independent contractors. We affirm.

Employer operates Evans Farm, a 180-acre ornamental plant nursery and retail garden store. Evans Farm has four locations. “Farm one” serves as employer’s headquarters and includes employer’s residence, as well as a converted barn with office space and a retail garden center. The garden center sells seeds, statuary, chemicals, garden supplies and plants that have been grown both at Evans Farm and elsewhere. The three other locations are all within a few miles of farm one and are used to grow nursery stock. Employer sells most of the nursery stock wholesale and some at her garden center.

Employer uses three types of workers that are involved in this review. First, employer employs a number of individuals to do a variety of tasks, including hand-hoeing. Very few of the hoers speak English, and most of them cannot read or write either English or their native language.2 These employees turn in weekly timecards indicating the tasks done and the amount of time spent at each task. The timecards are filled out in Spanish, using Spanish terms, such as “azadón” or “zacate,” to indicate hoeing. The cards are supposed to be filled out by the employee during the course of a day, but they are often filled out by other employees at unknown times.

Employer also employs a number of clerks for the retail garden store. They sell retail garden products, including plants grown on Evans Farm, to the public. Although employer asserts that the garden store is a separate entity, [474]*474she produced no evidence that she kept the books and records separate from the books and records of the entire business.

Finally, employer uses diggers to harvest plants from the ground and to prepare the plants for shipping. Employer leads the diggers to a field where other employees have marked off a block of plants to be dug. Employer tells the diggers the time frame in which the plants must be dug and negotiates a price per plant. The diggers then dig the trees and wrap the soil ball with burlap and twine. The soil ball is crucial to the plants’ survival, and employer requires the diggers to meet certain standards of size and firmness in the plants’ soil balls. Employer inspects the soil balls and either makes the digger comply with the standards or terminates the digger. The diggers are paid in round numbers every two weeks.

SAIF conducted a premium audit for the period January 1, 1990, through June 7, 1990, pursuant to ORS 737.318. Followingthe audit, employer appealed to DIF, ORS 737.505(3), and, after a hearing, DIF issued the final order of which employer seeks review. The order concluded that, as to the hoers, employer’s records were not verifiable because they were kept in Spanish, no translation was provided to assist the auditors, and it was not clear when and by whom the timecards were filled in. Because the records were not verifiable, employer was not allowed to allocate the payroll of her employees between the general business code and the less expensive code for hand-hoeing as allowed by ORS 737.310-(10) and OAR 836-42-060. The order also classified the retail sales clerks payroll under Code 0005, Farm: nursery employees and drivers, instead of the code that employer requested, Code 8001, Store: florists and drivers.3 Finally, the order concluded that because the diggers were employees, not independent contractors, employer owes premiums for the diggers’ payroll during the audit period. We review for errors of law and substantial evidence. ORS 183.482(8)(a); ORS 183.482(8)(c).

[475]*475Employer first challenges whether DIF had subject matter jurisdiction to hear this dispute, whether the hearings process deprived her of her constitutional right to trial by juiy and whether the hearings officer correctly assigned the burden of proof to her. However, employer concedes that, in Salem Decorating v. Natl. Council on Comp. Ins., 116 Or App 166, 840 P2d 739 (1992) rev den 315 Or 643 (1993), we decided those issues adversely to her position. She suggests no reason why those issues should be decided any differently here, and we conclude that DIF did not err in these respects.

Employer next assigns error to DIF’s conclusion that the records she kept were not verifiable. ORS 737.310(10) authorizes DIF to issue rules prescribing the conditions under which an employer can divide payroll between different classification codes.4 OAR 836-42-060(1) provides that one of those conditions is that an employer must provide “verifiable payroll records” disclosing the allocation of time spent at the different tasks. Neither the statutes nor the regulations set forth the requirements of “verifiable” payroll records. In the final order, DIF defined verifiable to mean

“that the accuracy of the insured’s classification and job description technique must be capable of independent confirmation by an insurer using records that are maintained by the employer and available to the insurer at the time of the audit.”

DIF then found that, because employer’s records were kept in Spanish, were not translated to assist the auditors and did not indicate when and by whom the timecards were filled in, the records were not verifiable. Employer is correct that records kept in Spanish are not necessarily unverifiable. However, DIF also found that employer’s timecards “were completed by unknown persons some period of time after the time of work performance.” DIF defined verifiability to include accuracy, and employer does not challenge that definition. DIF’s interpretation of its own rule is entitled to deference and we accept it. See Booth v. Tektronix, 312 Or 463, 473, 823 P2d 402 (1991); Branscomb v. LCDC, 297 Or 142, 145, 681 P2d [476]*476124 (1984); Springfield Education Assn. v. School Dist., 290 Or 217, 221, 621 P2d 547 (1984). Therefore, the records, to be verifiable, must also be accurate. The lack of contemporaneous timecards and the uncertainty as to who filled them out led DIF to conclude that the timecards could not be audited for accuracy and, thus, were unverifiable. DIF’s conclusion that employer’s records were unverifiable was not error.

Employer next assigns error to DIF’s assignment of Code 0005 to the clerks in the retail garden center.

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Booth v. Tektronix, Inc.
823 P.2d 402 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1991)
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Henn v. State Accident Insurance Fund Corp.
654 P.2d 1129 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1982)
Branscomb v. Land Conservation & Development Commission
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
876 P.2d 839, 128 Or. App. 471, 1994 Ore. App. LEXIS 945, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pease-v-national-council-on-compensation-insurance-orctapp-1994.