Opinion ID: 1911276
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Distinct Business

Text: The next factor is whether Brauner was engaged in a distinct business and whether she offered a similar service for other businesses or persons. It was undisputed that both Brauner and Larson were not engaged in any business operation other than their duties as carriers of the Tribune. The trial judge found that Brauner and Larson had no other sources of income. The Tribune conceded that carriers were an integral part of its system of delivering newspapers. The trial judge found that the carriers were employed to further the newspaper business, not to perform some function in which the carrier was a specialist. There is sufficient competent evidence to support this finding. (c) Whether in Locality, Work Is Ordinarily Done Under Direction of Employer, or by Specialist Without Supervision The Tribune contended that it did not exert a large amount of supervision over the carriers. District manager Brown testified that the only thing she demanded was that the carriers deliver the papers and pay their bills on time. Virginia Dunlap, the district manager who had originally signed Brauner, stated that as a general matter, she did not monitor the carriers' routes. If the papers were delivered on time and the bill was paid on time, she had very little contact with the carriers. The inference from such managers' testimony is that the lack of supervision was not a formal characteristic of the newspaper-carrier relationship, but was rather a function of the quality of the carrier. Dunlap stated: The better [the] carrier, the less contact you normally had with them. The more problems you had, obviously, the more contact you had with them. The Tribune had a formal structure of managers and district advisors, whose primary responsibility was to supervise the carriers. The carriers received notice whenever there were complaints from the customers about the carriers' performance. Brown stated she would contact the carrier when a customer filed a complaint with the newspaper. The district sales manager for out-of-town routes supervised over 70 paper carriers. Clarice Waite, a Tribune manager, testified that if a carrier mistakenly skipped a customer, the district advisor would call the carrier and instruct the carrier to deliver the paper that evening. If a customer had a complaint, the manager would fill out a complaint form and would contact the carrier regarding how to satisfy the customer. The trial judge found that the carriers were under the comprehensive supervision of the Tribune. We find there was sufficient competent evidence to support the trial judge's determination of this factor.