San Isabel Elec. Ass'n, Inc. v. Bramer
| Decision Date | 29 May 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. C--284,C--284 |
| Citation | 182 Colo. 15,510 P.2d 438 |
| Parties | SAN ISABEL ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION, INC., and Division of State Compensation Insurance Fund, Petitioners, v. Clifford F. BRAMER and Industrial Commission of Colorado, Respondents. |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
Alious Rockett, Frances L. Bury, Robert S. Ferguson, Denver, for petitioner Division of State Compensation Ins. Fund.
Preston, Altman & Parlapiano, Pueblo, for petitioner San Isabel Electric Association, Inc.
Laurence A. Ardell, Pueblo, for respondent Clifford F. Bramer.
John P. Moore, Atty. Gen., John E. Bush, Deputy Atty. Gen., Peter L. Dye, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for respondent Industrial Commission of Colo.
The Industrial Commission adopted its referee's order and affirmed a Workmen's Compensation award to Clifford F. Bramer. The commission upheld the referee's finding that the San Isabel Electric Association, Inc. qualified as Bramer's constructive employer for Workmen's Compensation purposes under the provisions of C.R.S.1963, 81--9--1. The Court of Appeals affirmed the commission. San Isabel Electric Association v. Bramer, 31 Colo.App. 134, 500 P.2d 821 (1972). San Isabel thereafter petitioned for certiorari. We issued a writ of certiorari and now affirm the Court of Appeals.
The San Isabel Electric Association is in the business of retailing electrical energy and operates and maintains electrical transmission and distribution lines. Bramer, who is the claimant, was employed by the Pueblo Aircraft Service which was owned by Vernon L. Warren. The Pueblo Aircraft Service contracted with the San Isabel Electric Association to provide an airplane and pilot to make aerial inspection trips of the Association's electrical transmission and distribution lines which could not be readily inspected from the ground. The greater part of the Association's lines are maintained by employees of the Association who inspect and repair the lines from the ground. However, part of the transmission lines are in mountainous areas and must be inspected from aircraft. In the past, the Association has owned and operated its own aircraft, but in recent years, the Association has contracted to have the Pueblo Aircraft Service make the aerial inspection trips. The written contract calls for the Association to provide an observer who is to be flown over the inaccessible lines by the Pueblo Aircraft Service on a monthly basis.
Bramer, on numerous occasions, flew inspection trips with observers furnished by the Association. In order to properly inspect the power lines from the air, it was necessary to fly at an extremely low altitude and just above and to the left of the lines. On the inspection trip which ended in the crash, Bramer was flying the same route which he always flew, and the inspection was being performed in the usual manner. The Association's observer, however, was unable to go on the scheduled September flight because of other work commitments to the Association. When the Association observer advised Warren that he was not going to make the inspection trip, Warren told Bramer that he would serve as the Association's observer on the September flight. While the aircraft was paralleling the Association's lines, it encountered a downdraft and crashed within thirty feet of the Association's lines. Warren was killed, and Bramer was seriously injured.
The Pueblo Aircraft Service did not have Workmen's Compensation Insurance, and Bramer asserts that he was a constructive employee of the Association and that the Association's Workmen's Compensation Insurance provides coverage for his injuries. The statutory basis for his claim is found in C.R.S.1963, 81--9--1, which provides, in pertinent part:
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...are established by competent evidence in the record. San Isabel Elec. Ass'n v. Bramer, 31 Colo. App. 134, 500 P.2d 821 (1972), aff'd, 182 Colo. 15, 510 P.2d 438 (1973). Defendant could not predicate error on trial court's denial of admission of hearsay evidence; since defendant made no offe......
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...is not bound to follow rigid rules of evidence in justly administering the workmen's compensation act. San Isabel Elec. Ass'n v. Bramer, 182 Colo. 15, 510 P.2d 438 (1973). Admission of hearsay evidence by claimant was proper where testimony was merely cumulative and augmented competent evid......