SAIF Corp. v. Ward (In re Ward)

307 Or.App. 337

477 P.3d 429

In the MATTER OF the COMPENSATION OF Carl S. WARD, Claimant.

SAIF Corporation and Robert S. Murray, Petitioners,

v.Carl S. Ward, Respondent.

A171025

Court of Appeals of Oregon.

Argued and submitted February 25, 2020

October 21, 2020

David L. Runner, Salem, argued the cause for petitioners. On the briefs was Julie Masters.

Craig T. Miller argued the cause and filed the brief for respondent.

Before Lagesen, Presiding Judge, and Powers, Judge, and Kamins, Judge.

KAMINS, J.

This workers’ compensation case presents the question of whether a truck driver (claimant) who sustained injuries while driving a truck that he leased from a trucking company for the sole purpose of driving for that company is a "subject worker" such that the company must provide workers’ compensation insurance coverage for his injuries. Petitioners, SAIF Corporation (SAIF) and Robert S. Murray, the owner of Bob Murray Trucking (BMT), a for-hire carrier, seek review of a final order by the Workers’ Compensation Board in which the board concluded that claimant, a driver for BMT, was a subject worker of BMT under the Workers’ Compensation Act, ORS chapter 656. For the reasons described below, we affirm the board's order.

We review the board's order pursuant to ORS 656.298(7)¹ and ORS 183.482(8).² Akins v. SAIF , 286 Or. App. 70, 71, 398 P.3d 463, rev. den. , 362 Or. 94, 405 P.3d 155 (2017). Accordingly, we review the board's order for legal error, and we state the facts in accordance with the board's factual findings, which adopted the earlier findings of an administrative law judge (ALJ) and are not disputed.

Claimant worked as a truck driver for BMT between May and August 2016. BMT is a for-hire carrier in the business of hauling wood, steel, and general commodities.

In order to begin driving for BMT, claimant leased a tractor truck from BMT and signed an "Operator Lease/ Independent Contractor Agreement" that allowed claimant to drive the truck solely for BMT. The agreement provided that claimant "has not acquired, nor will [he] acquire by this acceptance of the Lease Agreement, any proprietary right, security interests or equity in the lease vehicle." Under the agreement, lease payments, occupational insurance fees, and maintenance fees were deducted from claimant's paychecks.³ Claimant was compensated at a rate of 37 cents per mile. Claimant also signed an acknowledgment of receipt of a BMT "Driver's Manual," which included safety rules, rules of personal conduct and dress, and restrictions, including a prohibition on carrying passengers without BMT's permission.

BMT required that claimant drive prescribed routes and monitored his progress, inquiring with him if he deviated from his route or made an unscheduled stop at a rest stop. BMT paid for, among others, the following expenses for the truck: liability insurance; fuel; and equipment, including a radio, tools, flashlight, camera, and fire extinguisher. BMT placed its logo on the truck to "identify the equipment as being in [BMT's] service" and prohibited claimant from placing his own signage on it. For the duration of the lease, claimant was entitled to use the vehicle "only in interstate trucking in the United States on behalf of [BMT] * * *." BMT also reserved the right to "disqualify any driver provided by [claimant] who is determined to be unsafe by [BMT] in [BMT]’s sole discretion."

Claimant suffered severe injuries while hauling a load when he had braking difficulties that caused his truck to flip over. SAIF denied his claim for injuries, relying on ORS 656.027(15), which provides that a claimant "who has an ownership or leasehold interest in equipment and who furnishes, maintains and operates [it]" is not a subject worker. SAIF concluded that, because claimant had a leasehold interest in the truck and furnished, maintained, and operated it, he was not a subject worker under the statute. An ALJ agreed with SAIF's contention and upheld the denial. The Worker's Compensation Board reversed, determining that claimant was not able to "furnish" his truck to BMT because he did not have a transferable interest in it, and claimant was therefore a subject worker under ORS 656.027(15).

