Skilstaf/Stafco, Inc. v. Burckhalter

1996 OK CIV APP 149, 935 P.2d 403, 1996 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 152, 1996 WL 808349
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 20, 1996
DocketNo. 87596
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1996 OK CIV APP 149 (Skilstaf/Stafco, Inc. v. Burckhalter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Skilstaf/Stafco, Inc. v. Burckhalter, 1996 OK CIV APP 149, 935 P.2d 403, 1996 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 152, 1996 WL 808349 (Okla. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

GARRETT, Judge:

Respondent, Linda Burckhalter (Claimant), filed her Form 3 in the Workers’ Compensation Court on October 19,1995, alleging she sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of her employment as a truck driver for B.J. Handley. She injured her back while picking up a chain box. She alleged the employment agreement was made in Oklahoma, but the place of injury was in the State of Washington. She amended her Form 3 on November 7, 1995, to change the name of her Employer to Skilstaf, Inc. (Employer). Later, B.J. Handley was “considered” dismissed without prejudice. Employer denied jurisdiction and requested a hearing. Skilstaf, Inc. and B.J. Handley’s trucking company are separate Alabama companies and have home offices in that State. Jerry Handley is B.J. Handley’s son and works at the trucking company.

The trial court conducted a hearing and entered its order in which, as pertinent here, the court found that the employment contract was made in Oklahoma, and it had jurisdiction. Employer appealed to the court en banc. The three judge panel found the trial court’s order was not against the clear weight of the evidence or contrary to law and affirmed. This review proceeding followed. The only issue is whether the employment contract was made in Oklahoma, and whether the Oklahoma court has jurisdiction.

Employer contends the employment contract was entered into in the State of Alabama. Employer also contends Claimant failed to sustain her burden of proof that the contract was made in Oklahoma. Claimant contends the contract was made in Oklahoma, and the evidence so shows. She also [404]*404claims the clause in the written contract, that it was made in Alabama and was subject to Alabama’s workers’ compensation laws, is void and unenforceable in Oklahoma because of the provisions of 85 O.S.1991 § 47.1

Claimant testified the truck driver job was advertised in an Oklahoma City newspaper. She called the toll free number listed in the ad from her home in Elk City, Oklahoma. She knew or learned the number she called was an Alabama number. She spoke to Jerry Handley at the trucking company. He told her about the requirements for the job, which included a “doubles endorsement”, which “gives you the driver’s license to pull two trailers consecutively” with one tractor. Handley told her he would put her with someone to train her to handle the doubles if she got the job. He agreed to send her an application, and did so. She went to the driver’s license bureau at the police department in Elk City, took a test and got the endorsement. She completed the application Handley sent her and returned it to him with the endorsement and a copy of the driver’s license containing the doubles endorsement. She also sent him a drug screen which was done at a hospital in Elk City.

She did not go to Alabama. She said Jerry Handley hired her by telephone during a subsequent telephone conversation. She was at her home in Elk City at the time. She said he told her: “We’ve got everything covered, we’ll have a driver through there in a few days to pick you up.” He sent “the paperwork packet” which included an “agreement” 2 and other items requiring her signature. She said she signed at her residence in Elk City and mailed the packet back in whatever envelope he had furnished. Wayne Stark signed the employment agreement for Employer. She had no idea where or when he signed it. However, it was not signed by Stark when she mailed it back. Employer offered the agreement into evidence. Claimant objected. It was admitted in evidence for whatever it was worth. The trial court apparently reasoned that the only testimony at the trial about the agreement was from Claimant,3 stating she signed it in Elk City, and she knows nothing beyond that as to when or where Stark, who was not present at the trial, signed it. Stark is the owner of Skñstaf. Claimant said she started working when she was picked up in Elk City on September 16, 1994, in a truck driven by a driver for Handley, who was to be her partner. She injured her lower back in June, 1995. She worked only until September 1995, because the pain became unbearable.

Where an employer in another State makes an offer of employment, and the prospective employee accepts the offer in Oklahoma, the contract of employment may be held to have been entered into in Oklahoma. Cf. Driver Management, Inc. v. Miller, 908 P.2d 815, 818 (Okl.App.1995), citing General Electric Co. v. Folsom, 332 P.2d 950 (Okl.1958). In Miller, a company representative of an Arkansas employer contacted a prospective employee by telephone and offered a job to the employee at his Oklahoma home. The employee accepted the job and agreed to go to Arkansas to complete the details. The Miller court held the employment contract did not arise in Oklahoma because the representative did not have authority to hire the employee.

In Garrison v. Bechtel Corp., 889 P.2d 273, 281 (Okl.1995), the Supreme Court stated:

Every contract results from an offer and acceptance. An offer becomes a binding promise and results in a contract only when it is accepted. To constitute accep-[405]*405tanee, there must be an expression of the intent to accept the offer, by word, sign, writing or act, communicated or delivered to the person making the offer or the offeror’s agent. Generally, a contract is deemed to have been made where the final assent to the offer is given. The place where the contract is made is the controlling issue. (Emphasis added) (Footnotes omitted).
To establish that an employment contract was entered into within Oklahoma, the employee must prove that an employment offer was made by the employer or its agent and that it was accepted by the employee in Oklahoma-

In Cherokee Lines, Inc. v. Bailey, 859 P.2d 1106, 1110 (Okl.1993) our Supreme Court said:

Although the Workers’ Compensation Act is to be construed liberally in favor of workers it is intended to benefit, Bailey must be held to striet proof that he was an employee of Cherokee Lines in order to be covered by the provisions of the Act. Beall [v. Altus Public School Dist], 632 P.2d [400] at 403 [ (Okla.1981) ]. An employer-employee relationship “is created by contract, either express or implied, or by the unequivocal acts of the parties recognizing the relationship.” Id., at 402 (quoting Landrum v. Ownby, 290 P.2d 400 (Okla.1955). Under 85 O.S.1981, § 4, the Workers’ Compensation Court does not have jurisdiction to hear a workers’ compensation claim for injuries sustained outside of the State of Oklahoma unless his contract of employment was entered into within the state. Chapman v. Union Equity Cooperative Exchange, 451 P.2d 3 (Okla.1969); Hartford Ins. Group v. McDaniel, 526 P.2d 941 (Okla.1974). Generally, “a contract is deemed to have been made where the final assent is given.” Chapman, 451 P.2d at 5. See also Armstrong v. Guy H. James Construction Co., 402 P.2d 275 (Okla.1965).

Employer presented Greg Fields as a witness. He works for Skilstaf, Inc. and is its director of sales and marketing. His testimony was undisputed and included the following questions and answers.

Q Would you tell the Court what Skilstaf does and their relationship to B.J. Hand-ley.

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Related

Alexander v. Transport Distribution Co.
1998 OK CIV APP 10 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 1997)

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Bluebook (online)
1996 OK CIV APP 149, 935 P.2d 403, 1996 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 152, 1996 WL 808349, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/skilstafstafco-inc-v-burckhalter-oklacivapp-1996.