Court Opinion

ID: 9767111
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:10:17.308948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:28.704680
License: Public Domain

POPE, Justice
(concurring).
I agree with the result but for a reason somewhat different from that stated in the majority opinion. It is my opinion that Dryden was in the course of employment within the meaning of Section 1 and the first part of Section lb, Article 8309. Under Section lb Dryden had to prove that his injury occurred when transportation (1) was furnished as a part of the contract of employment, or (2) was paid for by his employer, or (3) was under the control of th employer, or (4) when he, Dryden, was directed in his employment to proceed from one place to another place. I would hold that Dryden brought himself within the fourth category. On the Friday before the accident, his employer directed him to take the employer’s power tools from a job site to the employee’s home in Jasper County and to deliver the tools on the following Monday morning from his home to a new job site in Nederland, Texas. He was directed to have the tools on hand and ready for use by the other workmen when they arrived. Ordinarily the employer provided a company truck to transport the power tools from one job site to another, but separate arrangements were made when the company truck was unavailable. Dryden’s additional responsibility to his employer to deliver the tools at the job site was more important than Dryden’s reporting for work himself. Without the tools, no one could work; with the tools, the other men could proceed with their work though Dryden himself did not. If Dryden had been unable to report for work, the tools nevertheless had to be delivered to the new job site. Dryden, in fact, left fifteen or twenty minutes earlier than he would have if he had not been responsible for the delivery of the tools. I would hold that Dryden was directed in his employment to proceed from one place to another to deliver the tools before the other employees arrived.
It is the concluding part of Section lb that defeats Dryden’s claim. The statute following the word “unless” states a two-*748pronged test that he was unable to meet. It provides:
“ * * * Travel by an employee in the furtherance of the affairs or business of his employer shall not be the basis for a claim that an injury occurring during the course of such travel is sustained in the course of employment, if said travel is also in furtherance of personal or private affairs of the employee, unless the trip to the place of occurrence of said injury would have been made even had there been no personal or private affairs of the employee to be furthered by said trip, and unless said trip would not have been made had there been no affairs or business of the employer to be furthered by said trip.”
Dryden under that provision, as a basis for his claim, had to prove two things. He had to prove that the trip to Nederland on the morning of the accident would have been made even had there been no personal or private affairs of his own to be' furthered by the trip. He met that test. He also had to prove that the trip would not have been made had there been no affairs or business of the employer to be furthered by the trip. This test is a difficult one for the employee. Dryden did not prove that he would not have made the trip but for the necessity of delivering the tools for the employer.
I concur in the result.