Opinion ID: 836042
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Right to Control Test and Role of the Jury

Text: The parties do not dispute that the right to control test is applicable here. [2] However, they disagree as to whether a court may permit a jury to draw inferences from undisputed historical facts regarding the right to control, when the inferences that are drawn for all practical purposes will decide the legal question whether an individual is an employee or independent contractor. In defendant's view, allowing the jury to draw such inferences improperly would allow the jury to decide a matter of law. Defendant correctly points out that an individual's status as an employee or an independent contractor is a conclusion of law and, as such, typically would not be a matter for a jury to decide. However, in some situations, that legal conclusion will depend on the jury's determination of the facts regarding an employer's right to control the manner and performance of the work. In cases in which the facts or reasonable inferences support a conclusion that there is an employer-employee relationship, this court allows the jury to render a verdict as to the individual's employment statusalthough a conclusion of lawby way of resolving any conflicting facts or inferences on the basis of proper instructions. [3] This court has acknowledged that this practice may not always lend itself to a fastidious application of the rule that the jury decides fact and the court decides law. Wallowa Valley Stages, 235 Or. at 600, 386 P.2d 430. [4] In Wallowa Valley Stages, for example, a driver who distributed newspapers and solicited customers for a publisher claimed that he was self-employed and that he received no direction from the publisher on the manner in which he was to perform services. 235 Or. at 601-02, 386 P.2d 430. However, the facts also disclosed that circulation representatives of the newspaper frequently visited the driver. Those facts permitted an inference that the newspaper exercised control over the driver's method of operations which, in the court's view, was sufficient to permit a jury to conclude that the driver was the newspaper's employee. In holding that the trial court properly submitted the employee/independent contractor issue to the jury, this court stated: Whether or not a given person is the servant or the contractor of another is ordinarily a question of law, where the facts are clear. Where the facts are in dispute, however, it becomes necessary to submit at least the questions of fact to the jury. If more than one inference may be drawn from the facts, the jury makes the selection in arriving at a general verdict. Id. at 600, 386 P.2d 430. This court applied the same rule but reached the opposite conclusion in Jenkins, when it affirmed a directed verdict in favor of the putative employer, holding that an individual was an independent contractor as a matter of law. 245 Or. 382, 421 P.2d 971. In that case, a salesman for the defendant's furnace-cleaning business had signed a contract explicitly stating that he was an independent contractor. This court refused to submit to a jury the question of the salesman's employment status, explaining that, although in Wallowa Valley Stages there had been evidence that employer representatives had visited the driver frequently, there was no such evidence in Jenkins. Id. at 387, 421 P.2d 971. Thus, the court determined that there was no factual dispute for the jury to decide, because the facts and reasonable inferences drawn from them could not support a conclusion that the salesman was the employee of the furnace-cleaning business. Id. In so reasoning, the court reiterated its earlier holding: As noted in Wallowa Valley Stages v. Oregonian, supra, the question whether a given person is a servant or an independent contractor ordinarily is one of law, if the facts are not in dispute and if only one reasonable inference can be drawn from the facts. Id. at 386, 421 P.2d 971. [5] In summary, the foregoing discussion of this court's case law establishes that whether an individual is an employee or an independent contractor for vicarious liability purposes is a question of law. However, that legal conclusion ultimately depends on a constellation of facts relating to the right to control. A jury or other factfinder must render a verdict on an individual's employment status if the facts and any reasonable inferences that the jury could draw from those facts support a conclusion that the putative employer had the right to control the putative employee's work performance. See Wallowa Valley Stages, 235 Or. at 600, 386 P.2d 430 (jury selects between conflicting inferences in arriving at general verdict). If the facts and any reasonable inferences that a jury could draw from those facts would not support a conclusion that the putative employer had the right to control the putative employee's work performance, then there is no triable issue of fact, and a defendant is entitled to have the issue decided as a matter of law. Jenkins, 245 Or. at 386, 421 P.2d 971. The court's determination may come in the form of a ruling on a motion for a directed verdict, as in Jenkins, or a ruling on a motion for summary judgment, as here.