United Employers Casualty Co. v. Lee

146 S.W.2d 320
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 5, 1940
DocketNo. 3752.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 146 S.W.2d 320 (United Employers Casualty Co. v. Lee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United Employers Casualty Co. v. Lee, 146 S.W.2d 320 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

WALKER, Chief Justice.

This is a workmen’s compensation case, filed in district court of Angelina county by appellee, Bud Lee, as an appeal from an adverse award of the Industrial Accident Board, on allegations that he was the employee, J. B. Oliver the employer, and appellant, United Employers Casualty Company, the compensation insurance carrier. For cause of action he alleged that on the 9th day of November, 1939, while trimming a log in the course of his employment with Oliver, “a pine knot flew up and struck him in the right eye causing him to lose sight in the right eye, lose the hearing in his right ear, and causing certain general injuries, dizziness, headaches, and vertigo; that such injuries caused the plaintiff to be totally and permanently incapacitated,” and additional facts constituting a cause of action for compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306 et seq., agaibst appellant as Oliver’s compensation insurance carrier, and facts entitling him to a lump-sum settlement. Appellee prayed for the minimum compensation of $7 per week for 401 weeks as for total, permanent disability. Appellant’s principal defense was that at the time he was injured appellee was either himself an independent contractor or was the employee of W. P. Daniels, an independent contractor.

Answering special issues, the jury found the following facts: On the 9th day of November, 1939, as a direct and natural result of being struck by a pine knot, ap-pellee sustained an injury to his right eye, his right ear, and to his head, which caused him to suffer total, permanent disability beginning on the 9th day ’ of November, 1939. The injury sustained by him on that date “was a producing cause” of his ‘.‘total incapacity.” At the time he was struck by the pine knot, appellee was “an employee of J. B. *322 Oliver” and was not “an. employee of W. P. Daniels,” and he was not an “independent contractor.” Appellee’s disability is not “confined solely to his right eye”; was not “solely the result of syphilis”; was not “solely the result of hardening of the arteries”; and was not '“caused solely by disease.” On the verdict, judgment was entered in appellee’s favor against appellant for the sum of $2,178.65, to be paid in a lump sum. In its judgment, the court found the following additional facts: “And the Court finding from the undisputed evidence that the defendant had prior to November 9, 1939, issued its policy of workmen’s compensation insurance to J. B. Oliver which was in full force and effect on said date and insured the plaintiff as an employee of said J. B. Oliver; that said employer, J. B. Oliver, had notice of such injuries so suffered by the plaintiff immediately after and on the same day he so suffered same; that defendant likewise had knowledge and notice of same within thirty days after such accident; that plaintiff filed his claim for such injuries and for workmen’s compensation because thereof with the Industrial Accident Board of the State of Texas in due time and in due’ and legal form and that all other and further proceedings were had to give this Court jurisdiction of all matters herein involved; and the Court having found all other facts necessary to entitle the plaintiff to the judgment here now rendered, the court finds and determines that the plaintiff is entitled to have and recover of and from the defendant workmen’s compensation insurance at the rate of Seven and No/100 Dollars ($7.00) per week for the full period of 401 weeks • from and after the 9th day of November, 1939; and that he is entitled to recover all same in a lump sum discounted as provided by law.”

Appellant has duly prosecuted its appeal to this court.

On the ground that the uncontroverted evidence showed that appellee was not an employee of J. B. Oliver, but was either an employee of W. P. Daniels, an independent contractor, or was himself ¿n independent contractor, appellant contends: (1) The court erred in overruling its motion for an instructed verdict; (2)- the jury’s finding that appellee when injured .was an employee of J. B. Oliver was without support in the evidence, and. was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence; (3) the finding that appellee when injured was not an employee of W. P. Daniels was without support in the evidence and against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence; (4) the finding that appellee was not himself an independent contractor was without support in the evidence and against the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence; (5) under the evidence, appellee was, as a matter of law, an employee of W. P. Daniels, or was himself an independent contractor. .These contentions are overruled; the evidence supports the jury’s finding that when injured appellee was an'employee of J. B. Oliver, whose compensation insurance was carried by appellant. As supporting this conclusion, we give the following summary of the evidence from the statement made by appellee.

Mr. Oliver was the owner of the timber which appellee was cutting; the work of cutting the timber was for Mr. Oliver; on the day appellee went to work he talked with Mr. Oliver. Before going to work, appellee had been told by Tom Lewis that “if you want to cut logs you can get a little job. * * * You can cut for Mr. Perry’s truck and Mr. Oliver’s truck. You go on and cut until the old man gets out” —“the old man” was Mr. Oliver. Later in the morning, Mr. Oliver said to ap-pellee: “Don’t cut any further than that line; I am going to blaze through here and don’t cut any further down the creek.” Mr. Oliver told him he would receive 75 cents a thousand; he would not pay any more; he would shut the mill down before he would pay any more. Appellee asked Mr. Oliver for a .raise later and Mr. Oliver replied: “No, I can get it cut for 75 cents and if you want to go back on the W.P.A. you can go”; he would not pay any more; if they were not satisfied with 75 cents to let it alone. Mr. Oliver sent him down by the creek to cut a 2 by 4 log “to saw some planks to put on a bridge.” Mr. Oliver’s truck driver gave appellee his money one time and Mr. Perry’s truck driver gave it to him once. When appellee was injured, Mr. Oliver told him to go to see Dr. Clements. On cross-examination, appellee testified that Mr. Perry said to him, “Bud, you go down on the branch until ‘the old man’ comes; I don’t know where he will put you.” The first time appellee saw Mr. Daniels was about 9 o’clock the first morning after he had done some work. The only instruction given him by Mr. Daniels *323 ■was, “Don’t go over (the line blazed) like Mr. Oliver told you. Mr. Oliver paid us ■off.’’ The morning appellee went to work, Mr. Perry told him, “Mr. Oliver is the .general ram-rod, the general knocker, Mr. Oliver is the head knocker of the whole woods; he has the contract and everybody ■works for him.” On redirect examination, appellee testified: “Neither Mr. Lewis nor Mr. Daniels ever told me what to do or how to do it, nor did Mr. Lewis ever pay me anything; Mr. Oliver told me what size stumps to leave and what timber to cut, what size trees to cut.” Appellee was paid 75 cents. The mill that Mr. Oliver spoke of closing down was the Swickheimer, at Hoshall. “When I got hurt Mr. Oliver told me to go to. that mill to get some papers to fill out; that was the reason I filed my first claim against the mill — that was where Mr. Oliver stayed.”

W. P. Daniels testified: “Plaintiff was working for John Oliver. * * * Well, I don’t know whether he was working for me or working for Mr. Oliver.

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252 S.W.2d 777 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1952)

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146 S.W.2d 320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-employers-casualty-co-v-lee-texapp-1940.