[¶ 1] McPherson Timberlands, Inc. appeals from the judgment of the Superior Court (Penobscot County, Mead, J.) affirming the Unemployment Insurance Commission’s decision that timber harvesting services performed for McPherson by Albert W. Withee constituted employment pursuant to 26 M.R.S.A. § 1043(11)(E) (1988). Specifically, McPherson argues that the Commission erred in finding that Withee’s timber harvesting work was neither outside the usual course of McPherson’s timber management and marketing business nor performed outside all the places of that business. We affirm the judgment.
[¶ 2] McPherson is in the business of managing and marketing forest products from its own land and the land of others. It advertises its interest in buying timber from other landowners through both mailings and word of mouth. When McPherson enters into agreements with landowners, its agreements provide either that McPherson “is engaged in the business of felling and hauling timber” and “is able and willing fully to cut the specified timber on said lands and haul and deliver said timber,” or that McPherson handles “the organization of the harvest and delivery of forest products to mill destinations including layout and supervision, providing the necessary men and equipment, state permiting [sic] and administrative re
[¶ 3] In December 1993, McPherson contracted with a landowner to harvest timber from the landowner’s Mariaville property. McPherson then entered into an agreement with Withee whereby Withee would harvest timber for McPherson from the Mariaville property. The agreement specified that Withee was to harvest only trees with a minimum diameter of six inches, that McPherson would pay Withee directly for his services, and that Withee would be responsible for all labor, material, tax, and insurance expenses associated with the harvesting operation. The agreement contained no reference to the owner of the Mariaville property.
[¶ 4] Withee’s work at the Mariaville property involved inspecting trees, determining which trees met the six-inch minimum diameter specification, and cutting those trees. He provided his own skidder and chainsaw, paid his own taxes and insurance, and set his own schedule. Although McPherson did not provide Withee with any training, it did monitor his work to ensure that he complied with state law and with the landowner’s goals. Withee, however, had no contact with the landowner and assumed that McPherson owned the property. Once a week, a McPherson forester would visit the property to cheek on Withee’s progress. If the forester discovered trees that should have been cut but were not, he marked them and instructed Withee to cut them. McPherson also paid Withee directly for his work.
[¶ 5] After he completed his work at the Mariaville property, Withee filed an application for unemployment benefits, identifying McPherson as his most recent employer. The Department of Labor, Bureau of Employment Security, Unemployment Compensation Tax Division investigated Withee’s claim and determined that Withee’s work for McPherson constituted employment and that McPherson was liable to the State for unemployment taxes relating to that employment. McPherson appealed that determination to the Unemployment Insurance Commission. The Commission affirmed the agency’s determination twice, once after an initial evidentia-ry hearing and again after hearing additional evidence in response to McPherson’s request for reconsideration. Following reconsideration, the Commission found that McPherson failed to prove that Withee’s timber harvesting work was outside the usual course of McPherson’s timber management and marketing business or that Withee’s work was performed outside all of McPherson’s places of business pursuant to 26 M.R.S.A. § 1043(11)(E)(2), otherwise known as part B of the ABC test. McPherson sought review of the Commission’s decision in the Superior Court pursuant to 26 M.R.S.A. § 1194(8) (Supp.1997), 5 M.R.S.A. § 11001-11007 (1989), and M.R.Civ.P. 80C. The court affirmed the decision of the Commission, and this appeal followed.
[¶ 6] Where, as here, the Superior Court reviews a decision of the Commission as an intermediate appellate court, we review the Commission’s decision directly. See Gerber Dental Ctr. Corp. v. Maine Unemployment Ins. Comm’n,
[¶ 7] 26 M.R.S.A. § 1043(11)(E), otherwise known as the ABC test, provides that:
(1) [“A”] Such individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of such services, both under his contract of service and in fact;
(2) [“B”l Such service is either outside the usual course of the business for which such service is performed, or that such service is performed outside all of the places of business of the enterprise for which such service is performed; and
(3) [“C”] Such individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.
The putative employer bears the burden of rebutting the presumption of employment created by this provision and must meet that burden as to each of the provision’s three parts. See Gerber,
I. Usual Course of Business
[¶8] Describing itself as a real estate and timber management company, McPherson argues that Withee’s timber harvesting work was outside the usual course of its business because it does not currently own any timber harvesting equipment and thus does not engage in the business of timber harvesting. The Commission, however, was “unwilling to countenance the specious distinction between marketing, managing and overseeing timber harvesting operations and the actual physical process of harvesting the timber.” (Emphasis added). On the facts before it, the Commission found that Withee’s work was not “merely incidental to” McPherson’s business, but, rather, was an “integral part of’ that business. Accordingly, the Commission concluded that McPherson failed to prove that Withee’s services were outside the usual course of McPherson’s business.
