California Employment Commission v. Bates

California Employment Commission, formerly Unemployment Reserves Commission, which administers the Unemployment Insurance Act (Stats. 1935, Chap. 352, p. 1226, as amended; Deering’s Gen. Laws, 1935 Supp., Act 8780d, as amended), sued for contributions assertedly payable upon the amounts earned by the carriers of the Pasadena Independent from 1936 to 1940. The trial court found that E. D. Bates and F. F. Runyon, the owners and publishers of the newspaper, were not employers within the meaning of the statute and that the carriers were independent contractors. The commission has appealed from the judgment rendered against it on these findings and the question presented for decision is substantially the same as that determined in California Employment Com. v. Los Angeles Down Town Shopping News Corp., ante, p. 421 [ 150 P.2d 186 ].

The facts are undisputed. During the years for which contributions are claimed, respondents as copartners were en *434 gaged in the publication and distribution of the Pasadena Independent. In 1936 the Independent, was judicially determined to be a newspaper of general circulation under section 4460 of the Political Code; it has not been admitted by the…

I dissent for the reasons set forth in my dissenting opinion in California Employment Commission v. Los *437 Angeles Down Town Shopping News, ante, p. 427 [ 150 P. 2d 188 ].

Shenk, J., concurred.

Respondents’ petition for a rehearing was denied August 4, 1944. Shenk, J., Curtis, J., and Schauer, J., voted for a rehearing.