Court Opinion

ID: 9877652
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-27 16:14:53.135473+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:47:05.220977
License: Public Domain

Crothers, Justice,
dissenting.
[¶30] I respectfully dissent. The majority holds the independent administrative, law judge erred by determining Leonard Taylor’s employment with Industrial Contractors was not seasonal employment. I would affirm, concluding the ALJ did not misapply the law and the ALJ’s decision is supported by a preponderance of the evidence.
[¶31] This case boils down to whether the ALJ erred in finding Taylor’s employment was “seasonal.” That'term is defined as follows:
“‘Seasonal employment’ includes occupations that are not permanent or that do not customarily operate throughout the entire year. Seasonal employment is determined by what is customary with respect to the employer at the timé of injury.”
N.D.C.C. § 65-01-02(27) (2010).
[¶32] I would construe the language of N.D.O.C. § 65-01-02(27) as a whole to mean seasonal employment includes occupations that are not permanent and is determined by what is customary with respect to the employer’s undertaking with that occupation at- the time of the injury, as opposed to the employer’s relationship with a particular individual. Contrary to our rules of interpretation for giving each word and phrase of a statute meaning, the majority focuses on the employer’s relationship with an individual worker rather *688than on the employer’s relationship with the occupation.
[¶33] Under our rules of construction the use of the phrase “includes occupations” in N.D.C.C. § 65-01-02(27) enlarges the plain and ordinary meaning of “seasonal employment” to include “occupations that are not permanent or that do not customarily operate throughout the year.” Under our statute, occupations that are not permanent or that do not customarily operate throughout the entire year nevertheless must satisfy the plain and ordinary meaning of seasonal employment. See Majority Opinion, at ¶ 13, (“The ordinary meaning of the adjective ‘seasonal’ pertains to or is dependent on the seasons of the year. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 1120 (11th ed. 2005)”).
[¶34] Consistent with the plain meaning, “seasonal employment” means employment during certain seasons or portions of the year, and does not include jobs performed throughout the entire year. See Majority Opinion, at ¶ 14, (citing Annot., What is “Seasonal” Employment Within Provisions of Women’s Compensation Act, 93 A.L.R. 308 (1934)); see also Majority Opinion, at ¶ 15, (citing cases explaining what is and is not seasonal employment).
[¶35] As Professor Larson explains, the basic rule under seasonal employment statutes “is [that it is] the inherent seasonal nature of the employment that controls, not the claimant’s seasonal connection with it.” 8 Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law § 93.02[3][b], In Froehly v. T.M. Harton Co., 291 Pa. 157, 139 A. 727, 729-30 (1927), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court considered whether an occupation was inherently seasonal and explained that a dishwasher at a summer amusement park was not seasonal employment:
“A reference to the Century Dictionary serves to recall that the word is formed from the substantive ‘season,’ plus the adjective suffix ‘al,’ meaning ‘of the kind of and ‘pertaining to,’ thus making ‘season,’ a word pertaining to a season or a specific part of a year; hence it may be said that a seasonal occupation is an employment pertaining to, or of that kind of, labor exclusively performed at specific seasons or periods of the year.
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“It is in that current and conventional sense that the words ‘season’ and ‘seasonal’ are in popular use, and it is in that sense that ‘seasonal,’ as used in the Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1915, is to be taken. The word has a significance and application far different from the terms ‘casual’ and ‘intermittent;’ these two words, it is true, connote brevity of period of action, but intermittent or casual work may be carried on at any period of the year, irrespective of the season. Hop picking, however, and the gathering of the peach crop are certainly seasonal occupations. Both of these products come approximately regularly at definite seasons or months, at which time the hops are picked and the peaches gathered. Such work is complete in itself, and the labor and action it entails must be begun and finished within approximately a certain, usual, and definite period of the year— the period or months when hops are ready to be picked and peaches are ripe enough to be gathered. Seasonal occupations logically are those vocations which cannot, from their very nature, be continuous or carried on throughout the year, but only during fixed portions of it. On the other hand, labor or occupation possible of performance and being carried on at any time of the year, or through the entire twelve months, is certainly not seasonal. The work of dish-washing comes under this latter classifi*689cation. It is performed as a matter of universal custom and necessity each day of the entire year, in homes, in restaurants, or wherever else table service is used, and is a work or occupation to perform which persons seek paid ■ employment almost anywhere and at any time, or at all times, of the year. It may be, as in the present case, carried on at a summer resort for merely three months in the year—three months of the summer time—but at innumerable other places dishes are being washed, for wages, every day in the same year, and the clatter of the dishwasher will continue every day throughout the years to come. Appellant here confuses the character of work—dishwashing—performed by claimant, with the seasonal period during which the amusement park remained open to the public.”
