Court Opinion

ID: 9450392
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:45:34.606703+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:17.538897
License: Public Domain

BROWNING, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
As the Court points out in quoting Nepstad v. Lambert, “[t]he crucial question is which employer had the right to control the particular act giving rise to the injury.”1 (Emphasis added.) If *353there was evidence from which the jury could rationally conclude that the machinery-leasing company had the right to control Choy’s performance of that act, it was error to direct a verdict in the machinery-leasing company’s favor.
Appellant’s injury did not arise, as the court seems to assume, from an act relating to when, where, and for what purpose the crane was to be employed. Rather, the injury resulted from an act relating to the mechanical operation of the crane — the manner in which the crane and its crew accomplished the alignment and lifting of beams — a matter quite independent of whether the crane and its crew should be employed in moving a particular beam to a certain position on the structure at a given time. Thus, the precise question in this case is not whether the machinery-leasing company controlled the work the crane was to do, but whether there was evidence from which the jury could rationally conclude that the machinery-leasing company, rather than the construction company, had the right to direct Choy as to the manner in which the crane was operated in aligning and lifting the beams.
There was no written contract for the rental of the crane, and appellant, who entered into the oral agreement on behalf of the construction company and who would have exercised the authority to control the manner in which Choy operated the crane had it been conferred, testified directly and unequivocally that he had no such authority.2 A contrary finding could be made only by rejecting this testimony. This alone made it improper to take the case from the jury. In ruling on a motion to direct a verdict, the court must give full credence to the testimony favorable to the party opposing the motion. Galloway v. United States, 319 U.S. 372, 384, 396, 63 S.Ct. 1077, 87 L.Ed. 1458 (1943); Hirsch v. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., 288 F.2d 685 (8th Cir. 1961). Only the jury could weigh appellant’s testimony, judge his credibility, and draw the ultimate conclusion as to crucial facts to which he testified. Tennant v. Peoria & Pekin Union Ry., 321 U.S. 29, 35, 64 S.Ct. 409, 88 L.Ed. 520 (1944).
Moreover, appellant’s testimony was supported by other evidence.
Choy was in the general employ of the machinery-leasing company which paid him, assigned him to the job, and had the sole right to discipline or dismiss him. All of these factors are “useful in determining * * * whose is the power of control.” Standard Oil Co. v. Anderson, 212 U.S. 215, 225, 29 S.Ct. 252, 255 (1909).
Choy was one of a crew of three employees of the machinery-leasing company who accompanied the crane and operated it. Appellant testified that another of the three (Cabral) was the general supervisor of the crane and its crew. Choy himself testified that Cabral was the “senior man” and represented the machinery-leasing company’s general manager on the job. When appellant felt that Choy was operating the crane in a careless manner he directed his complaint to Cabral and to the machinery-leasing company’s manager.
*354The crane was a costly and complex piece of equipment; it was reasonable to suppose that the machinery-leasing company would maintain control Over the physical operation of such equipment through its own employees, rather than relinquish it to a temporary renter.3
The fact that Choy was dependent upon signals from others in operating the crane and that employees of the construction company (including appellant) sometimes assisted the crane crew in giving such signals, does not establish that Choy was operating the crane under the control of the construction company. The Supreme Court has twice held that the giving of signals in such circumstances “is at most an example of the minimum cooperation necessary to carry out a coordinated undertaking and * * * cannot amount to control or supervision.” Shenker v. Baltimore & O. R. R., 374 U.S. 1, 6, 83 S.Ct. 1667, 1671, 10 L.Ed.2d 709 (1963). As the Court said in Standard Oil Co. v. Anderson, 212 U.S. 215, 226, 29 S.Ct. 252, 256 (1909), “The giving of the signals under the circumstances of this case was not the giving of orders, but of information; and the obedience to those signals showed co-operation rather than subordination, and is not enough to show that there has been a change of masters.” See also Denton v. Yazoo & M. Y. R. R., 284 U.S. 305, 310-311, 52 S.Ct. 141 (1932). In any event, it would be for the jury to determine whether the signals represented mere cooperation, or had the “force of a command.”
Thus, there was substantial evidence that responsibility for operating the crane in a safe and proper manner remained with the crane crew as employees of the machinery-leasing company. And it follows that by granting a directed verdict the district court deprived appellant of his right to a jury trial upon a disputed issue of fact.

. Restatement (Second), Agency § 227, comment a (195S) states:
“Since the question of liability is always raised because of some specific act done, *353the important question is not whether or not he remains the servant of the general employer as to matters generally, but whether or not, as to the act in question, he is acting in the business of and under the direction of one or the other.” (Emphasis added.)

. At pages 152-153 of the record :
“Q (By Mr. Padgett) Did you have authority to hire and fire Choy?
“A No, sir.
“Q Did you have authority to direct him in the manner of his operation?
“A Not how he was to use the crane, no. I had no authority as to — I don’t pretend to be a crane operator. It is his business as to how he runs the crane.
“Q Well, what was your authority with respect to what Choy was doing?
“A Well, I could tell him what beam to pick up, or I can indicate which pickup, and where it was to go, that was about the extent of my authority to tell him what to do. I could tell him what I wanted done. How it was done was up to him.”

. Restatement (Second) Agency § 227, comment c (1958), states:
“A continuance of the general employment is also indicated in the operation of a machine where the general employer rents the machine and a servant to operate it, particularly if the instrument is of considerable value. Normally, the general employer expects the employee to protect his interests in the use of the instrumentality, and these may be opposed to the interests of the temporary employer. If the servant is expected only to give results called for by the temporary employer and to use the instrumentality as the servant would expect his general employer would desire, the original service continues. Upon this question, the fact that the general employer is in the business of renting machines and men is relevant, since in such a case there is more likely to be an intent to retain control over the instrumentality. A person who is not in such business and who, gratuitously or not, as a matter not within his general business enterprise, permits his servant and instrumentality to assist another, is more apt to intend to surrender control.”