Strausser v. Thumb Auto Parts

499 N.W.2d 430, 198 Mich. App. 584
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 15, 1993
DocketDocket No. 143358
StatusPublished

This text of 499 N.W.2d 430 (Strausser v. Thumb Auto Parts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Strausser v. Thumb Auto Parts, 499 N.W.2d 430, 198 Mich. App. 584 (Mich. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

Neff, J.

This is a workers’ compensation case. A magistrate found that plaintiff sustained an injury arising out of and in the course of his employment that resulted in a continuing disability entitling him to an open award of benefits. The magistrate also ordered defendants to furnish plaintiff with a prosthesis that would enable him to return to work and to function as nearly as possible as he did before his injury.

At the hearing of this matter defendant Thumb Auto Parts, Inc., contested numerous issues, including whether plaintiff was its employee, whether plaintiff’s injury arose out of and in the course of his employment, and whether a disability resulted from the injury. On appeal to the Workers’ Compensation Appellate Commission, defendants limited the issues to whether plaintiff was an employee within the meaning of the Workers’ Disability Compensation Act, MCL 418.101 et seq.; MSA 17.237(101) et seq., whether plaintiff was within the course of his employment when injured, and whether disability from the injury continued. Plaintiff’s open award of benefits was affirmed by the wcac.

Leave to appeal to this Court was granted, but limited to the single issue whether plaintiff’s injury arose out of and in the course of his employment with Thumb Auto Parts. On the basis of our review of the record, we find that there was competent, material, and substantial evidence in the whole record to support the finding that plaintiff’s injury arose out of and in the course of his employment with Thumb Auto Parts. We also find that the wcac applied the correct legal reasoning to reach its result. Therefore we affirm.

i

Plaintiff is a forty-five-year-old man who lost his left arm below the elbow in a hunting accident [586]*586when he was sixteen years old. He was left-handed until the accident, but trained himself to be right-hand dominant. He also learned to use a prosthesis on his left arm and was apparently very successful in adapting to the loss of his left forearm. He was a hard-working productive individual who, by his own testimony, had never accepted welfare and had always supported his wife and three sons.

Before 1985, plaintiff worked for an auto parts company in Bay City, which he subsequently purchased. In 1985, plaintiff incorporated Thumb Auto Parts. He was the sole stockholder in the corporation and the only employee who received a regular salary from the corporation. Plaintiff worked seven days a week, sometimes as much as sixteen hours a day in the business. He performed a wide range of duties, which included unloading delivery trucks of stock such as cases of motor oil, waiting on customers at the counter, and installing batteries in customers’ cars. Plaintiff performed any and all tasks required in the business, including sweeping up. Thumb Auto Parts was a small business in a small town from which plaintiff earned a modest living by working long hours and performing whatever tasks needed to be done to operate the business. Plaintiffs wife worked as the bookkeeper for Thumb Auto Parts.

Thumb Auto Parts was located in a building owned by plaintiff and his wife in their individual capacities. The corporation paid rent and all utilities and was responsible for maintenance of the interior of the building, including maintenance of heating, ventilating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical equipment and service. Exterior maintenance, including the roof and exterior walls and landscaping were the responsibility of plaintiff and his wife, as owners of the building.

As part of its business, Thumb Auto Parts oper[587]*587ated a machine shop on the same rental premises. The unrebutted testimony was that the auto parts and machine shop operations were one and the same. The magistrate accepted the testimony of plaintiff, his wife, and a part-time employee that the machine shop was a wholly owned subsidiary of Thumb Auto Parts.

At the hearing, there was considerable cross-examination of both plaintiff and his wife by defense counsel concerning the issue of the status of the machine shop. Both unequivocally and repeatedly testified that the two are one entity. Testimony established that an assumed name certificate filed on behalf of the machine shop was not filed until sometime after plaintiff’s injury, disability, and inability to work for Thumb Auto Parts. Testimony also clearly established that Thumb Auto Parts paid rent on the entire premises, including the space occupied by the machine shop, and that it paid the heating bill for the entire building. The auto parts business and the machine shop were one entity for tax purposes.

All the evidence in the record supports the finding that Thumb Auto Parts and the machine shop were a single corporate enterprise at the time of plaintiff’s injury.

In December 1986, plaintiff undertook to insulate the ceiling of the building in which Thumb Auto Parts carried out its business. The purpose of the project was to reduce the corporation’s heating bills and to render the building more comfortable for its customers and employees. Because the insulating work was to involve blowing loose insulation into the space above the ceiling, a messy and untidy process, plaintiff decided to do the work after normal business hours.

On December 4, 1986, after Thumb Auto Parts closed for the day, the work on the insulation [588]*588project began. At about 2:30 a.m. on December 5, 1986, while he was walking on the ceiling joists blowing insulation throughout the space, plaintiff slipped off the joists and fell through the ceiling. His resulting injuries, primarily to the stub of his left arm, caused him to be unable to continue to use the prosthetic device that had made it possible for him to participate in a full range of activities. Defendant Meridian Mutual Insurance Company refused to provide plaintiff with a new, costly, prosthetic device, and, at least up to the date of the hearing plaintiff had not been able to return to work.

ii

On appeal, defendants attack the opinion of the wcac in which it held, among other things, that plaintiff’s injury arose out of and in the course of his employment with defendant Thumb Auto Parts, even though the insulation work plaintiff was engaged in at the time of his injury was outside his job description, was performed after hours, and would benefit plaintiff’s personal interests as part owner of the building.

The magistrate found, and the wcac majority agreed, that while plaintiff and his wife, as owners of the building, would benefit from some enhancement of the value of the real estate, there was also a significant benefit that inured to Thumb Auto Parts from the installation of insulation. It was anticipated that the insulation would reduce heating bills and that it would create a more comfortable environment for customers and employees.1 The testimony established that the insulation [589]*589work was performed after normal business hours to avoid exposing customers to the mess and disruption caused by the insulation work and materials.

The wcac dissent looked to the somewhat unusual circumstances of this case. The dissent noted that plaintiff functioned in a number of roles, including sole shareholder, president, and employee of the corporation, and that he and his wife, in their individual capacities, were also the owners of the building in which Thumb Auto Parts did its business.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
499 N.W.2d 430, 198 Mich. App. 584, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/strausser-v-thumb-auto-parts-michctapp-1993.