Court Opinion

ID: 9769384
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:48:42.799702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:02.164299
License: Public Domain

On Petition to Eehear
In response to a petition to rehear, filed on behalf of appellees, it must be denied because no additional authority is cited and no new argument is made upon the *477determinative issue. The petition thus fails to comply with. Rule 32 of this Court.
However, out of deference to the laudable zeal and sincerity of able counsel for appellees, we are constrained to respond to the contention that Mr. Seals’ connection with the defendant ice cream company was that of “buyer and seller” and that the case at bar should not be decided upon the rule of law applicable to “employer and independent contractor relationship.” We respectfully decline to follow this technical argument in support of petitioners’ insistence of non-liability. Moreover, we dealt at length with the determinative issue in the original opinion in the following brief statement, “There can be no gainsaying that this petitioner (Seals) is either an employee of the defendant, or a person engaged in a business of his own”.
A casual examination of the opinion shows that careful consideration was given to “buyer and seller” type of cases. While it is erroneously said that they had no application to the case at bar, we rested our decision in a large part upon peddler type of cases.
Considering the facts as to the manner and form of doing business the decisions turn almost entirely upon the issue of control by the alleged employer of the claimants, i. e. the peddlers who were connected with the business.
Where the question is doubtful as to whether or not a claimant is an employee or is doing business solely on his own account, it must be resolved in favor of the claimant. Kamarad v. Parkes, 201 Tenn. 566, 300 S.W.2d 922.
The petition to rehear is denied.