Case Title: Triad Transport v. Wynne

Citation: 

Docket Number: 109810

State: oklahoma

Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Date: 2012-04-10T00:00:00Z

Document:
TRIAD TRANSPORT INC. v. WYNNE2012 OK 30Case Number: 109810Decided: 04/10/2012THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
NOTICE: THIS OPINION HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION IN 
THE PERMANENT LAW REPORTS. UNTIL RELEASED, IT IS SUBJECT TO REVISION OR 
WITHDRAWAL. 

Triad Transport, Inc. and Insurance Company of the State of 
Pennsylvania, Petitioners/Appellants,v.Carl Wynne and the Workers' 
Compensation Court, Respondents/Appellees.
PROCEEDING TO REVIEW ORDER OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION COURT.
¶0 Workers' Compensation Court, Honorable John M. McCormick, determined there 
was jurisdiction to hear the claim because claimant's hiring and final assent to 
the employment relationship occurred in Oklahoma. A three-judge panel affirmed 
the order determining jurisdiction. This Court retained the matter for decision 
on its own motion.
AFFIRMED.
Catherine C. Taylor, Perrine, McGivern, Redemann, Berry & Taylor, 
P.L.L.C., Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Petitioners/Appellants.Angelica M. Ortiz, Law 
Offices of Daniel M. Davis, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Respondents/Appellees. 

