Case Title: Horton v. DeLoach

Citation: 162 So. 2d 453

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1964-03-19T00:00:00Z

Document:
162 So. 2d 453 (1964)
John A. HORTON
v.
William B. DeLOACH et al.
6 Div. 44.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
March 19, 1964.
Walter B. Henley, Northport, for appellant.
Olin W. Zeanah and Jere L. Beasley, Tuscaloosa, for appellees.
GOODWYN, Justice.
This is a workmen's compensation case brought here by certiorari (Code 1940, Tit. 26, §§ 297, 304).
Petitioner, an employee of respondents, received an injury "caused by an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment" and brought suit to recover compensation therefor under the provisions of the Alabama Workmen's Compensation Act (Code 1940, Tit. 26, § 253 et seq., as amended). The respondents filed a plea in abatement alleging that they "were not operating under the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Law of the State of Alabama at the time of the accidental injury alleged in the plaintiff's complaint, they having elected not to operate within said law," and that they "did not employ as many as eight employees at the time of the accidental injury alleged in the plaintiff's complaint" so as to bring them within said law. See: §§ 262(d), 263, Tit. 26, Code 1940.
*454 The trial court, after an oral hearing of the evidence on the issue presented by the plea in abatement, sustained the plea and abated the suit. Petitioner then instituted this certiorari proceeding for a review of that action.
It is undisputed that respondents regularly employed five employees. The disputed factual issue is whether four automobile salesmen, paid by respondents on a commission basis, also were "employees," within the meaning of that term as used in the Workmen's Compensation Law, so as to increase the number of respondents' employees to eight or more, thereby making them subject to the compensation law. As already noted, the trial court held they were not such "employees." And we find no basis for disturbing that holding.
Pursuant to Code 1940, Tit. 26, § 304, as amended by Act No. 350, appvd. Aug. 23, 1957, Acts 1957, Vol. I, p. 460, the trial court made the following factual findings:
The rule of review applicable in workmen's compensation cases has been stated as follows:
The question to be resolved, then, is whether there is any evidence, or reasonable inference therefrom, supporting the trial court's finding that the salesmen were not employees of respondents. A consideration of the evidence clearly calls for an affirmative answer to this question.
While there is evidence which would support a finding that the salesmen were employees, there is also evidence supportive of a contrary finding, as made by the trial court. In this situation, there is no alternative but to affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Affirmed.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and LAWSON and COLEMAN, JJ., concur.