37th judicial district, specially presiding,
This case comes before the court on an appeal from an order of the Workmen’s
1. Does the claimant, Lecker, come under section 302 (6) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act as a “laborer” or an “assistant” hired by an employee or contractor for the performance upon the premises of an employer of a part of his regular business as entrusted to an employee or contractor ?
2. Whether or not a regular employee of one person, who was loaned to another for a particular employment, is to be dealt with as the servant of the man to whom he is lent or as a servant of the one who loaned him?
The referee’s first finding of fact is as follows: “That Louis Lecker was injured on July 25, 1925, while at work in the employ of T. J. Valentine, as contractor, engaged at the Plant of the Nilco Lamp Works at St. Marys, Pa.; that E. E. Raygor, a general superintendent for Stanley M. Stader, another
The Workmen’s Compensation Board did not modify this finding of fact and, as the action of the board is final on the fact, we must accept this finding as the arrangement made between Stader and Valentine. Section 302 (6) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act provides, in part, as follows: “After Dec. 31, 1915, an employer who permits the entry upon premises occupied by him or under his control of a laborer or an assistant hired by an employee or contractor for the performance upon such premises of a part of the employer’s regular business entrusted to that employer or contractor, shall be conclusively presumed to have agreed to pay to such laborer or assistant compensation in accordance with the provisions of article III, unless the employer shall post in a conspicuous place upon the premises where the laborer’s or assistant’s work is done a notice of his intention not to pay such compensation,” etc.
The board, in deciding this ease, held Leeker was not a “laborer” or an “assistant” within the meaning of this section, for the reason that the work he was doing was not “entrusted to that employer or contractor” (referring to Stader). In this we believe that the board was in error. It certainly was a part of Valentine’s regular business to excavate as he was doing, and in carrying on this excavation by some power other than what the trucks provided. He had the “crab” for that purpose. When he loaned the “crab” to Stader, he contracted with him that Stader should furnish some other means of pulling the trucks out of the excavation. Stader furnished him with a man and horse for that purpose, and in doing so, Stader undertook the performance of that part of the regular business of Valentine that had formerly been taken care of by the use of the “crab.” It is our opinion that the claimant, Leeker, was a laborer hired by a contractor for the performance on the premises of Valentine of a part of his regular business entrusted to Stader under the contract by which he obtained the use of a piece of machinery known as a “crab,” and no notice having been served upon him by Valentine stating that he would not be responsible for compensation for injury to him, that, consequently, under this section, Valentine is liable for the payment of compensation. Having determined that the facts in this case bring the claimant within the provisions of section 302 (6) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, it is unnecessary to consider the second question of the liability for compensation to an employer loaned by one employer to another. However, as the referee in the finding of facts has used the term “loaned” in describing the relations between Stader and Valentine, it might be well to consider briefly this relationship. In the case of Tarr v. Hecla Coal Co., 265 Pa. 519, it was held by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in an opinion by Justice Walling, that: “Where one person lends a servant to another for a particular employment, the servant, for anything done in that particular employment, must be dealt with as a servant to the man to whom he is lent, although he remains a general servant of the man who lent him.”
This was the case of an experienced fire-fighter loaned by one coal company to another to assist in extinguishing a fire in the mine. We do not believe that the facts in this case are analogous to the facts in the case of Tarr v. Hecla Coal Company. In that case the employee was loaned by the H. C.
We find it necessary to sustain the first, second, third, fourth and twelfth exceptions to the order of the Workmen’s Compensation Board reversing the award of Referee G. Scott Smith and reinstate the award.
Now, June 24, 1925, in accordance with the foregoing opinion, the order of the Workmen’s Compensation Board, reversing and setting aside the award of G. Scott Smith, is reversed and the appeal sustained and judgment is directed to be entered for the claimant, Lewis Lecker, and against T. J. Valentine and the State Workmen’s Insurance Fund in the sum of $5000, being compensation at the rate of $12 per week for a period of 4161 weeks, beginning Aug. 4, 1923, payable weekly.
Prom W. E. Shaffer, Kook Haven, Pa.
