Case Name: CALDWELL v. CALDWELL et al.
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1950-12-05
Citations: 55 So. 2d 258
Docket Number: No. 7521
Parties: CALDWELL v. CALDWELL et al.
Judges: HARDY, J., dissents and assigns written reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 55
Pages: 258–267

Head Matter:
CALDWELL v. CALDWELL et al.
No. 7521.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana. Second Circuit.
Dec. 5, 1950.
On Rehearing April 27, 1951.
On Second Application for Rehearing June 29, 1951.
On Second Rehearing Nov. 30, 1951.
Browne, Browne & Bodenheimer, Shreveport, for appellants.
Goff, Goff & Caskey, Arcadia,- for appel-lee.

Opinion:
KENNON, Judge.
In this suit Billey Burk Caldwell, an emancipated minor above the age of eighteen years, claims compensation against his father, who operated a concrete products manufacturing plant in the town of Saline, Louisiana. The codefendant is the compensation insurance carrier. In his original and supplemental petitions, plaintiff set forth his employment as a helper in the concrete manufacturing plant owned by his father, with weekly wages of $35. He further alleged that on the morning of December 29, 1947, he had been engaged in the operation of making concrete pipe on his employer's premises; that, having poured concrete into forms to set, there was necessarily a wait of several hours, during which time the materials would harden before same could be removed from the forms; that while so waiting, plaintiff was instructed by his employer to drive a tractor with trailer loaded with firewood from employer's plant and to unload same at his employer's home and drive the tract- or and trailer back to the plant after he had eaten his lunch; that he obeyed these instructions by driving the tractor and trailer to employer's home; that he unloaded the firewood, ate his lunch, and while returning to work on the tractor, the shoulder of the highway caved in, causing the tractor to turn over, resulting in the crushing and mangling, and subsequent loss, of his left leg.
After an exception of vagueness had been overruled, defendants in answer denied plaintiff's employment; denied that manufacturing operations were conducted on the day of the accident; set forth that the injury occurred while petitioner was returning to work after eating lunch at his own home and after completing a mission that had no relation to his employer's business.
From a judgment awarding plaintiff compensation at $20 a week for four hundred weeks, defendants prosecute the present appeal.
Defendants contend in brief that plaintiff did not establish that he was receiving, at the time of the injury, a stated weekly wage, and therefore his employment was not covered by the policy. The testimony of plaintiff and of D. B. Caldwell, his father, was that during the first few months the policy was in force, no definite wage for plaintiff had been agreed upon and that D. B. Caldwell advanced plaintiff money from time to time, but that there was a definite agreement made between them some weeks before the accident whereby plaintiff was to receive $35 per week as wages, together with board and transportation. Mr. H. E. Enloe testified that he was present in a cafe in the town of Saline in which the parties were seated at the time of the agreement whereby father and son made the definite arrangement for plaintiff's wages to be fixed at $35 per week. Plaintiff testified that the duties he performed were well worth $50 per week. D. B. Caldwell testified that his reason for wanting to put his son on a fixed salary was that his son was spending too much money and that the monies drawn by his son amounted to more than the regular weekly wage agreed upon.
Considering the son's age, the tendency of youth to spend, and the relatively low value of the dollar, we don't doubt that young Caldwell did draw from his father $35 a week or more during the months covered by the policy and was so doing at the time of his injury.
Although we do not find that plaintiff has established that he was receiving a stated wage of $35 a week prior to the happening of the accident, we do find that he was an active agent and helper of his father in the concrete manufacturing business covered by the policy of insurance, and that the remuneration received by him amounted to $35 a week or more, and that the services performed by him were worth in excess of $35 per week.
In April, 1047, defendant D. B. Caldwell, was issued a standard workmen's compensation and employer's liability policy by his codefendant in the present suit. The expiration date was April 1, 1948; consequently, this policy was in full force and effect at the time plaintiff received his injury. An estimate was made of the total annual wages to be paid by the employer during the policy period to the covered employees, and D. B. Caldwell paid $100 as a deposit on the estimated premium. By its terms the policy classified defendant's operations as "Concrete Products Mfg.— shop or yard work only — including Drivers, Chauffeurs and their Helpers." The description of the employees covered was set forth to "include all persons employed in the service of this Employer in connection with the business operations above described to whom remuneration of any nature in consideration of service is paid, al-lomed or due." (Emphasis by the Court).
In view of the facts shown and the above provisions of the policy, we find that the insurer is responsible for any injuries received by plaintiff while engaged in the activities covered by the policy.
