Beaumont-Jacques

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff and Appellant Erin Beaumont-Jacques (Appellant) sued various entities. After demurrers below, the remaining defendants are five affiliated insurers (Signatory Defendants) and Farmers Group, Inc. (collectively, Respondents). This appeal challenges the granting of Respondents‟ motion for summary judgment. Appellant claims the trial court erred in concluding as a matter of law that she was an independent contractor, and that she presented no triable issues of fact regarding her causes of action. Appellant also claims that her district manager classification was a “scheme” to avoid tax and Labor Code obligations. The record below demonstrates that Appellant exercised meaningful discretion with reference to her efforts. While Respondents had input over the quality and direction of those efforts, they did not have sufficient “control of the details” with respect to those efforts. Appellant was thus an independent contractor and all of her claims must fail. We accordingly affirm.

FACTUAL SUMMARY

After several years working for the Signatory Defendants, in September 2005, Appellant became one of their district managers by executing the District Manager…