Opinion ID: 1961581
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: common law master-servant relationship

Text: This disposition under statutory language does not entirely dispose of the matter. Case law should also be examined in the determination of a master-servant relationship, a concept that existed in common law long before the Workmen's Compensation Act was drafted and which is specifically incorporated into the wording at § 22, see citation supra. The classic test determining the true master when a servant has been loaned to another is by examination of the right of control: The crucial test in determining whether a servant furnished by one person to another becomes the employe of the person to whom he is loaned is whether he passes under the latter's right of control with regard not only to the work to be done but also to the manner of performing it. [citation omitted] ..... A servant is the employe of the person who has the right of controlling the manner of his performance of the work, irrespective of whether he actually exercises that control or not. [Citations omitted; emphasis in original], Mature v. Angelo, 373 Pa. 593, 97 A.2d 59 (1953). Although opinions considering the matter frequently mention such items as which employer actually hired the servant, and which paid his wages, and which issued his W-2 Form, these are peripheral matters and are not controlling. English v. Lehigh Co. Authority, 286 Pa.Super. 312, 428 A.2d 1343 (1981) and cases cited therein. The true measure remains the common law definition of the master-servant relationship . . . whether . . . he continues liable to the direction and control of his master, or becomes subject to that of the party to whom he is lent or hired. Puhlman v. Excelsior Express and Standard Cab Co., 259 Pa. 393, 103 A. 218 (1918), accord, English v. Lehigh County Authority, supra. Our question then becomes whether control or right of control lay with the Trucking Co. or the appellant. We have discussed, supra, the fact that the work done by appellee in conjunction with his equipment and for which he was permitted entry on appellant's property was not casual, a matter which is determined in law. Barnett v. Bowser, 176 Pa.Super. 17, 106 A.2d 457 (1954). It was not for a single or special job, see quotation from Dews v. Shmukler, cited supra, nor was it work undertaken as a volunteer, Stewart v. Uryc, 237 Pa.Super. 258, 352 A.2d 465 (1975), or for the fun of it, Harris v. Seiavitch, 336 Pa. 294, 9 A.2d 375 (1939). Certainly the appellant did exercise certain controls over the appellee and other Trucking Co. employes while they were engaged in appellant's work. The Trucking Co. also retained large measures of control over the men and equipment it leased. The strong interrelationship between these two companies in particular tends to blend the lines of command. Case law, however, has recognized the problem as a common one, and does supply some guidance. In Mature v. Angelo, supra , the Supreme Court found the borrowing employer of a dirt-loader leased with its operator not liable in tort to an injured third party, but that the owner and lessor of the vehicle with its operator was responsible. In that instance the loaned employee and vehicle had been engaged in regular business on the borrowing employer's site for some months; the equipment was handled only by its skilled operator, but the daily work was at the direction of the foreman of the borrowing company. While the loader was actually performing work on the site, the operator suddenly backed over a workman's foot. The court in that instance made the following analysis: The above recital of facts obviously reveals that this is an ordinary, typical case of the renting of a machine with an operator specially skilled for the purpose from one who is in the business of renting out such machines and operator, where neither the person renting such machine and operator, nor his own employes, are competent to run such a machine and merely direct the operator concerning the work to be done,  not the manner of performing it. Of course, anyone who engages the service of a technician or specialist for the performance of a particular job must of necessity indicate to him from time to time the work that he wishes done and for which he has engaged him; in accordance, however, with the foregoing statement of the applicable legal principle, the giving of such directions does not bring the hired servant into his employ and make him responsible for the performance of the work. Id., 373 Pa. 600-01, 97 A.2d at pp. 62-63 (Emphasis in original) We may assume, therefore, that had the driver in the instant action been a tort-feasor rather than an injured party, he would have been the agent of the Trucking Co. There seems to be no sensible distinguishing characteristic that would impel this court to focus on the master-servant relationship differently depending on whether the servant is the perpetrator or the victim of the accident. The common law of master and servant focuses on the control of the servant, not on whether he or another is the injured party. When several months of continuous service on a borrowing employer's property, working at his direction, did not sever the relationship of master-servant under the facts of Mature, supra, it should not do so in the present case. Certainly, as to the work that brought appellee onto appellant's property, and which he performed with the equipment he controlled, we find no unusual exercise of power by the appellant which would place it in the master's position when the property owner in Mature did not occupy that position.