Youngblood v. Morrison Grain Co., Inc.

• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana
• Writing for the Court: Smith, Taliaferro, Siebert & Boothe, Jonesville, La., for Louis Neal Grant
• Citation: Youngblood v. Morrison Grain Co., Inc., 467 F.Supp. 758 (W.D. La. 1978)
• Decision Date: 19 July 1978
• Docket Number: 77-0660 and 77-0584.,Civ. A. No. 77-0058
• Parties: Edward L. YOUNGBLOOD v. MORRISON GRAIN CO., INC., et al. Edward L. YOUNGBLOOD et al. v. Louis Neal GRANT et al. Daniel CUPIT, Sr. et al. v. MORRISON GRAIN CO., INC., et al.

467 F. Supp. 758

Edward L. YOUNGBLOOD v. MORRISON GRAIN CO., INC., et al.

Edward L. YOUNGBLOOD et al. v. Louis Neal GRANT et al.

Daniel CUPIT, Sr. et al. v. MORRISON GRAIN CO., INC., et al.

Civ. A. Nos. 77-0058, 77-0660 and 77-0584.

United States District Court, W. D. Louisiana, Monroe Division.

July 19, 1978.

Charles C. Trascher, III, Snellings, Breard, Sartor, Inabnett & Trascher, Monroe, La., Dwight W. Norton, Dufour, Levy, Marx, Lucas & Osborne, New Orleans, La., Roy S. Halcomb, Jr., Broussard, Bolton & Halcomb, Alexandria, La., Roy S. Halcomb, Sr., Halcomb & Cole, Ferriday, La., for plaintiffs.

J. Bachman Lee and R. L. Davis, Jr., Theus, Grisham, Davis & Leigh, Monroe, La., for all defendants except Louis Neal Grant.

Smith, Taliaferro, Siebert & Boothe, Jonesville, La., for Louis Neal Grant.

MEMORANDUM RULING

STAGG, District Judge.

Defendant Louis Neal Grant farms a large tract of land in Catahoula Parish leased from Louisiana Delta Plantation (Delta), a joint venture between defendants Morrison Grain Company, Inc. and Morrison-Quirk Grain Corporation. While running errands related to his farming operation in June 1976, Grant's pickup truck collided with an oncoming car. Plaintiffs represent the occupants of the oncoming car killed or injured in the collision.

This action is presently before the court on the motion of the defendant corporations for summary judgment on the ground that they are not legally responsible for the torts of Grant, their lessee. Finding that the doctrine of respondeat superior in Louisiana is based on the right to control the conduct of the tortfeasor, and that the defendant corporations lacked any such right with respect to Grant, the motion for summary judgment must be GRANTED.

Is there a genuine issue as to any material fact?

Plaintiffs contend that summary judgment is inappropriate because there is a dispute over whether Grant was an employee or a mere lessee. Plaintiffs misconceive the function of summary judgment. If there is no dispute as to the factual attributes of the relationship between Grant and the defendant corporations, or at least as to the material attributes, then the fact that the parties disagree over the legal effect of these attributes does not require a trial.

Plaintiffs correctly maintain that the key to determining whether one party to a relationship is an employee is the extent of the other party's right to control the conduct of the first. Hickman v. Southern Pacific Transport Company, 262 La. 102, 262 So.2d 385, 391 (1972). In this case, unlike most business relationships, the entirety of defendants' right to control Grant's conduct is evidenced by a writing — the lease executed between Grant and Louisiana Delta Plantation on January 1, 1976. It is undisputed that the right to control contained in the lease is greater than the control actually exercised by defendants. Thus, the lease presents the facts in the light most favorable to the parties opposing the motion.

The lease recites in detail numerous farming practices which Grant must carry out. Should he fail to comply, the lessor reserves the right to enter the premises and take the necessary steps at Grant's expense. Although the lease allows Grant to farm other land,¹ it requires him to segregate the crops of the other lands and their proceeds.

The provision in the lease that is most important here is paragraph 16:

"Lessor retains full supervision and control of the manner and time for plowing, planting, cultivation, fertilizing, poisoning and harvesting of all crops grown, and the failure of Lessee to properly control noxious weeds or to submit to Lessor's supervision and control of the crops grown shall ipso facto terminate this lease and relieve Lessor of any responsibility or liability to Lessee.

"It is agreed and understood that nothing contained herein shall have the effect of making Lessee an agent or employee of Lessor and nothing herein shall be interpreted to permit Lessor to supervise either Lessee's employees, servants or Lessee in respect to the time and manner in which Lessee's machinery or labor is operated or their duties performed."

The lessor has the right to complete control over the selection of farming practices but no right to control the time or physical conduct of those who implement these practices. The lease gives the lessor no control whatsoever over Grant himself. He could fulfill all the terms of the contract without ever setting foot in Louisiana. In fact, Grant did employ others to farm Delta's land, while devoting an indeterminate amount of time to farming land belonging to himself and others.

While the depositions and answers to interrogatories might be construed to present a question as to the extent of control over Grant actually exercised by the defendants, they raise no questions concerning the right to control. Accordingly, the court must proceed to the second stage of the inquiry.

Are defendants entitled to judgment as a matter of law?

No reported decisions have been found dealing with the liability of a farm owner for the physical torts of a tenant farmer. However, decisions analyzing this relationship in other contexts and decisions distinguishing between master-servant and other legal relationships are instructive.

In other contexts, Louisiana courts have repeatedly held that the key to determining whether a sharecropper is a lessee or an employee is whether the parties intended that the share of the crops be taken "in lieu of wages". Hammond v. Lafferty, 192 So. 746, 748 (La.App. 2d Cir. 1939); Busby v. Childress, 187 So. 104, 107 (La.App. 2d Cir. 1938); Jones v. Dowling, 12 La.App. 362, 125 So. 478, 479 (2d Cir. 1929). The sharecropper is presumed to be a lessee unless it is shown that the share was in lieu of wages, Roberie v. Safeco Insurance Co. of America, 282 So.2d 834, 836 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1973), and the showing must be based on the language of the contract. Louisiana Farm Bureau Cotton Growers' Co-operative Association v. Bannister, 161 La. 957, 109 So. 776 (1926). See also Bolin Farms v. American Cotton Shippers Association, 370 F.Supp. 1353, 1371 (W.D.La.1974). In all of the cases cited above, the relationship was determined to be one of lessor-lessee rather than master-servant.

Federal courts have arrived at the same conclusion with regard to sharecroppers when addressing the question whether the share of the crop given to the lessor constituted rent or "unrelated business income". Tatum v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 400 F.2d 242, 244, 246 n.12 (5th Cir. 1968); U. S. v. Myra Foundation, 382 F.2d 107 (8th Cir. 1967). These cases involved an arrangement very similar to the lease in the case sub judice including the use of a farm manager who

"advised the tenants as to crops to be

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