S. A. Gerrard Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

The proceedings in which the Industrial Accident Commission made an award of compensation in favor of Macerio Valdez are before this court upon the return to a writ of certiorari issued by the District Court of Appeal. The only question for decision is whether Valdez, at the time he was injured, was an employee of the petitioner S. A. Gerrard Company. The award against the petitioner and State Compensation Insurance Fund, its insurance carrier, is based upon findings that it was the special employer of Valdez.

At the time of the accident, the respondent W. Hanaoka had leased land from the Gerrard Company and was growing melons upon it. He employed Valdez as a picker. The agreement between the Gerrard Company and Hanaoka for the use of this land was stated in three written contracts. One of these was a lease which provided that the land was to be used for the purpose of growing crops of cantaloupes, honeydews or honeyballs as the Gerrard Company might direct, and that the provisions of a contemporaneously executed distributing agreement and of a crop mortgage, were a part of it.

By the distributing agreement, W. Hanaoka appointed the Gerrard Company as his exclusive agent to…