Court Opinion

ID: 9471032
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:23:54.496164+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:14.862009
License: Public Domain

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent. I believe that the Texas ease law cited by the majority, as well as other Texas cases, requires a finding that Tavorn was an independent contractor, not an employee of Freeman Wholesale.
Here Tavorn and Freeman Wholesale were engaged in two distinct and separate businesses. John Freeman, through Freeman Wholesale, manufactured and sold a radiator product, Weldit Stop Leak. Tavorn, on the other hand, was the proprietor of a janitorial service and supply company in Farmersville, Louisiana. To earn extra money, Tavorn had been assisting a friend, Kevin Dickey, as a wagon peddler of automobile service products for approximately one month prior to the accident. Dickey bought small quantities of automobile products from a wholesaler and in turn sold them “out of the trunk of his car” to service stations and other retail outlets. Dickey and Tavorn approached Freeman to purchase a quantity of Weldit Stop Leak in order to resell it. During the month prior to the accident, Tavorn bought and resold the Freeman merchandise on three or four occasions. Thus Tavorn and Freeman/Freeman Wholesale were engaged in two separate and distinct enterprises.
On the day of the accident, Tavorn approached Larry Freeman to purchase merchandise for resale to service stations. Larry needed someone to deliver an order to a customer in Longview, Texas, and upon learning that Tavorn intended to sell in Texas that day, asked Tavorn if he would be interested in making the delivery. Tavorn agreed to do so and was paid $60 to make the trip. He was told where, when and to whom to deliver the products. Tavorn used his own van for the delivery since a regular passenger car was too small to carry the merchandise.
This was thus a one-time job for which Tavorn was paid a flat fee. The job required that he provide his own van, the only tool required for the job. Tavorn was free to accept or reject the delivery job. As soon as the delivery was made, the job was completed, and there was no continuing obligation on the part of either party.
Moreover, Tavorn was not on any payroll, no withholding or social security taxes were deducted from his fee, nor was he provided with workers’ compensation coverage. See Anchor Casualty Co. v. Hartsfield, 390 S.W.2d 469, 471 (Tex.1965).
An independent contractor has been defined as any person who, in the pursuit of an independent business, undertakes to do a specific piece of work for other persons, using his own means and methods, without submitting himself to their control in respect to all its details. William Sommerville & Son, Inc. v. Carter, 571 S.W.2d 953, 956 (Tex.Civ.App.1978), aff’d, 584 S.W.2d 274, 277 (Tex.1979); Pitchfork Land and Cattle Co. v. King, 162 Tex. 331, 346 S.W.2d 598, 603 (1961).
As noted by the majority, Pitchfork Land and Cattle Co. set forth the tests for determining when one is acting in the capacity of an independent contractor. The court went further, however, and stated that:
It has been authoritatively said that in practically all cases the independent nature of an agreement of employment may be inferred from two circumstances (1) that the party is engaged in a distinct and generally recognized employment; (2) that his stipulated remuneration is to be determined by some quantitative stan*190dard. Dave Lehr, Inc. v. Brown, supra. Those two factors predominate in this case.
Pitchfork Land and Cattle Co., 346 S.W.2d at 604.
The case therein cited, Dave Lehr, Inc. v. Brown, 127 Tex. 236, 91 S.W.2d 693 (1936), had facts nearly identical to those in the instant case. In Dave Lehr, Inc., the plaintiff was injured by a truck driven by one Valderrano, and the question was whether Valderrano at the time of the accident was an employee of Dave Lehr, Inc., so that the latter was legally liable for the injury under respondeat superior.
The facts which the court in Dave Lehr, Inc., found to be important were that Valderrano owned his own truck and was engaged in the distinct occupation of a “truck driver” whose business was hauling materials for others for hire. He furnished his own truck and paid the expense of upkeep and the cost of operation for it. Valderrano was paid by the load of material hauled per mile. There was no agreement that Valderrano was to continue hauling for any specific length of time or that the defendant was obligated to furnish him any definite quantity of materials for hauling. Valderrano could haul for others if he desired. Dave Lehr, Inc., 91 S.W.2d at 693.
Dave Lehr, Inc., was engaged in a separate business — that of buying and selling rock, gravel, sand, cement and other materials. Id.
Even though Valderrano “was instructed to use the most practical and direct route, to observe traffic laws, to drive slowly in passing schools and churches, and was paid on a mileage basis,” the court found that he was an independent contractor. Pitchfork Land and Cattle Co., 346 S.W.2d at 603, citing Dave Lehr, Inc., 91 S.W.2d at 695.
The undisputed facts of this case are that Tavorn and Freeman Wholesale were engaged in two separate and distinct businesses; that Tavorn was paid by a quantitative standard, i.e., per trip; that he furnished his own truck, paid the cost of upkeep and operation of it; that there was no agreement beyond the single trip; and that Tavorn could haul for others when and if he desired. In other words, Tavorn possessed every indicia of an independent contractor under controlling Texas cases.
As for the control over Tavorn which the majority finds present here, i.e., that Tavorn “was instructed as to the route to travel, the place and time of delivery,” this is insufficient under Pitchfork Land and Cattle Co. and Dave Lehr, Inc., as a matter of law, to constitute the necessary control or right to control required for a finding of master/servant or employer/employee.
Under Texas law, where one has the right to control the end sought to be accomplished but not the means and details of the accomplishment, the person who is employed acts as an independent contractor. Moreover, an employer who exercises only such control over an independent contractor as is necessary to ensure performance of the contract, in order to accomplish the results contemplated by the parties, does not thereby make the contractor an employee of the company. First National Bank of Ft. Worth v. Bullock, 584 S.W.2d 548, 551-52 (Tex.Civ.App.1979). Even an occasional assertion of control by the employer does not destroy the settled relationship between the parties. Id. at 552, citing Newspapers, Inc. v. Love, 380 S.W.2d 582 (Tex.1964).
It is thus apparent that under long-settled Texas precedent, Tavorn, as a matter of law, was an independent contractor and not an employee. Because I cannot understand how the majority can refuse to follow clear and controlling precedent, I respectfully dissent.