Court Opinion

ID: 9862974
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 02:38:46.443595+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:45:35.646473
License: Public Domain

HAMILTON, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
The writer respectfully dissents from the majority opinion in this case. The burden was upon the plaintiff tó prove that her deceased husband was an employee of the contractor Pelphrey at the time of the husband’s death. From a careful reading of the statement of facts I have been unable to find any evidence on which the jury could base its finding that deceased was an employee of the contractor. The jury certainly could not get it from the actual agreement made between the contractór’s .foreman, Stroud, and the deceased. According to plaintiff’s witness Stroud, Sims, the deceased, came to the rock crusher of contractor and inquired if he could get his truck on. He was told to wait around and he could probably get on. The pay was so much per yard for a quarter mile haul. As stated in the majority opinion there is no evidence' the contractor exercised any control over the trucks during the time they traveled from the crusher to the place where the material was to be dumped on the road. Certainly there was no evidence that any control was retained Or exercised over the deceased between the crusher and the place the material was dumped, in fact we have very little evidence concerning the actual transaction between deceased and the contractor from which to determine the relationship between them. About all we have is that the deceased was in the service of the contractor. The contractor furnished deceased with material to haul by loading his truck and contractor told deceased where to dump the material. Deceásed furnished and operated his own equipment for the hauling and was to receive so much per yard for a quarter mile haul.
In the absence of other evidence, in order to determine whether the relationship was one of employee and employer or independent contractor and employer, we must look at all the facts and circumstances surrounding the work and business of the deceased and of the contractor. The very definitions submitted by the court defining “employee” and “independent contractor” require that we look into all the surrounding facts and circumstances. The definition of “employee” as submitted by the court and as quoted in the majority opinion says in substance that one is an employee who is in the service of another, except one whose employment is not in the usual course of the trade, business, profession or occupation of his employer. It is noted that in the definition of "independent contractor” given by the court that
“ ‘The true test of a contractor would seem to be that he renders service in the course of an independent occupation, representing the will of his employer only as to the result of his work, and not as to the means by which it is accomplished.’ ”
The deceased, according to his wife’s testimony, worked as a truck driver for Gardner Brothers for thirteen or fourteen years until 1947or 1948, when he bought a dump truck of his own and started hauling for various general contractors. He continued in this line of work up until his death. From the evidence in this case it appears that the business of one hauling rock and dirt for others, furnishing his own equipment, is an independent business and occupation, and such was the business in which deceased was engaged at the time he made his contract with Stroud. Pelphrey, the contractor, was in the road construction business. In connection with that business he owned and operated a rock crusher used for the purpose of preparing material to be used in the building of road beds. The evidence ■ shows that the contractor was not engaged in the business of hauling crushed rock or caliche, but in connection with his road building he customarily contracted with others to haul the material from the rock, crusher to a designated place on the road. He didn’t even own any equipment suitable for this kind of business. Other than furnishing the material to the trucker and loading his truck the contractor retained *591no right of direction or control over the truckers other than to direct where the material was to be unloaded. This is an absolute minimum of direction necessary to secure the result of the work to be done, and not as to the means by which it is accomplished. When we look to the evidence of the relationship of the other truckers, engaged in hauling, with the contractor Pelph-rey, we cannot escape the conclusion that their relationship was as independent contractor and employer. One of the truckers, Coates, testified that he had five trucks on the job; that he had his own foreman in control of the truck drivers; that Pelphrey exercised no control over them other than loading the trucks and directing where the load would be dumped. From the evidence it appears that both Pelphrey and Coates understood that their relationship was that of employer and independent contractor. Plaintiff’s own witness, Stroud, testified that the relationship of all the truck drivers with contractor Pelphrey was the same.
The majority of the court cites the case of American General Insurance Co. v. Hightower, Tex.Civ.App., 264 S.W.2d 481, in support of its opinion. That case in turn cites Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n v. Owen, Tex.Com.App., 298 S.W. 542, 543. Those two cases are most nearly in point to the holding of the majority of this court; However, in each of those cases there were certain measures of control exercised by the employer not present in this case. In the Hightower case the hours of work were controlled, as well as the lunch hours. The speed of the truck was controlled. In the Owen case the Supreme Court, in affirming the Court of Civil Appeals, 291 S.W. 940, had this to say:
“There are many features shown by the evidence and stated by the Court of Civil Appeals, wherein the McKnight Company had and exercised control over the deceased in the prosecution of his work. This is the test.”
Another distinction in that case from the instant case was that McKnight, the employer, had many trucks and teams of his own engaged in the business of hauling road material.
Under the undisputed facts of the instant case the great weight of authority seems to uphold the proposition that the relationship of the deceased Sims and the contractor Pelphrey is that of employer and independent contractor. Industrial Indemnity Exchange v. Southard, 138 Tex. 531, 160 S.W.2d 905; Security Union Ins. Co. v. McLeod, Tex.Com.App., 36 S.W.2d 449; Lehr, Inc., v. Brown, 127 Tex. 236, 91 S.W.2d 693; Smith Bros. v. O’Bryan, 127 Tex. 439, 94 S.W.2d 145.
It is my considered opinion that this case should be reversed and rendered.