Court Opinion

ID: 9443753
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:29:48.23816+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:35.623491
License: Public Domain

MURRAH, Circuit Judge
(specially concurring on denial of petition for rehearing)-
Because of the earnest contention that this case is controlled by B. & H. Passmore Metal & Roofing Co. v. New Amsterdam Casualty Co., 10 Cir., 147 F.2d 536, 538, in which I did not participate; and in view of the divided opinion in that case and here, it seems appropriate to briefly state my views of the two cases.
*562In the first place, I am certain that there is a clear and valid distinction between the two cases, and that both of them are correctly decided. In the Passmore case, Chief Judge Phillips pointed out that “At the time of the accident Little was not engaged in any work and was not' performing any service for Passmore”; and what is more important, “he was not receiving any pay for his time. He was simply riding from the place of work to Passmore’s shop in a conveyance gratuitously furnished by Pass-more.” In holding that Passmore was not “engaged in the business” of his employer, Chief Judge Phillips drew a clear distinction between the facts in that case and the cases where the “accident occurred during the working day and while the employees were being transported from one place of work to another place of work to perform additional duties at the latter place.”
Paraphrasing Chief Judge Phillips, the accident occurred to the employee in our case during the working week while he was being transported from one place to another to perform additional duties. Judge Bratton draws the distinction clearly and succinctly when he says, “Throughout the entire trip he [Loper] was either serving in a driving capacity or in a standby capacity in furtherance of the business of the insured.” In his dissent, Judge Hux-man did not allude to the Passmore case, and we may therefore assume that he does not think it is controlling.