The wide scope of activities covered by the policy is shown by the following statement in the policy relative to premium payments : "The premium is based upon the entire remuneration earned, during the Policy Period, by all employees of this Employer engaged in the business operation described in said Declarations together with all operations necessary, incident or appurtenant thereto, or connected therewith whether conducted at such work places or elsewhere in connection therewith or in relation thereto; excepting however the remuneration of the President, any Vice-President, Secretary or Treasurer of this Employer, if a corporation, but including the remuneration of any one or more of such designated officers who are actually performing such duties as are ordinarily undertaken by a superintendent, foreman or workman." (Emphasis by the Court).
The tractor which plaintiff was driving at the time of his injury was one used by his employer at the concrete manufacturing plant covered by the policy of insurance. Its use included the transport of plant supplies used in the manufacture of the blocks, pipe and other concrete products, and in moving the finished products from the moulds or forms to the storage yard, and in delivering these products to local customers.
While there is some dispute as to whether the concrete plant was in operation on the morning of the day on which plaintiff was injured, the testimony justifies the conclusion that plaintiff did perform certain duties of his employment at the concrete plant during the forenoon preceding his injury. At noontime, in accordance with his employer's instructions, he drove a tractor with a trailer load of firewood, which had been cut by an electric cut-off saw operated by his employer-father on the same premises as the concrete plant, to the father's premises, and after unloading the wood, he was driving the tractor back towards the concrete plant for the purpose of resuming work there, when the accident occurred.
Plaintiff, while he lived in the home of his father where the firewood was carried, was a minor and it was hot his responsibility to provide fuel or other living necessities or conveniences. Therefore, his carrying the firewood from the manufacturing plant site to his father's home could not be considered a turning aside from his employment with his father to perform an act in furtherance of his own business or desires. When he drove his father's tract- or to his father's house for the purpose of delivering firewood for use there, all in accordance with instructions from D. B. Caldwell, he was, as between himself and his father, still engaged in his employer's business.
Conceding, for the sake of argument, that the carrying of the firewood to the home of his employer was a digression from the business as covered by the insurance policy, it is nevertheless true that when he completed the business of delivering the firewood and started on the return trip from the house to the plant for the obvious purpose of returning the tractor to the concrete yard, he reentered his employment with the concrete manufacturing plant.
The cut-off saw with which the firewood was prepared was operated at the site of the concrete works. The language of the policy defining the coverage states that the policy applies to injuries sustained by all operations not only necessary to but "incident or appurtenant (to the business described) thereto, or connected therewith." In view of the rule of law that an insurer issuing a policy is held liable to the full extent of the reasonable meaning of the language defining such liability, defendant insurer would be liable even though the plaintiff had not, on the day in question, engaged in some of the activities incident to the actual concrete manufacturing operations.
To sum up, we find that the tractor in which plaintiff was riding when injured was used principally by defendant, D. B. Caldwell, in connection with the concrete products manufacturing business covered by the policy issued by his co-defendant; that plaintiff, during the forenoon preceding the accident, had performed at the concrete plant site some duties in connection with the concrete manufacturing operations; that it was in accordance with the instructions of D. B. Caldwell that plaintiff had driven the tractor with its trailer load of firewood to the D. B. Caldwell home, where he had delivered the wood and eaten his lunch, and that the fateful return trip was in accordance with the instructions of his father-employer, and at the time of his injury, he was returning the tractor to the concrete yard where he expected to perform other duties of his employment there.
Our conclusion is that, at the time of the loss of his limb, plaintiff was an employee of D. B. Caldwell within the coverage of the workmen's compensation act, and engaged in activities covered by the policy, and he was drawing remuneration or wages of not less than $35 per week.
We next consider whether plaintiff is entitled to the one hundred and seventy-five weeks compensation asked for in his original petition or to the four hundred weeks prayed for in the supplementary one.
The cases cited by counsel in which four hundred weeks compensation was awarded partially disabled workmen are those relative to manual laborers having no other way of earning a living other than by hard work. The record shows that plaintiff is an intelligent young man and there is no reason to believe that he will not be able to earn a living in spite of the physical handicap incident to the unfortunate and regrettable loss of his left leg. He has not met the burden of showing that he is entitled to more than the one hundred seventy-five weeks compensation provided for the loss of a limb.
For the reasons assigned, the.judgment appealed from is amended by reducing the period of disability to one hundred seventy-five weeks, and as amended, same is affirmed. Costs of appeal to be paid 'by plaintiff; other costs by defendants.
HARDY, J., dissents and assigns written reasons.