On judicial review, the parties present competing arguments about what ORS 656.027(15) means. The legislature's intended meaning of ORS 656.027(15) and whether claimant is a subject worker of BMT is an issue of statutory construction. In resolving that question, we consider the text, context, and any helpful legislative history of the statute, keeping in mind that "there is no more persuasive evidence of the intent of the legislature than the words by which the legislature undertook to give expression to its wishes." State v. Gaines , 346 Or. 160, 171, 206 P.3d 1042 (2009) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

Generally, "all workers" are subject workers unless an exemption applies. ORS 656.027. The exemption contained in ORS 656.027(15) has two requirements: (1) the worker must have "an ownership or leasehold interest in equipment," and (2) the worker must "furnish[ ], maintain[ ], and operate[ ]" that equipment. The statute's conjunctive structure suggests that those two requirements are separate and independent from each other—that is, that the ownership or leasehold interest in the equipment must be in some way distinct from the furnishing, maintaining, and operating of that equipment. See Crystal Communications, Inc. v. Dept. of Rev. , 353 Or. 300, 311, 297 P.3d 1256 (2013) ("As a general rule, we construe a statute in a manner that gives effect, if possible, to all its provisions."); Blachana, LLC v. Bureau of Labor and Industries , 354 Or. 676, 692, 318 P.3d 735 (2014) ("[R]edundancy, of course, is a consequence that this court must avoid if possible.").

Thus, the resolution of this case requires us to determine the meaning of each of the requirements of ORS 656.027(15), keeping in mind that they mean different things. Because there is no dispute that claimant "operates" and "maintains" the truck, the critical terms are "leasehold interest"⁴ and "furnish." In order to be a nonsubject worker, claimant must both "furnish" the truck and have a "leasehold interest."

The parties here provide competing interpretations of those requirements. Both parties focus their arguments on the meaning of the term "furnish." Claimant contends that "furnish" means that a driver must have a transferable interest in the equipment in order to furnish it. Petitioners, in turn, argue that "the equipment is furnished when it is made available to haul the loads dispatched by the carrier, and no transferable interest is required." As explained below, the definition of furnish, by itself, does not resolve the inquiry, but rather must be construed in conjunction with the "leasehold interest."

Although "furnish" is not defined in Oregon chapter 656, there is no indication in the applicable or surrounding provisions that the legislature intended that term to have any meaning other than its ordinary one. "Furnish" is used in ORS 656.027(15) as a transitive verb, so the most relevant definition is "to provide or supply with what is needed, useful, or desirable: EQUIP[.]" Webster's Third New Int'l Dictionary 923 (unabridged ed. 2002); see State v. Glushko , 351 Or. 297, 311, 266 P.3d 50 (2011) ("[W]hen consulting dictionaries for the ordinary meanings of statutory terms, it is important to examine the definition of the part of speech actually used in the statute at issue."). According to the plain meaning of the term, then, a driver "furnishes" equipment for the purposes of ORS 656.027(15) by providing or supplying that equipment to a for-hire carrier. There is no dispute that the driver here provides or supplies equipment to BMT (the truck that BMT already supplied to him) for purposes of hauling loads. However, our inquiry does not end there.

The term "leasehold interest" is also not defined generally in chapter 656. See ORS 656.005. Because "leasehold interest" is a term of art in secured transactions, we look to the specialized meaning it has in the relevant field. See Comcast Corp. v. Dept. of Rev. , 356 Or. 282, 296, 337 P.3d 768 (2014) (We determine the meaning of a term of art that is drawn from a specialized field "based on how [the term is] used and understood in the specialized field, trade, or profession, and using sources that best accord with the legislature's intent."). We have previously considered where to look to define terms relating to leasing of trucks. In Delta Logistics, Inc. v. Employment Dept. Tax Section , 279 Or. App. 498, 507, 379 P.3d 783 (2016), aff'd , 361 Or. 821, 401 P.3d 779 (2017), we were tasked with determining the meaning of "lease" in the context of a for-hire carrier's contention that it was not the "employer" of its owner-operator truck drivers for the purposes of unemployment insurance taxes under ORS 657.047, another statute that did not provide a specific definition. The Employment Department argued that ORS 72A.1020 and ORS 72A.1030(1)⁵ direct us to use the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) definition of "lease" for any transaction that creates a lease unless "context requires otherwise." The carrier argued that context did in fact require otherwise, because federal and state regulations specific to the trucking industry contained their own definitions. Ultimately, we concluded that it did not matter which definition we used, because the definitions were consistent with one another. Id . at 508, 379 P.3d 783.

The UCC definition provides that a "leasehold interest" is "the interest of the lessor or the lessee under a lease contract," and a "lease" is "a transfer of the right to possession and use of goods for a term in return for consideration." ORS 72A.1030(1)(j), (m). Trucking-industry-specific regulations provide that a leasehold interest confers upon the lessee "the right to exclusive possession, use, and control of the leased vehicle." Delta Logistics, Inc. ,...