Opinion ID: 1972293
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: mermon's employment status

Text: Having disposed of each of the arguments raised by PennDOT and Paul Kevon Mermon as Appellants, we now turn to the remaining issues raised by J.E. Smith, Inc. on appeal. J.E. Smith, Inc. asserts that the trial judge should have ruled as a matter of law that Paul Kevon Mermon was the employee solely of PennDOT at the time of the accident on January 1, 1978. Both PennDOT and Hope Mineo disagree. The jury, by its verdict and response to special interrogatories, found causal negligence on the part of the truck driver, Mr. Mermon. It further determined that Mermon was, at the time of the accident, in the employment of both Smith and PennDOT in the respect that both parties retained the right to control his conduct at the time of the occurrence. J.E. Smith, Inc. was in the trucking business and, during the winter season, in the snow removal business as well. At the time of the accident Mermon was in the general employ of Smith, but both Mermon and the vehicle he was driving were under lease to PennDOT and PennDOT's employees had the right to control the manner in which Mermon performed his duties. Under Section 226 of the Restatement of Agency, Second: A person may be the servant of two masters, not joint employers, at one time as to one act, if the service to one does not involve abandonment of the service to the other. See Coleman v. Board of Education of School District, 477 Pa. 414, 422-23, 383 A.2d 1275, 1279 (1978). Not only can a person be the servant of two masters, but both of those masters can be held liable for the conduct of the servant under appropriate circumstances. Franceschino v. Mack, 174 Pa.Super. 518, 102 A.2d 217 (1954); Lindenmuth v. Steffy, 173 Pa.Super. 509, 98 A.2d 242 (1953); Stephanelli v. Yuhas, 135 Pa.Super. 573, 7 A.2d 124 (1939). Under the facts of record in the instant case, we cannot say as a matter of law that Mermon, who was driving J.E. Smith, Inc.'s dump truck at the time of the accident, was solely an employee of PennDOT.