Renfro v. Storey
Decision Date | 10 May 1932 |
Docket Number | Case Number: 22601 |
Citation | 158 Okla. 285,1932 OK 369,13 P.2d 124 |
Parties | DEATHERAGE & RENFRO et al. v. STOREY et al. |
Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
¶0 Master and Servant--Workmen's Compensation Law--Injuries to Sole Employee of Partnership not Compensable.
Award is vacated, as there was only one employee of the partnership, composed of Deatherage & Renfro, and the case does not come within the Workmen's Compensation Law.
Original action in the Supreme Court by Deatherage & Renfro et al. to review award of the State Industrial Commission in favor of H. A. Storey. Award vacated.
Clayton B. Pierce, A. J. Follens, and Truman B. Rucker, for petitioners.
O. H. Searcy and J. B. Underwood, for respondents.
¶1 This is an original action to review an award of the Industrial Commission, which is as follows:
¶2 We have reviewed the evidence in this case. The evidence as to the party sustaining an accidental injury, that resulted in his disability in this case, is rather weak. It appears that he was suffering from pyelitis, ordinarily known as kidney trouble. It is defined in Dorland's Medical Dictionary, as follows:
¶3 It appears from the evidence that sometime in February, while working for another company than the Deatherage & Renfro partnership, he did receive a strain of some kind in the pelvic region, and after that, on May 19th, he received another injury while working for the Chas. R. Eckes Motor Company, and from that he was laid up in bed about ten days, and that he used hot applications and a liniment to rub on his back and took some kidney pills, and his brother came and took his place there, and sometime in July he undertook to work again, and he told Mr. Eckes, the proprietor, that he could not do the work he had been doing. Evidently this testimony was given in the case in which he was seeking compensation from Eckes.
¶4 As applied to the present case, he states that he went to work in August for Deatherage & Renfro, about the 3rd, and up to that time his back was pretty bad, and he worked for Deatherage & Renfro from August 3rd to the 21st, and he did just mechanical work, not heavy, as they knew of his condition, and they gave him light work, and that on the 21st he was lifting the wheel of a Dodge sedan, putting it on, trying to slide it on to the shaft, and He went to Dr. Lewis then and was treated for his back, and it was about the same as it had been, and he went to work again about the 1st of April at the Rankin Service, and his back was still bothering him.
¶5 It is conceded, however, in the brief, that there may be some slight evidence showing an accidental injury while in the employ of Deatherage & Renfro, but earnest insistence is made that when he was working for Deatherage & Renfro he was not under the protection and requirements of the Workmen's Compensation Law, because the parties had only one employee, which was the claimant. We think that the evidence shows that conclusively in this case, though there is some dispute between the attorneys as to the effect of the evidence.
¶6 The evidence shows that Deatherage & Renfro were a partnership, engaged in the repairing of automobiles, and that during the 20 days that the claimant was in their employ they had no other employee, and neither of them drew wages from the partnership funds, and relied upon paying the expenses first, including the pay of the claimant here.
¶7 The testimony of Mr. Deatherage upon the point appears to be uncontradicted. The only qualification of not hiring more than one man was that "if we got in a lot of work, we put on enough men to take care of it," but for the three weeks that the claimant was in their employ, he was the only employee they had, though they were carrying insurance to cover accidents, and the witness was sure that if they had as many as two employees at one time, that the insurance company would pay it when they were hurt. On cross-examination, in response to the question of the court, he...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Smittle v. Rutherford
...of section 13351, O. S. 1931, 85 Okla. St. Ann. § 11; South Oklahoma Town Co. v. Acree, 166 Okla. 110, 26 P.2d 404; Deatherage & Renfro v. Storey, 158 Okla. 285, 13 P.2d 124. ¶4 We are unable to agree with either of the contentions so made. At the hearings held to determine liability the pe......
-
S. Okla. Town Co. v. Acree
...petitioner had other workmen employed at other times does not bring the claimant within the provisions of the act. Deatherage & Renfro v. Storey, 158 Okla. 285, 13 P.2d 124; Southwestern Grocery Co. v. State Industrial Commission, supra. ¶6 The award of the State Industrial Commission is va......
-
Roy Deaton Co. v. State Indus. Comm'n
...contractor was not sufficient to bring the respondent within the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act. See Deatherage & Renfro v. Storey, 158 Okla. 285, 13 P.2d 124. The contractor and respondent were the sole workmen on the job at the time of the accident and injury, and the respon......
-
Town of Wellston v. State Indus. Court
...v. Richardson, Okl., 287 P.2d 680; Roy Deaton Co. v. State Industrial Commission et al., 178 Okl. 536, 63 P.2d 742; Deatherage & Renfro v. Storey, 158 Okl. 285, 13 P.2d 124; South Oklahoma Town Co. v. Acree et al., supra. Our decision in Teague v. State Industrial Commission et al., 112 Okl......