[¶36] The ordinary meaning of the phrase “seasonal employment” includes occupations establishing a threshold that requires seasonal employment to be related to or done during certain seasons of the year. When read together, the definition goes on to include seasonal employment occupations that are not permanent or that do not customarily operate throughout the entire year. N.D.C.C. § 65-01-02(27). The determination of what is a seasonal employment occupation looks at what is customary with respect to the employer for that occupation at the time of the injury. When the language for that determination is read together, the focus' is both on whether the employment is “seasonal,” and on what is customary for the employer regarding that particular occupation and not the particular employee.
[¶37] Here, the ALJ heard evidence about Industrial Contractors’ customary practice with electricians, which was not initially provided to WSI, including evidence Industrial Contractors hired 719 electricians between 2010 and 2015. The ALJ made extensive findings about Industrial Contractors’ customary practice with electricians and found:
“6. Generally, ICI management decides the amount of manpower anticipatéd to be needed, the union halls are contacted to fill the positions, and the electricians are typically hired for particular projects with anticipated durations. However, change orders are often issued which creates additional work and the employment is extended. Once the project is complete, the electricians can be laid off or they can be transferred to other jobs under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It is a management decision that depends on the need for workers. WSI did not have this information when it determined Mr. Taylor was a seasonal employee.
7. ICI customarily hires and employs electricians throughout the year. In fact, there is no month when ICI does not employ electricians in some capacity. ICI’s hiring of people in the occupation of electrician is not dependent on the seasons but turns on the contractor’s success at securing projects through negotiations and the bidding process and the subsequent need for workers. WSI did not have this information when it determined Mr. Taylor was a seasonal employee.
8. Mr. Svihovec testified that all craft employees (pipefitters, boilermakers, electricians, millwrights, etc. that are hired through the various unions) are referred through the referral process for any given project and then laid off. However, during the relevant time period, at the time of Mr. Taylor’s injury, ICI transferred multiple electricians from job to job. (See, e.g. Ex. 38, Employee Nos. 61713, 61006, 61038, 61714, 61847, 61257, 61054, 61067 and 61026.) *690WSI did not have this information when it determined Mr. Taylor was a seasonal employee.
9, Mr. Svihovec also testified that most of ICI’s craft workers are hired in,the spring and fall when the power plants have the outages to do scheduled maintenance. However, ICI electricians are not limited to working just the spring and fall outages. As stated, an electrician may be hired for a specific project, but the electricians can also be transferred to other .projects and work at projects for which they were not originally hired. Electricians may work beyond the spring and fall outages. Some are hired for projects in the winter months, others in the summer and some work throughout the year; Often, when an electrician is laid off, they are hired again, sometimes within a week or a few days, and continue to be employed' by ICI. The ICI records substantiate an electrician keeps working until the employee is no longer needed. In fact, ICI has electricians that stay year round, year after year, through the transfer process. WSI did not have this information when it determined Mr. Taylor was a seasonal employee.
10, The greater weight of the evidence supports a finding that ICI electricians customarily operate throughout the year.”
[¶38] On this record, I conclude the ÁLJ did not misinterpret or misapply the plain and ordinary meaning of seasonal employment as applied to the occupation of an electrician. Evidence here establishes Industrial Contractors customarily employed electricians in a capacity that was not dependent on the seasons of the year. I would affirm the judgment.
[¶39] Daniel J. Crothers