Stephens v. Justiss-Mears Oil Co.
| Decision Date | 16 October 1974 |
| Docket Number | JUSTISS-MEARS,No. 4722,4722 |
| Citation | 302 So.2d 717 |
| Parties | Robert STEPHENS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v.OIL COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Wm. Henry Sanders, Jena, for plaintiffs-appellants.
Gist, Methvin & Trimble by H. B. Gist, Jr., Alexandria, for defendant-appellee.
Before FRUGE , HOOD and DOMENGEAUX, JJ.
This is a workmen's compensation suit instituted by Robert Stephens, Bernard Stephens, Gary Malcomb and Dexter MeClure against Justiss-Mears Oil Company. The trial court rendered a summary judgment in favor of defendant, dismissing the suit, and plaintiffs appealed.
The issue presented is whether the accident which resulted in injuries to the plaintiffs occurred during the course of the latters' employment by defendant.
There is no dispute as to any of the material facts. Plaintiffs were injured in an automobile accident which occurred at about 1:30 P.M. on January 26, 1973, in LaSalle Parish. They were employed at that time to work as oil field workers for defendant, Justiss-Mears Oil Company, in connection with the drilling or reworking of an oil well located a few miles from Jena, Louisiana. The accident happened while they were riding in an automobile owned and being driven by a co-employee, Gerald Breithaupt, from Jena to the oil rig on which they worked. After they left Jena and before they reached the rig, the automobile in which they were riding left the road and ran into a tree, resulting in the injuries which form the basis for this suit.
All of the occupants of the car were members of a crew which was scheduled to work an eight hour shift on the rig, beginning at 2:00 P.M. and ending at 10:00 P.M., on that date. They were paid an hourly rate for the work they performed, and in computing the payments due them their time did not begin to run until they reached the rig and began working at 2:00 P.M. Their time ended when they left the rig at 10:00 P.M. The employer did not provide transportation to and from the job site for any of its oil field workers, and it did not reimburse plaintiffs for any of their travel expenses.
Plaintiffs and Breithaupt lived in or near Jena, and they worked out a car pool arrangement for traveling to and from work everyday. They alternated in driving their automobiles, and it happened to be Breithaupt's regular turn to drive his car on the day this accident occurred. All of the occupants of the car met at about 12:30 P.M. on the day the accident occurred at an ice house in Jena, where they obtained some ice for the water cans which they used for drinking water while at work. They then got into Breithaupt's car and began traveling toward the rig where they were to work. The accident occurred shortly after they left the ice house at a point on the highway several miles from the site of the drilling rig.
One of the plaintiffs, Gary Malcomb, worked as a driller for defendant, and as such it was his responsibility to hire crew members and to see that they got to the job site on each work day. Malcomb thus took the lead in working out the car pool arrangements for his crew. He made up the schedule showing when each worker was to provide the transportation. He took his own car when a worker was unable to take his vehicle on a day scheduled for him to do so, and Malcomb thus drove his automobile to work more than did any other member of the crew. Malcomb, however, like all of the other oil field workers employed by defendant, received no travel allowance or reimbursement of travel expenses for transporting himself and other workers to and from the job site. Each employee maintained his own car and paid for the fuel required to haul himself and other members of the car pool to work.
Defendant customarily gave to each oil field worker employed by it a water can so that the employee would have some means of taking drinking water to the job site. The can became the property of the employee to be used as he saw fit. If the worker lost his water can the company would give him another one on his request. The defendant also paid for any ice which the employee put in the water can for use while working. The employee could obtain ice from specified ice houses and have it charged to the company, or he could buy ice anywhere he pleased and the company would reimburse him for it. There was no requirement that any employee obtain ice before reporting to work, and in fact, there was no requirement that he even take drinking water or a water can with him. Most of the employees preferred to take drinking water and ice with them to the job site, and for that reason it had become customary shortly before this accident occurred for plaintiffs and Breithaupt to meet at the ice house in Jena just before starting their trip in one of their privately owned cars to the drilling site where they worked.
The trial judge concluded that the accident which resulted in injuries to plaintiffs did not occur during the course and scope of their employment. Defendant's motion for a summary judgment dismissing the suit was thus granted. Plaintiffs contend that their employment began when they got into the Breithaupt car at the ice house in Jena and began their journey to the job site, and that they thus were in the course of their employment when the accident occurred. They take the position that each employee was required as a condition of his employment to furnish transportation for the entire crew and that when a man was hired by defendant his car and tools were also hired. They argue that in view of those circumstances plaintiffs were in the course of their employment while they were traveling to the job site in a fellow-employee's car .
The general rule is that an employee who sustains a disabling injury while going to or returning from work is not entitled to workmen's compensation benefits, since his injury is not considered as having occurred during the...
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