Producers' Lumber Co. v. Butler

• Decision Date: 03 October 1922
• Docket Number: Case Number: 13101
• Citation: 87 Okla. 172,209 P. 738,1922 OK 307
• Parties: PRODUCERS' LUMBER CO. et al. v. BUTLER et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1922 OK 307

209 P. 738

87 Okla. 172

PRODUCERS' LUMBER CO. et al. v. BUTLER et al.

Case Number: 13101

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: October 3, 1922

Syllabus

¶0 1. Master and Servant--"Independent Contractor."

An independent contractor is one who, exercising an independent employment, contracts to do a piece of work according to his own methods and without being subject to the control of his employer except as to the result of the work.

2. Master and Servant--Workmen's Compensation--Review of Awards--Failure of Evidence.

By the provisions of section 10 of the Workmen's Compensation Law (chapter 14, Sess. Laws 1919), the decision of the State Industrial Commission is made final as to all questions of fact; but this is so only when there is some evidence to support such decision, and where there is no evidence to support such finding and decision, the same may be reviewed as a matter of law.

3. Same--Independent Contractor--Question of Law or Fact.

The question of what constitutes an independent contractor may involve only a question of law, but ordinarily it involves a mixed question of law and fact. Where the evidence with respect to the relation is oral, and is sufficient to establish the existence of some relation and is uncontradicted, and is reasonably susceptible of but a single inference, it is a question of law. If the evidence is conflicting, or is such that different deductions may reasonably be drawn, leading to different conclusions as to what relation is established, it is a question of fact, in the sense that the triers of the facts must determine the facts and draw the inferences and make the deductions; but even in such case a certain legal principle must be applied to the facts as found, and a question of law is involved, so that the ultimate question of whether a person is an employee or an independent contractor under certain facts involves a question of law.

4. Same--Failure to Show Relation of Employee--Vacation of Award.

In a proceeding to vacate an award of the State Industrial Commission, if there is no evidence showing the relationship of employer and employee, or from which such relationship may reasonably be inferred, this court must apply the law to such state of facts, despite the contrary finding of the Industrial Commission, and say as a matter of law that the relationship is not shown.

Original Proceeding in the Supreme Court to Vacate an Award of the State Industrial Commission.

Petition filed by Producers Lumber Company and Associated Employers' Reciprocal against F. W. Butler, L. E. Elston, and State Industrial Commission to vacate an award of the State Industrial Commission. Reversed and remanded.

Burford, Miley, Hoffman & Burford, for petitioners.

George F. Short, Atty. Gen., and Kathryn Van Leuven, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondents.

NICHOLSON, J.

¶1 This is an original proceeding instituted in this court to vacate an award of the State Industrial Commission by which the respondent F. W. Butler was awarded compensation from the Producers Lumber Company and its insurance carrier, the Associated Employers' Reciprocal, the petitioners. The facts are that F. W. Butler at the time of his injury was, and had been for a number of months prior thereto, employed by L. E. Elston, a teaming contractor, who owned and worked several teams in hauling for whomsoever employed him in the oil fields about Bristow, and employed more than two men. Elston was by the Producers Lumber Company employed to unload a carload of rig timbers and to haul these timbers from the railroad to the company's yard and pile them there. The lumber company exercised no control over the time and manner of the work and did not hire, discharge, or pay Elston's employees, and gave no directions whatever about the work, except that on a previous occasion it had directed where such timbers should be piled. Payment at the rate of $ 2.50 per thousand feet of lumber unloaded was made to Elston.

¶2 The State Industrial Commission found that the claimant, Butler, was in the employment of the Producers Lumber Company, principal contractor, and L. E. Elston, a subcontractor, without insurance, and was engaged in a hazardous occupation within the meaning of the statute, and while in such employment the claimant received an accidental injury, and awarded him compensation at the rate of $ 12.98 per week for a period of 30 weeks, being for a total sum of $ 389.40.

¶3 We are unable to understand how the commission arrived at the conclusion that Butler was in the employment of the Producers Lumber Company, principal contractor, and L. E. Elston, subcontractor, as the undisputed evidence shows that Butler was an employe of Elston and that Elston was an independent contractor.

¶4 This court has defined an independent contractor as follows:

"An independent contractor is one who, exercising an independent employment, contracts to do a piece of work according to his own methods, and without being subject to the control of his employer except as to the result of the work (quoting Words & Phrases, vol. 4, p. 3542)." Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Bennett, 36 Okla. 358, 128 P. 705.

¶5 This definition was also adopted in Chicago, R....