Walkey v. Triad Drilling Co.

1995 OK CIV APP 131, 911 P.2d 1222, 1995 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 142, 1995 WL 814233
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 24, 1995
DocketNo. 85716
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1995 OK CIV APP 131 (Walkey v. Triad Drilling Co.) 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
Walkey v. Triad Drilling Co., 1995 OK CIV APP 131, 911 P.2d 1222, 1995 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 142, 1995 WL 814233 (Okla. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

GOODMAN, Presiding Judge.

The claimant, Rick Allen Walkey, seeks review of an order of a Workers’ Compensation Court three-judge panel vacating the trial court’s award of temporary total disability benefits based upon a finding that his injuries did not arise out of and in the course of his employment. Based upon our review of the record and applicable law, we sustain the order.

I

On April 9, 1994, the claimant, a resident of Woodward, Oklahoma, was employed as a drilling rig floorhand by Triad Drilling Company out of its Woodward office. He was injured when the pickup truck in which he was one of three passengers was involved in a severe single-vehicle accident while returning from a drillsite one hundred miles from his home in Woodward. The claimant testified that during his two-and-one-half year employment with Triad, he had worked as a rig floorhand on a “[cjouple dozen” locations averaging between seventy and eighty miles from Woodward. The rigs operated twenty-four hours a day, with three crews usually consisting of four workers — a driller or “boss” of the crew, a derrick hand, and two floorhands.

The crew members customarily met in Woodward and ear pooled to the drillsite. The claimant testified that it was each crew member’s personal responsibility to go to and from the drillsite and, although Triad did not require the crew to ear pool, they did so at the driller’s request so he could be assured that he had a full crew when he arrived at the rig location. The crew took turns driving to the drillsite; the driver paid for gasoline and neither the driver nor the passengers were reimbursed or otherwise compensated by Triad for time traveling to or from the drillsite.

Another crew member testified that during his twelve-year employment with Triad, “they have always met and ear pooled and gone to the location ... [tjhat’s just the way it’s done.... ” By the same token there was testimony that car pooling was “just a courtesy” among crew members, and “was the easiest way to do it and it’s the least expensive.” In addition, the passengers “decided to ride together because you had to leave so early in the morning and three of you would get to sleep while one of you would drive.”

On the day of the accident, it was the claimant’s turn to drive. The claimant did not have a truck so the driller, who “had an emergency in Missouri he had to attend” and could not accompany the crew, left his personal truck for the claimant to drive. However, when the other two crew members, who lived between 10 and 20 miles from Woodward, arrived at the claimant’s home between 3:30 and 4 a.m., they were running late and, because their truck was already warm, they decided to take it instead of the driller’s truck. Someone transferred the driller’s personal water can from his truck to the other truck, and the crew proceeded to “stop at a store [to] get gas, water, food, you know, whatever we needed for [the] day” before heading for the rig location near Sweetwater, Oklahoma, approximately 100 miles from Woodward. The truck carried no equipment or tools belonging to Triad.

After working an eight-hour shift, the crew returned to Woodward via their regular route. Approximately 45 miles from Woodward, the vehicle’s left front ball joint broke, causing the driver to lose control and the vehicle to become airborne before coming to rest. One passenger was killed; the claimant and driver were injured. The claimant was released from the hospital after one week; his Form 3 alleged injury to his back, neck, left lung, and right wrist.

[1225]*1225The employer denied that the claimant had sustained injuries arising out of and in the course of his employment. Instead, the employer argued, at the time the claimant was injured, he was simply traveling from the job and therefore was not in the course of his employment.

In an order filed February 15, 1995, the trial court found the claimant had sustained injury to his back, neck, left lung, and right hand (wrist) arising out of and in the course of his employment. The court awarded temporary total disability benefits and reserved the issue of permanent disability.

The employer appealed to a three-judge panel which found the claimant had not sustained a work-related accidental injury, and vacated the order upon finding it “was contrary to law and against the clear weight of the evidence.”

. The claimant seeks our review, contending the order is not supported by competent evidence.

II

In an action seeking workers’ compensation benefits, an employee must prove that his injury arose out of and in the course of his employment. Thomas v. Keith Hensel Optical Labs, 653 P.2d 201, 202 (Okla.1982). The issue presents a question of fact and we “must accept as binding the trial tribunal’s findings of fact which are supported by competent evidence.” Id. at 203. “Whenever conflicting or inconsistent inferences may be drawn from undisputed facts, the issue is not one of law but one of fact.” Id.

Generally, an injury which occurs while an employee is going to or coming from work is not considered to arise out of and in the course of that employee’s employment. Grossnicklaus v. Big X, 355 P.2d 871, 873 (Okla.1960). This general rule is, however, subject to certain exceptions, two of which the claimant alleges apply here: “the trip was a dual-purpose trip or the employer designated a mode of transportation to and from the drilling site.” The claimant argues that (1) “the car-pooling arrangement was a benefit” to the employer by avoiding delays at the drillsite and insuring “that an adequate rig crew arrived at the rig site”; (2) the car pooling crew members “were expressly directed by their driller to meet in Woodward and travel to the rig site together”; and (3) it is undisputed “that the crew took water and food to the rig site, essential items due to the locale of the various rig sites.”1

Each of the claimant’s conclusions could be inferred from the evidence. In Grossnick-laus, 355 P.2d at 873, the court considered similar arguments and said:

Claimant argues it was his duty to go to work earlier in order to pick up the crew and that it was a longer route by reason of his having to go for the crew. The driller testified that the car pool and agreement as to transportation of himself and the crew was for the benefit of himself as driller and any requirement as to the use of the ear by reason of the pool was a personal benefit to each individual member of the crew and was not an agreement of employer. There was no employment by reason of agreement of the members of the crew as to the use of the individual cars involved in the pool in so far as applied to the personal transportation of the members of the crew. (Emphasis added.)

We have reviewed the record, and conclude that conflicting inferences could be drawn from the undisputed facts. However, we hold that competent evidence supports the conclusion of the three-judge panel that the claimant was not injured in the course and scope of his employment. Parks v. Norman Municipal Hosp., 684 P.2d 548 (Okla.1984). The claimant’s first proposition of error is without merit.

[1226]*1226III

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2007 OK CIV APP 62 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1995 OK CIV APP 131, 911 P.2d 1222, 1995 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 142, 1995 WL 814233, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walkey-v-triad-drilling-co-oklacivapp-1995.