Beach v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., H 80-70.

• Decision Date: 09 July 1982
• Docket Number: No. H 80-70.,H 80-70.
• Citation: 542 F. Supp. 1328
• Parties: Jackie N. BEACH and Julia M. Beach, Husband and Wife, Plaintiffs, v. OWENS-CORNING FIBERGLAS CORPORATION, Aqua-Chem, Inc., Cleaver-Brooks Division of Aqua-Chem, Inc., Dresser Industries, Inc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

542 F. Supp. 1328

Jackie N. BEACH and Julia M. Beach, Husband and Wife, Plaintiffs, v. OWENS-CORNING FIBERGLAS CORPORATION, Aqua-Chem, Inc., Cleaver-Brooks Division of Aqua-Chem, Inc., Dresser Industries, Inc., Defendants.

No. H 80-70.

United States District Court, N. D. Indiana, Hammond Division.

July 9, 1982.

Walter P. Chapala, Chapala & Herrbach, Michigan City, Ind., Newby, Lewis, Kaminski & Jones, LaPorte, Ind., for plaintiffs.

Patrick J. Dougherty, Spangler, Jennings, Spangler & Dougherty, P. C., Valparaiso, Ind., for defendant, Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

KANNE, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the motion of the defendant, Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation (Owens-Corning), for summary judgment. For the reasons stated below, the motion will be granted.

The events from which plaintiffs' claims arose took place at the Owens-Corning R & C Plant in Porter County, Indiana, on March 7, 1978. The plaintiff, Jackie Beach, was an employee of U. S. Piping, Inc. U. S. Piping, Inc., had contracted with Owens-Corning to furnish:

all labor, supervision, tools, supplies, ... and all other services, facilities and means of construction required to do piping and other work at Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation, R & C Plant...

Plaintiffs' Exhibit B, par. 1(a). Paragraph 3 of the contract provided as follows:

Subject to the terms of the contract, work shall be solely under the direction of Mr. Richard Miller, the OCF Project Manager, or his authorized representative.

While acting under the direct supervision of Fred Hartman, an employee of Owens-Corning, Jackie Beach was turning a valve on a newly installed deaerator unit when steam escaped thereby injuring Beach.

Owens-Corning claims that it was an employer of Jackie Beach at the time of the accident, relying on Indiana's borrowed servant doctrine. If Owens-Corning's position is correct, sole jurisdiction over plaintiffs' claims against Owens-Corning would lie with the Industrial Disputes Board under the Indiana Workmen's Compensation Act, Ind.Code § 22-3-2-6.

Plaintiffs contend that summary judgment is not proper in this case. First, they argue that there is a disputed issue of material fact as to whether Jackie Beach was an employee of Owens-Corning. However, Downham v. Wagner, Ind.App., 408 N.E.2d 606 (1980), makes clear that the court must determine as a matter of law whether plaintiff is an employee or independent contractor in order to determine if the Workmen's Compensation Statute deprives the court of jurisdiction.

Second, plaintiff maintains that defendant "flunks" the tests enunciated in Fox v. Contract Beverage Packers, Inc., Ind.App., 398 N.E.2d 709 (1980) for determining the existence of an employer-employee relationship. Owens-Corning counters that utilizing the "decisive" test of control over the means, manner, and method of performance of his work, Jackie Beach was a borrowed servant of Owens-Corning at the time of the accident.

It appears that two Indiana appellate decisions have utilized the "decisive" test in a Workmen's Compensation context. In Jackson Trucking Company v. Interstate Motor Freight System, 122 Ind.App. 546, 104 N.E.2d 575 (1953), a case involving two carriers operating under a lease agreement, it was found that each carrier was liable as an employer of a driver who was accidentally killed in the course of his employment.

This court stated that the real and decisive test of employment under such circumstances is who had the power or right to command the act and to direct and control the means, manner or method of performance, and to whom was the driver accountable upon arrival at his destination. The opinion determined that both carriers were employers who had associated themselves together and were in direct control of the employee so that he was considered the employee of both carriers.

Wabash Smelting, Inc. v. Murphy, 134 Ind. App. 198, 186 N.E.2d 586, 592 (1963).

In Wabash Smelting, the court found that a firm which had leased a truck, placed the driver on its payroll and instructed him as to what work to do, had "mixed" control over the truck, the driver, and the manner, means and method of his performance with the lessee, who had employed and chosen the driver. It found that because they were dual employers of plaintiff, both were jointly liable to him under the Workmen's Compensation Act.

In Fox v. Contract Beverage Packers, Inc., supra, the Court of Appeals recognized that "an individual can be the employee of two employers if both employers possess a substantial, but not necessarily exclusive, right or power of control over the employee and the means, manner, and method of his performance." It utilized seven factors in determining whether an employee of a temporary help agency was also an employee of the firm where he was filling in:

(1) the right to discharge; (2) the mode of payment; (3) supplying tools or equipment; (4) belief of the parties in the existence of an employer-employee relationship; (5) control over the means used in the results reached; (6) length of employment; and (7) establishment of the work boundaries.

In that case plaintiff had been assigned to the plant by Manpower; but Contract Beverage had the option of dismissing him; had control...