William Allen Frazier v. Landair Services, Inc.

This workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel of the Supreme Court in accordance with Tenn. Code Ann. _ 5-6-225(e)(3) for hearing and reporting to the Supreme Court of findings of fact and conclusions of law. The plaintiff alleged in his petition that he was injured while unloading a trailer while in the employment of the defendant.1 The defendant filed a Motion for Summary Judgment supported by affidavits, and the plaintiff answered the motion by filing affidavits also. The trial judge granted summary judgment to the defendant and dismissed the plaintiff's petition. We affirm the judgment. The issue raised in this case is whether the plaintiff was an employee of the defendant and thus entitled to recover workers' compensation benefits for his injury. The structure of the relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant was derived from the employment of the plaintiff as a driver with a company known as Central Trucking, Inc. Landair Transport, Inc. entered into a contract with Central Trucking whereby Central Trucking would tow the defendant's trailers on shipments to the defendant's customers. The contract provided that the employees of Central Trucking would not be employees of the defendant. The plaintiff contended in his petition and affidavit that he was injured while unloading a trailer for the defendant and that all unloading fees were negotiated between him and a terminal manager of the defendant. The plaintiff claims this created an employer-employee relationship between him and the defendant. One of the owners of Central Trucking filed an affidavit in support of the plaintiff's claim that the amount to be paid for unloading was negotiated between the plaintiff and the defendant. The trial judge considered the affidavits, the contract between the defendant and Central Trucking, and various documents filed in support of and in opposition to the Motion for Summary Judgment. After reviewing the documents and hearing 1 It appears the actual defendant relevant to this case is Landair Transport, Inc. frazier.wc 2