Brooks v. Laurie
| Decision Date | 22 November 2022 |
| Docket Number | WD85031 |
| Parties | DONALD BROOKS, Appellant, v. WILLIAM J. LAURIE AND CROWN CENTER FARMS, INC., Respondents. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Randolph County, Missouri The Honorable Scott Alan Hayes, Judge
Before Lisa White Hardwick, P.J., Thomas N. Chapman and Janet Sutton, JJ.
Plaintiff Donald Brooks ("Brooks") appeals a judgment of the Circuit Court of Randolph County, which granted a joint motion for summary judgment filed by Defendants Crown Center Farms, Inc. ("Crown Center Farms") and William Laurie ("Laurie"). The grant of summary judgment was based on the circuit court's determination that Crown Center Farms was Brooks's statutory employer under section 287.040[1] and that Laurie was an employee of Crown Center Farms, such that the Workers' Compensation Law[2] provided Brooks's exclusive remedy against Crown Center Farms or Laurie pursuant to section 287.120.
In his first two points, Brooks contends that the circuit court erred in granting summary judgment to Crown Center Farms on the basis of Crown Center Farms being Brooks's statutory employer because there were genuine issues of material fact regarding (1) whether Brooks was injured on or about the premises of Crown Center Farms, and (2) whether the injury occurred during the performance of work that was within Crown Center Farms' usual course of business. In his third point, Brooks argues that the circuit court erred in granting summary judgment to Laurie on the basis of Laurie being an employee of Brooks's statutory employer, Crown Center Farms. In his fourth point, Brooks argues that the circuit court erred in granting summary judgment to Laurie on the basis of the corporate existence of Crown Center Farms. The judgment is reversed and the case remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Background[3]
On August 31, 2015, Brooks suffered an injury while he was employed as a superintendent for Little Dixie Construction Company ("Little Dixie Construction"), and while Brooks was performing work cutting down trees at Big Buck Resort, Inc. ("Big Buck"), a hunting resort located near Cairo, Missouri. Brooks alleges that he was injured when a tree that was cut by Defendant Laurie fell down on Brooks causing injuries to his head, neck, chest, arm, and ribs including numerous fractures.
At the time of the incident, Defendant Laurie was a shareholder/member of Big Buck.[4]Members of Big Buck were not assigned particular plots of land on Big Buck, but members could unofficially select a designated hunting area by telling other members that the selected area is where the member would hunt. Laurie had authority to cut trees on the portion of Big Buck that was his designated hunting area.
Laurie co-owns Crown Center Farms with his wife. Crown Center Farms is located in Columbia, Missouri. Crown Center Farms was created as a horse breeding operation and to care for and maintain the various property interests of the Lauries. Crown Center Farms employs one full-time ranch hand, Tim Cullen ("Cullen"). Cullen assists with maintaining and caring for Crown Center Farms and various properties owned by the Lauries, including to help manage Laurie's hunting area at Big Buck.
Plaintiff Brooks was a superintendent for Little Dixie Construction and was a salaried employee. On the date of Brooks's injury Brooks was working as an employee of Little Dixie Construction, which was primarily a commercial construction company. Little Dixie Construction regularly performed services for Crown Center Farms and Laurie.
As an employee of Little Dixie Construction, Brooks performed an assortment of general maintenance and construction services for Crown Center Farms over a period of ten years. These tasks varied and included plumbing, electrical, painting, and tile work, brush-hogging Laurie's pastures, working on Laurie's pool, assisting with Laurie's daughter's wedding, and once burying Laurie's dog. Brooks regularly went to Crown Center Farms, Big Buck, and the Lauries' other properties to perform work for Crown Center Farms and Laurie. When performing tasks for Crown Center Farms through his employment with Little Dixie Construction, Brooks would report his time to Little Dixie Construction. Little Dixie Construction would then bill Crown Center Farms. Brooks's payment for these tasks came through his salary from Little Dixie Construction. Brooks had been to Big Buck approximately ten times prior to the day of the incident.
On the day of the incident, Laurie contacted Brooks and requested his assistance at Big Buck. On that day, the people working at Big Buck included Plaintiff Brooks, Laurie, Cullen, two additional laborers not identified by name in the record, and Eddie Brooks ("Eddie"),[5] who was the brother of Plaintiff Brooks and also an employee of Little Dixie Construction. On the date of the incident, Brooks and Laurie were cutting down trees with chainsaws, while Eddie was running a "bobcat." Cullen and the two unidentified laborers were cleaning up and clearing brush as the trees came down. Laurie instructed which trees were to be cut up into firewood and which trees were to be disposed of in a ditch by placing dots on the trees. Brooks and Laurie were the only two persons who were cutting down trees on the day of the incident.
Following the incident, Crown Center Farms continues to utilize a Little Dixie Construction employee named Billy to perform an assortment of property maintenance tasks that had previously been performed by Brooks, but these tasks do not extend to the cutting down and clearing of trees on the Big Buck property. Big Buck now contracts with a professional logger to clear the Big Buck property.
Following the incident, Brooks filed a workers' compensation claim against Little Dixie Construction for the injuries sustained while working at Big Buck. Brooks had received a partial disability award under Little Dixie Construction's workers' compensation policy, but his workers' compensation claim had not been fully resolved by the time the summary judgment motion was filed.
On October 9, 2018, Brooks filed a three-count Petition for Damages, which named Laurie, Crown Center Farms, and Big Buck as defendants. The Petition alleged that, on August 31, 2015, Brooks was injured while working at Big Buck for his employer, Little Dixie Construction Company. Brooks alleged that, through no fault of his own, a tree cut by Defendant Laurie fell on Brooks and caused Brooks injury. Defendants Laurie and Crown Center Farms filed answers to the petition and asserted as an affirmative defense that Brooks may be deemed a statutory employee of Crown Center Farms, Laurie, or Big Buck so as to be barred from recovery against these defendants.
On May 20, 2020, Laurie and Crown Center Farms filed a Joint Motion for Summary Judgment along with a statement of uncontroverted facts and a memorandum in support. The motion asserted that Crown Center Farms was Brooks's statutory employer pursuant to section 287.040.1 such that Brooks's exclusive remedy was provided under The Workers' Compensation Law. Further, the motion argued that Laurie was an employee of Crown Center Farms so as to be shielded from liability under The Workers' Compensation Law.
Brooks filed a response to the motion and the statement of uncontroverted facts along with a separate statement of uncontroverted facts and a memorandum in opposition to the motion. The Defendants thereafter filed a reply along with a response to Brooks's separate statement of uncontroverted facts.
The circuit court held a hearing on the motion on July 27, 2020. On November 13, 2020, the trial court entered an order[6] which granted summary judgment to Defendants Crown Center Farms and Laurie. The trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Crown Center Farms was based on the trial court's determination that Crown Center Farms was a statutory employer of Brooks so as to trigger the exclusive remedy provisions of The Workers' Compensation Law. The trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Laurie was based on the trial court's determination that Laurie was an employee of Crown Center Farms so as to shield Laurie from liability under The Workers' Compensation Law.
Brooks now appeals to this court.
The trial court makes its decision to grant summary judgment based on the pleadings, record submitted, and the law therefore, this Court need not defer to the trial court's determination and reviews the grant of summary judgment de novo. In reviewing the decision to grant summary judgment, this Court applies the same criteria as the trial court in determining whether summary judgment was proper. Summary judgment is only proper if the moving party establishes that there is no genuine issue as to the material facts and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The facts contained in affidavits or otherwise in support of a party's motion are accepted as true unless contradicted by the non-moving party's response to the summary judgment motion. Only genuine disputes as to material facts preclude summary judgment. A material fact in the context of summary judgment is one from which the right to judgment flows.
The record below is reviewed in the light most favorable to the party against whom summary judgment was entered, and that party is entitled to the benefit of all reasonable inferences from the record. However, facts contained in affidavits or otherwise in support of the party's motion are accepted as true unless contradicted by the non-moving party's response to the summary judgment motion.
Green v. Fotoohighiam, 606 S.W.3d 113, 115-116 (Mo banc 2...
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