Zurich General Accident & Liability Assurance Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

This is a proceeding in certiorari to review an award by the Industrial Accident Commission. The applicant J. 0. Smith received the injuries upon which the award is based while engaged in logging operations about a lumber-mill operated by a copartnership composed of R. D. White and W. A. Minner and doing business under the firm name of White Lumber Mill. The Industrial Accident Commission found that at the time of the injuries the applicant was employed by White Lumber Mill and made the award complained of against petitioner herein as the insurance carrier of White Lumber Mill. The sole question presented by petitioner in this proceeding is whether there is any substantial evidence to support the finding of the respondent Commission that at the time of receiving his injuries Smith was an employee of its insured, Wliite Lumber Mill.

In this behalf the evidence shows that one A. L. Nelson had an oral contract with White Lumber Mill to deliver logs to the mill at a flat rate per thousand feet and that at the time of his injury Smith was working with a crew under Nelson. Petitioner claims that Nelson was an independent contractor and that Smith was Nelson’s employee and not theirs.…