[¶ 9] McPherson asserts that the Commission’s use of the phrase “integral part of’ represents an error of law because it places a higher burden on the employer than is intended by the statute. To the contrary, however, the use of phrases such as “integral part of’ and “merely incidental to” represents an attempt to describe the connection between the services performed and the usual course of the business being reviewed.
[¶ 10] Our decisions addressing part B of the ABC test reflect this attempt at description. In Maine Unemployment Compensation Comm’n v. Maine Sav. Bank,
[¶ 11] A year later, relying on the “merely incidental to” language of the Maine Savings decision, an owner of two tenement houses argued that he was not hable for
[¶ 12] Two more recent opinions addressing part B of the ABC test demonstrate the need for the Commission to look carefully at the individual facts of each case to determine whether the work at issue is outside the usual course the employer’s business. Neither opinion uses the phrases “integral part of’ or “merely incidental to,” relying instead on other phrases to describe the connection between the services rendered and the business of the putative employer. In Gerber Dental Ctr. Corp. v. Maine Unemployment Ins. Comm’n,
[¶ 13] Similarly, in Outdoor World Corp. v. Department of Labor, Maine Unemployment Ins. Comm’n,
[¶ 14] Here, regardless of the descriptive language chosen, there is competent evidence in the record to support the Commission’s conclusion that Withee’s timber harvesting work was. not outside the usual course of McPherson’s timber management and marketing business. McPherson’s business encompassed locating, obtaining, and selling timber at a profit. McPherson advertised its interest in buying timber from other landowners and held itself out as a harvester and marketer of the timber. McPherson was then involved with the harvesting both before and after the felling of the trees. Withee’s activities were directed solely at assisting McPherson ' in obtaining the timber. McPherson set specifications for Withee’s work and oversaw that work to ensure that the specifications were met. It was McPherson, and not the landowner, who paid Withee for his work. Withee had no contact with the landowner and assumed that McPherson owned the property. Finally, McPherson sold the timber Withee harvested to various paper companies and sawmills, deriving a significant portion of its profit from those sales.
[¶ 15] Although many different business relationship may be formed in the course of harvesting and selling timber, the evidence in this record does not compel a result contrary to the Commission’s conclusion that Withee’s work was not outside the usual course of McPherson’s business pursuant to section 1043(11)(E)(2).
II. Place of Business
[¶ 16] McPherson next argues that the Mariaville property where Withee har
[¶ 17] We reject McPherson’s argument that an employer’s place of business is limited to the location of its home or central office. If the employer has a significant and business-related presence at the location in dispute, it may be found to have a place of business there. See Clayton v. State,
[¶ 18] The record here does not compel a result contrary to the Commission’s conclusion that Withee’s work was not performed outside all of the places of McPherson’s business. McPherson contracted directly with the landowner to harvest timber from the Mariaville property and had representatives on the property during the harvesting to assure compliance with that contract. Its contractual relationship with the landowner, its interest in the timber on the property, and its physical presence on the property support the Commission’s conclusion that, while Withee was harvesting timber at the Mariaville property, the property was within McPherson’s business territory and was therefore a place of McPherson’s business pursuant to section 1043(11)(E)(2).
The entry is:
Judgment affirmed.
Notes
. While the record contains both agreements, no evidence was produced indicating which of the two was used in the instant case.
. This language from section 19(e), which defines "employing unit” in the context of Maine's Unemployment Compensation Law, has remained the same through R.S. ch. 24, § 19 (1944) and R.S. ch. 29, § 3 (1954), and is now codified at 26 M.R.S.A. § 1043(10) (1988).
The similar language of the ABC test, which defines "employment” in the context of Maine’s Unemployment Compensation Law, was also first enacted in P.L.1935, ch. 192, § 19(g)(6), has also remained the same through the 1944 and 1954 Revisions, and is now codified at 26 M.R.S.A. § 1043(11)(E).
. Both Clayton and Miller involved factual scenarios compellingly similar to the facts of this case. In Clayton, a lumber-mill proprietor received a lease to harvest timber from state-owned land and then engaged a number of woodsman to harvest the timber and deliver it to his mill. See Clayton,