Guarantee Ins. Co. Ltd. Mut. v. Indus. Accident Comm'n

SHENK, J.

The petitioner, the Guarantee Insurance Company, seeks the annulment of an award of the Industrial Accident Commission holding it as the insurance carrier of A1 Novak as general employer, and Mrs. Bessie Novak as special employer, of Lowell Havener, deceased.

Mrs. Bessie Novak and her son, A1 Novak, were engaged in the junk business. Mrs. Novak’s establishment, the Gate City Junk Company, was located at San Bernardino, while her son operated a similar but much smaller business, the Gate City Wrecking Company, in Ontario. Mrs. Novak heard of an auction in Sacramento and requested her son to attend it and buy pipe for her. This he did, paying part of the

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purchase price in cash furnished by his mother, and the remainder by a trade acceptance on which Mrs. Novak was obligor. Mr. Novak then telephoned his mother in San Bernardino to send her men after the material. She stated that she had no truck available at the time and requested him to send his own trucks. He objected to the use of his trucks on a haul of that length, as he did not then have workmen’s compensation insurance. She replied that she had compensation insurance saying, “I can take care of that from this end.” In the same conversation Mrs. Novak asked A1 why he did not have compensation insurance. He informed her that he was short of money, whereupon she assured him that she would lend him the necessary funds and that she would immediately call her insurance agent and request a policy covering his business. This she did on October 14, 1941, paying $195 on account of the premium to Mr. Carroll Strachota, the same agent who had procured the policy issued by the petitioner on Mrs. Novak’s business.

Following the conversation with his mother, Mr. Novak called his manager, a Mr. Renek, in Ontario, asking him to send two men with a truck to transport the material purchased for his mother. The men were to take the material to Ontario where Mr. Renek would give further directions. Mr. Novak instructed Mr. Renek to keep time commencing when the men left until they returned so that it could be charged to his mother’s business.

On October 16, 1941, while Mike Williams and Lowell Havener were hauling the pipe from Sacramento to Ontario, an accident occurred which resulted in the death of Lowell Havener.