Selph v. Stricker

119 So. 2d 351, 238 Miss. 597, 1960 Miss. LEXIS 443
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedApril 11, 1960
DocketNo. 41436
StatusPublished

This text of 119 So. 2d 351 (Selph v. Stricker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Selph v. Stricker, 119 So. 2d 351, 238 Miss. 597, 1960 Miss. LEXIS 443 (Mich. 1960).

Opinion

Kyle, J.

This case is before us on appeal by Jessie Selpk, claimant, from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Wilkinson County, affirming an order of the attorney-referee and the Mississippi Workmen’s Compensation Commission denying the claim of the appellant against R. M. Strieker, employer, and Hartford Accident So Indem[599]*599nity Company, Ms insurance carrier, for compensation and medical benefits for injuries suffered by the appellant as the result of a fall from a pecan tree, on November 1, 1957, while the appellant was engaged in thrashing and harvesting pecans for the said R. M. Stricker on lands owned by the said R. M. Stricker in the Buffalo Bayou area near Fort Adams, Mississippi.

The record shows that the appellee, R. M. Stricker, at the time the appellant was injured, was the owner of approximately 20,000 acres of grazing and timbered lands in Wilkinson County, including 6,000 acres of land covered with pecan trees, situated near Fort Adams, Mississippi. The appellee was engaged in the business of raising cattle, and in producing, harvesting and selling pecans in bulk quantities. The appellee had numerous pickers at work in his pecan groves and orchards during the harvesting season. The pickers picked up the pecans on shares, with the understanding that the picker’s share would be a cash payment paid to the pickers as the pecans were weighed and delivered to the appellee at his pecan storage barn, the amount of such payment being based on the market value of such pecans on the local market the day the pecans were gathered. All of the pecans were to be delivered to the appellee for sale by him for Ms own account. The pickers in some areas received in cash an amount of money equal to the market value of one-half of the pecans gathered, and in other areas the pickers received in cash an amount of money equal to the market value of two-thirds of the pecans gathered.

The cause was heard before the attorney-referee on August 12, 1958.

The appellant, Jessie Selph, testified that he sustained his injury as a result of a fall when he stepped on a rotten limb high above the ground as he reached for a pole which was being handed to Mm by Willie Jones. He suffered a broken leg as a result of the fall and was hospitalized for a period of about three weeks, and was [600]*600still disabled as a result of bis injury at tbe time of tbe hearing. The appellant stated that he had been employed to thrash pecans for Mr. Stricker during the four pecan seasons next preceding the date of his injury. The pecan harvesting season usually lasted about four months. The person who employed him was Willie Jones, who lived on Mr. Strieker’s place. The appellant understood that Willie was Mr. Strieker’s foreman, and Willie had authority to hire whoever he saw fit to hire. Willie transported the appellant and other employees to the place where they were to gather pecans each day in Mr. Strieker’s truck. Willie “would put all the laborers to the woods and put them back to the pecan house.” Willie would take the appellant to the trees that he thought best for thrashing. Mr. Stricker paid the money to Willie for the pecans harvested each day after they were weighed; Willie would then pay the other helpers; and Willie and the appellant divided what was left. Mr. Glen Whetstone weighed the pecans at Mr. Strieker’s pecan house.

Willie Jones, who was called to testify as a witness for the employer, testified that he attended to Mr. Strieker’s cattle the year around, but during the pecan season each year he gathered the pecan crop. Willie was asked how Jessie Selph happened to be gathering pecans with him. His answer was, that he had the crop in charge, that he asked Jessie if he wanted to work with him and gather pecans and that he and Jessie gathered pecans together on shares for Mr. Stricker. They had pickers picking up under the trees who were paid 50c a bucket, and Willie and Jessie, after paying the helpers, divided the money they had left between them. Willie stated that he took about four pickers with him, and Jessie thrashed the pecans. Willie considered that Jessie was working for him. On cross-examination Willie stated that he was 39 years old, and that he had. worked for Mr. Stricker since he was 15 years old; that he lived in a house on Mr. Strieker’s place and did not pay any [601]*601rent; that he was a full time employee of Mr. Stricker ‘ “Yes, sir, long as I been working for him. I been operating the pecan grove.” He stated that he looked after the wild pecans every year there was a wild pecan crop — “they don’t be a crop every year.” But the wild pecans were the ones that he was in charge of, and the wild pecans were the ones that Jessie was thrashing at the time of his injury. Willie said, “That’s my particular calling, that side over there.”

Grlen Whetstone testified that he was employed by Mr. Stricker during the fall of 1957 as supervisor of his cattle and pecan orchards and timber interests; that he scaled timber for Mr. Stricker and weighed his pecans and helped look after his cattle, along with his men at Fort Adams. Mr. Stricker told him what division he wanted to make of the pecans from the various sections down there. Each area had a different division to be made of the pecans. The pickers across Buffalo Bayou, or North of Buffalo Bayou, were paid for their pickings amounts of money equal to the local market price of two-thirds of the pecans picked. Whetstone stated that Jessie Selph came down there and helped in the harvesting of the pecan crop, but he did not hire him or supervise his work. He stated that Willie Jones carried Mr. Strieker’s pickup truck across Buffalo Bayou and the surrounding area of Fort Adams to pick up pickers to harvest the pecans; that Willie was foreman for part of the area, and Willie had more to do with the Fort Adams pecan lands than he did; but, since he was in charge of the weighing and ticket making and trespassing, he would say that he was more in charge than Willie.

' R. M. Stricker testified that in operating his 20,000 acres of land he had only six employees. But he carried workmens compensation insurance. Stricker was asked whether he hired Jessie Selph to pick up pecans for him. He stated that he never knew Jessie Selph, and did not recall ever seeing him until this accident. He stated that he did not authorize Willie to hire Jessie [602]*602Selph. for him. But on cross-examination Mr. Stricker admitted that he had signed a statement dated December 12,1957, which he was asked to identify, and in which he referred to Jessie Selph as one of his employees on November 1, 1957, and in which he stated that Jessie Selph did not live on his place and did not work for him except during the pecan harvest. “The only work Jessie Selph does for me is to pick pecans.”

The attorney-referee found that the claimant had sustained an accidental injury on the date mentioned above, for which medical service and supplies were required; that the claimant suffered temporary total disability from November 1, 1957, to June 1, 1958; that, since June 1, 1958, the claimant had been temporarily partially disabled, and had not attained the point of maximum medk cal recovery at the time of the hearing; but that the claimant was not an employee of R. M. Stricker at the time of his injury, within the contemplation of the Mississippi Workmen’s Compensation Law, and for that reason was not entitled to compensation benefits under the law. The attorney-referee therefore denied the claim, and the order of the attorney-referee was affirmed by the full commission and the circuit court.

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Bluebook (online)
119 So. 2d 351, 238 Miss. 597, 1960 Miss. LEXIS 443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/selph-v-stricker-miss-1960.