Opinion ID: 1911276
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 18

Heading: lack of contract

Text: In the case at bar, the remaining issue is whether Larson can be an employee of the Tribune without formally contracting with the Tribune. The letter and flier stated that Brauner would be sharing her route with Larson and set forth the delivery schedule. The trial judge determined that Larson was a substitute employee of Brauner who therefore became an employee under the Workers' Compensation Act because the Tribune knew of and acquiesced in Larson's working as a substitute. The trial judge found that the Tribune had actual knowledge that Larson was assisting Brauner on a regular basis with Brauner's paper route and that the Tribune encouraged its carriers to engage substitutes to help with their routes and provided handbooks to the carriers for use in training substitutes. Brauner testified that the Tribune had notified her of a few customer complaints about Larson. Brauner's mother testified that she had had a conversation with district manager Brown, in which Brown had inquired as to how the sharing of the route with Larson was going. The girls continued this arrangement for almost 6 months, and the Tribune never objected to this arrangement. In addition, the Tribune encouraged carriers to find and train substitutes to help the carriers complete their routes, and the Tribune maintained a list of substitutes who were available to assist the carriers in their deliveries. The carrier handbook encouraged each carrier to seek out someone who could fill in as a substitute when the carrier was on vacation or if the carrier could not deliver the papers for another reason. The Vacation Handbook for Your Substitute instructed substitute carriers on the basics of newspaper delivery and stated: Any time while you're on vacation it is very important that a well trained substitute properly manages your route. Brown testified that in her initial meeting with each new carrier, she discussed the substitute process. Brown instructed the carriers to inform the Tribune who the substitute would be so she could contact the substitute if a problem arose. Encouraging the use of substitutes was important to the district managers because if for some reason the papers were not delivered, the district managers would be required to deliver the papers themselves. The review panel, while noting that the trial judge made a finding of fact that the Tribune had actual knowledge that Larson was assisting Brauner in her paper route, concluded that the Tribune had knowledge only that an independent contractor may have had someone helping to deliver the papers and that Brauner and Larson were at most independent contractors. The review panel concluded there existed no contract of employment or hire between the defendants and Larson. We disagree with that conclusion. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 48-115(2) (Reissue 1988) provides: Every person in the service of an employer who is engaged in any trade, occupation, business, or profession as described in section 48-106 under any contract of hire, expressed or implied, oral or written, including aliens and also including minors, who for the purpose of making election of remedies under the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act shall have the same power of contracting and electing as adult employees. This section recognizes that a contract for hire may be expressed or implied, including a contract with minors. A person working as a substitute for another may be an employee under a workmen's compensation act, at least where the employer knows of, and acquiesces in, the substitution.... 99 C.J.S. Workmen's Compensation § 74 at 298 (1958). In Bobik v. Indus. Comm., 146 Ohio St. 187, 64 N.E.2d 829 (1946), the Ohio Supreme Court recognized that it was a well-settled rule of law that if a master expressly or impliedly assents to an arrangement whereby a person is procured by an employee to act as his substitute, the substitute occupies the position of an employee of the master. In Veit v. Courier Post Newspaper, 154 N.J.Super. 572, 382 A.2d 62 (1977), the court held that where the newspaper clothed the newsboy with authority to engage a substitute, which occurred routinely in the course of its business, and had at least implied notice of the substitution, an implied contract of employment arose between the substitute and the newspaper for purposes of workers' compensation. We apply the reasoning of the Ohio and New Jersey courts to the case at bar. The trial judge found that the Tribune was advised of the fact that Brauner would be sharing her route with Larson. This relationship continued without objection for almost 6 months. The Tribune expressly granted its carriers the authority to engage substitutes, which occurred routinely in the course of its business. Therefore, under the facts of this case, Larson occupied the same position with the Tribune as did Brauner. We find that an implied agreement existed between the Tribune and Larson and that Larson would have the same status with regard to the delivery of newspapers for the Tribune as did Brauner.