COLBERT, V.C.J.
¶1 This matter presents the single issue of whether the Workers' Compensation 
Court has jurisdiction over the claim for injury. All other issues were reserved 
to the trial court. This Court determines that the employer's offer of 
employment was accepted by the worker in Oklahoma and therefore the Workers' 
Compensation Court has jurisdiction to hear the claim.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
¶2 Carl Wynne (Claimant) was a truck driver. While he was in Tennessee and 
driving a truck for his former employer, he heard that Triad Transport, Inc. 
(Employer) was hiring. Claimant called Employer's headquarters in McAlester, 
Oklahoma and spoke to Employer's recruiter who had hiring authority. Claimant 
requested that an application be sent by fax to Odessa, Texas, where Claimant 
lives. He completed the application and sent it by fax to McAlester. A week or 
so later, the recruiter phoned while Claimant was driving along Interstate 40, 
somewhere between Georgia and Arizona. He does not remember in which state he 
was driving at the time of the call. From the call, Claimant understood that his 
application had been approved. 
¶3 Claimant agreed to travel to McAlester for orientation. He returned his 
prior employer's truck to a terminal in Tuscon, Arizona, and a Triad employee 
gave him a ride to a Triad satellite terminal in Laveen, Arizona. There, he 
passed a drug test, was provided a fuel card, and dispatched to Rockwall, Texas 
with a load. After delivering that load, he drove the empty truck to McAlester 
for orientation, which began on January 4, 2008 and continued four days.
¶4 At the orientation, Claimant underwent a DOT physical, a hydrochloric 
sulfide test, and a stress test. He completed the paperwork necessary for 
employment,1 was assigned a truck, and was issued an employee photo 
identification card which listed his date of orientation as the date of his 
employment. In addition, he was told for the first time what would be his 
precise rate of pay. After orientation, Claimant was dispatched from McAlester 
to pick up a load. Payment for the trip from Arizona to McAlester was included 
in his first paycheck on January 25, 2008. 
¶5 On June 28, 2010, Claimant was injured in a motor vehicle accident in 
Colorado while he was driving Employer's truck. He filed a Form 3 claim for 
benefits in the Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Court. The trial tribunal 
conducted a hearing solely on the issue of the court's jurisdiction. Two 
witnesses were presented, Claimant and the President of Employer. Claimant 
testified concerning when and where he was actually hired, and Employer's 
President testified to the general hiring practices of his company. The 
recruiter was not called to testify.
¶6 The trial tribunal made several findings of fact and concluded: "THAT this 
court has jurisdiction to hear the case of claimant's subsequent injury as 
claimant's hiring and final assent to permanent employment relationship between 
claimant and respondent occurred in Oklahoma." A three-judge panel of the 
Workers' Compensation Court unanimously affirmed the decision. This Court 
retained this appeal on its own motion.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
¶7 "The question of where an employment contract was entered into is nothing 
more than an inquiry into a claimant's employment status within Oklahoma." 
Garrison v. Bechtel Corp., 1995 OK 2, ¶ 24, 889 P.2d 273, 283-284. As such, it is a jurisdictional 
question, and is reviewable without a denial or an award of benefits. See 
Id., ¶ 16, 889 P.2d  at 280. This Court has held continuously that a 
decision of the Workers' Compensation Court concerning a jurisdictional question 
is reviewed de novo. Id., ¶ 24, 889 P.2d  at 283.
ANALYSIS
¶8 Oklahoma's statutory code of workers' compensation applies when (1) a 
covered employee sustains a compensable injury within Oklahoma or (2) such 
employee sustains a compensable injury outside Oklahoma and the employment 
contract was formed within Oklahoma.2 "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." Garrison, 1995 OK 2, ¶ 19, 889 P.2d  at 281. "To constitute 
acceptance, 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. Id., ¶ 18, 889 P.2d  at 281. It is not the 
place of an employer's offer that establishes where the contract is made. 
Instead, "a contract is deemed to have been made where [the employee's] final 
assent to the offer is given." Id. Therefore, if the employee gives final 
assent to employment while within the territorial limits of Oklahoma, the 
Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Court has jurisdiction over the work-related 
injury. See, e.g., General Electric Co. v. Folsom, 
1958 OK 279, 332 P.2d 950; Alexander v. Transp. Distrib. Co., 
1998 OK CIV APP 10, 954 P.2d 1247. Conversely, if the employee's final 
assent to employment is given while the employee is outside the territorial 
limits of Oklahoma, the claim is not subject to Oklahoma's workers' compensation 
laws. See, e.g., Garrison, 1995 OK 2, 889 P.2d 273; Daleo, Inc. v. Edmonds, 
1994 OK 122, 884 P.2d 544; Driver Mgmt., Inc. v. Miller, 
1995 OK CIV APP 137, 908 P.2d 815. 
¶9 When there are "mere formalities" or "contingent acts" that are performed 
in another state after final assent, the date of employment relates back to the 
date of the final assent and the location of the employee at the time of final 
assent is controlling. Folsom, 1958 OK 279, ¶ 7, 332 P.2d  at 952 (Oklahoma employee's 
final assent in letter to employer out of state created an employment contract 
even though it was contingent upon a medical examination in Indiana because, 
upon completion of the requirement, "the effective date of his employment 
related back to, and was coincident with, his acceptance in Oklahoma."); 
Alexander, 1998 OK CIV APP 
10, ¶ 18, 954 P.2d  at 1251 (Where an employee gave her final assent 
to employment in Oklahoma, "the new employees' orientation activities in which 
the claimant participated upon arriving in Joplin were merely formalities or 
contingent acts to be performed by the employee at some future time and 
somewhere other than Oklahoma."); Miller, 1995 OK CIV APP 137, ¶ 9, 908 P.2d  at 818 
("[E]mployer's imposition of a condition to the hiring to be performed other 
than in Oklahoma does not preclude formation of a contract of employment in this 
state where the parties manifest the requisite intent here.").
¶10 Employer asserts that it made an offer of employment when the recruiter 
phoned while Claimant was traveling along I-40 between Georgia and Arizona. 
Employer argues the offer was accepted (1) in that phone conversation or (2) by 
Claimant's decision to bring one of Employer's trucks to Oklahoma and deliver a 
load to Texas on the way.3 Employer characterizes the orientation in Oklahoma as a 
mere formality which followed Claimant's final assent to employment in a state 
other than Oklahoma. Claimant, on the other hand, argues that he did not give 
his final assent to employment until his orientation, testing, and training in 
Oklahoma.
¶11 The factual dispute at trial centered on the time and place of Claimant's 
final assent. Claimant testified to his understanding of the employment offer 
and his assent thereto. Employer's President testified as to the general hiring 
practices of his company and his confidence in the recruiter with whom hiring 
authority was vested. The only testimony as to what was actually understood from 
the conversation between Claimant and the recruiter was provided by 
Claimant.
¶12 "The relation of employer and employee is a first prerequisite to any 
award under the compensation act, and such relation is created by contract, 
either express or implied, or by the unequivocal acts of the parties recognizing 
the relationship." Landrum v. Ownby, 1955 OK 343, ¶ 0, 290 P.2d 400, 401 (Syl. n.1 by the Court). Employer's 
evidence of its general hiring practices does not address the question of 
whether Claimant communicated final assent to an offer from the recruiter during 
a phone call. Only the recruiter and Claimant could address that question, and 
only Claimant testified. Nor can the acts of Claimant in moving the load from 
Arizona to Texas on the way to Oklahoma be considered to constitute 
"unequivocal" assent to an offer of employment, if such an offer was made in 
that conversation. The acts are entirely consistent with Claimant's testimony 
that he believed he was merely "getting [himself] back up to McAlester by means 
of moving a load for Triad" and that he needed to attend orientation to complete 
all the paperwork in order to provide his assent to employment.
¶13 This Court's de novo review of the record, the testimony of the 
witnesses, and the arguments of the parties leads to the conclusion that 
Claimant's final assent to employment did not occur until he attended the 
orientation in Oklahoma. This is not a matter in which final assent was followed 
by "mere formalities" or "contingent acts" which relate back to the date of 
final assent and therefore the date of employment. Rather, in this matter, a 
prospective employee performed a service for the benefit of a prospective 
employer in order to facilitate the hiring process. That process began when 
Claimant first made contact with Employer's recruiter, but it did not end until 
Claimant gave his final assent to employment during the orientation in Oklahoma. 
The Workers' Compensation Court did not err in determining that it has 
jurisdiction to hear the claim.
AFFIRMED. 
ALL JUSTICES CONCUR 
FOOTNOTES
1 Claimant completed a 
three-inch binder of paperwork during the orientation. 
2 The statute in effect at the time of Claimants injury 
provided:
[A]ll the provisions of the Workers' Compensation Act of this state, Sections 
1 et seq. of this title, shall apply to employers and employees, irrespective of 
where [the] accident resulting in injury may occur, whether within or without 
the territorial limits of the State of Oklahoma, when the contract of employment 
was entered into within the State of Oklahoma, and the said employee was acting 
in the course of such employment and performing work outside the territorial 
limits of this state under [the] direction of such employer.
Okla. Stat. tit. 85, § 4 (2001). The current provision of the Workers' 
Compensation Code, effective August 26, 2011, is in accord. It provides:
Every employer subject to the provisions of the Workers' Compensation Code 
shall pay or provide benefits according to the provisions of this act for the 
accidental injury or death of an employee arising out of and in the course of 
his or her employment, without regard to fault for such injury, if the 
employee's contract of employment was made or if the injury occurred within this 
state.
Okla. Stat. tit. 85, § 310 (2011). 
3 A third position was asserted at trial when Employer's 
President stated his belief that the state of an employee's residence determines 
where the employment offer is accepted and the employment contract is formed.