ALTER SALES COMPANY AND PENNSYLVANIA NATIONAL MUTUAL CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, PETITIONERS,
v.
MACK D. SYKES (DECEASED), GLADYS SYKES, WIDOW, AND RITTER RENTAL SYSTEM, INC., AND NEW AMSTERDAM CASUALTY COMPANY, RESPONDENTS

Fla. | 1966-10-05
No. 34816
THORNAL, C. J., and DREW, CALDWELL and ERVIN, TJ., concur.
190 So. 2d 746 Florida Supreme Court (1966) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed that a truck driver killed while transporting goods for Alter Sales Company was Alter's employee entitled to workers' compensation benefits, rejecting Alter's argument that Ritter Rental System was either the sole employer or a joint employer. The court applied the established three-part test from Rainbow Poultry to determine employment status.


Holding

Alter Sales Company was the sole employer of the deceased. All three prongs of the employment test—contract for hire, nature of work being performed, and control over work details—established the employment relationship between Alter and the deceased, not Ritter, despite the incidental nature of returning Ritter's trailer.


Key Quotes

“The criteria and formula to be followed in determining whether or not the deceased was an employee has been established by this court in Rainbow Poultry Company v. Ritter Rental System, Inc.”

Establishes the legal standard—a three-part test—that governs employment status determination in this case.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Alter Sales Company, an auto parts distributor, rented a tractor and trailer from Ritter Rental System on a per-mileage basis to transport goods from …

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
DURDEN, Circuit Judge.

DURDEN, Circuit Judge.

In this case the widow of a deceased employee received a favorable award from the Deputy Commissioner and his ruling was unanimously affirmed by the Florida Industrial Commission.

The criteria and formula to be followed in determining whether or not the deceased was an employee has been established by this court in Rainbow Poultry Company v. Ritter Rental System, Inc., 140 So.2d 101.

The Deputy found that the basic and central facts compelled him to conclude that the deceased was an employee. A review by the Commission and then by this court reveals that the facts fully justified and supported this conclusion.

It is axiomatic that for every employee there must be at least one employer. It is the first contention of petitioner Alter that the Deputy erroneously found that it was an employer at all and secondly, that it was at most a joint employer with the co-respondent Ritter.

The deceased employee was a “trip-truck driver”. He was so engaged when he came to his death.

The petitioner, Alter Sales Company, was a wholesale auto parts distributor. The respondent, Ritter Rental System, Inc., was, as its name implies, engaged in the business of renting motor vehicular transportation equipment. A tractor and trailer were rented by Ritter to Alter on a straight mileage basis so that certain of Alter’s goods could be picked up at Abilene, Mississippi and transported from there to Alter’s Warehouse in Miami, Florida. The incident or accident which resulted in the employee’s death occurred in Palm Beach County, Florida on the return trip not many miles from the point of destination. ¡

The only fact that justifies an argument that Ritter was the sole or a co-employer with Alter is that the deceased left Miami with only a tractor; that on the way out he picked up a new trailer belonging to *748Ritter in Memphis, Tennessee and that therefore he was serving the business of Ritter by returning the trailer to Ritter in Miami. When we apply the three way test specified in the Rainbow Poultry Company case, supra, it is obvious that Ritter was not an employer of the deceased.

The first test is whether or not there was a contract for hire, express or implied, between the employee and the alleged employer. On this point there is no controversy. Alter frankly admitted it was responsible for and would have paid six cents a mile to or for the deceased driver for his services. There is no evidence that Ritter was responsible for or would have paid any compensation whatsoever. Obviously the agreements between the three contemplated that Alter would pay Ritter twenty-seven cents a mile for equipment rental and a separate six cents a mile to the driver. The bookkeeper for Alter even testified that the withholding and social security deductions would have been made before delivering the check. Furthermore that this payment would have been included in the schedule.of compensation and wages paid for purposes of computing the premiums to be paid by Alter for its Workmen’s Compensation insurance. Alter sent the check to Ritter for twenty-seven cents a mile and has never made any effort to disburse the employment check to or through Ritter.

The second test is whether or not the work being done at the time of the injury was essentially that of the special employer. At the time of the incident the deceased was essentially engaged in transporting Alter’s goods and merchandise from Abilene, Mississippi to Miami, Florida. It was solely incidental that a new trailer was being brought to Ritter.

The third test specified is the power to control details of the work. That this power resided in Alter is also clear. The deceased employee called Alter from Abilene, Mississippi and was told “to come on in” to Miami. It was in this endeavor that he was engaged when he met his death.

The Court has considered the other questions presented and having found that they too are without merit the petition for certiorari is hereby denied.

It is so ordered.

THORNAL, C. J., and DREW, CALDWELL and ERVIN, TJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Shelby Mut. Ins. Co. v. AETNA Ins. Co., 246 So. 2d 98 (Fla. 1971)
    …EKLE, JJ., concur. . 142 Fla. 351, 196 So. 188 (Fla.1939). . 74 So. 2d 554 (Fla.1954). .1A Larson, Workmen’s Compensation, § 48.10 (1967). . Rainbow Poultry Co. v. Ritter Rental System, Inc., 140 So. 2d 101 (Fla.1962) ; Alter Sales Co. v. Sykes, 190 So. 2d 746 (Fla.1966) ; Maige v. Cannon, 98 So. 2d 399 (Fla.App.1st 1957) ; Hamilton v. Shell Oil Co., 215 So. 2d 21 (Fla.App.4th 1968). . Hamilton v. Shell Oil Co., 215 So. 2d 21, 23 (Fla.App.4th 1968) : “In Rainbow Poultry Company v. Ritter Rental System,…
  • Hamilton v. Shell OIL Co., 215 So. 2d 21 (Fla. 4th DCA 1968)
    …arms, Inc., Fla. 1954, 74 So. 2d 282; Stuyvesant Corp. v. Waterhouse, Fla.1954, 74 So. 2d 554; Maige v. Cannon, Fla.App.1957, 98 So. 2d 399 (opinion by Justice E. Harris Drew of the Florida Supreme Court); and Alter Sales Company v. Sykes, Fla.1966, 190 So. 2d 746. The rules which have been developed by the courts for application of the statute under these circumstances do not permit the imposition of joint liability on all “employers” bearing significant relationships to the injured employee even though the…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw