National Automobile Insurance v. Industrial Accident Commission

WASTE, C. J. This is a petition to review an award of the Industrial Accident Commission.

The employee, Lome E. Lackey, was a taxi driver employed in San Bernardino. On September 18, 1936, he sustained a compensable injury and filed a claim with the respondent commission. After hearing, the commission found that his employers were Frank Parias and Leslie Mohr, and that petitioner, National Automobile Insurance Company, was the insurance carrier. On rehearing, the commission found that the employers were “Frank Parlas, Leslie Mohr, The Airline Taxi Company, Merrill Parlas, Howard Crawthers, Donald Morris and George Riche”. The employers were released and discharged from liability and an award was made against petitioner as their insurance carrier.

The principal issue is whether petitioner is the insurance carrier of the employer or employers of Lackey. Frank Parlas originally commenced the taxi business under the fictitious name of Air Line Taxi, and later he and his associates also used the name of Red Top Cab Company. Other parties were eventually brought into the organization. Their association was not under any formal articles of partnership, nor was there ever a fixed group of partners directing a specific business. The new parties owned or purchased interests in cars which were operated by drivers under the above-mentioned fictitious names. The particular cab driven [696]by Lackey, the injured employee, was owned jointly by Frank Parlas and Leslie Mohr, and the proceeds from its operation, after expenses were deducted, were divided between Parlas and Mohr. The other parties had no interest in this particular cab. Mohr also acted as general manager of the taxi business under Parlas. Lackey received instructions from Mohr, as well as from Parlas. His cab was marked with signs of “Air Line Taxi’’.

The insurance coverage was obtained through Walter W. Robinson, an authorized agent of petitioner. Only one application was made, in 1932; thereafter all policies were renewals obtained by the agent. Occasionally the agent inquired as to the persons composing the group doing business under the fictitious names and specified these as.the assureds under the policy. In a policy prior to that in force at the time of the accident, the parties were named as “Frank Parlas and Merrill Parlas, doing business as the Red Top Cab Company, the Yellow Cab Company, and Air Line Taxi”. On December 16, 1935, Frank Parlas told the agent that he had sold certain of the cars to others, and requested that the coverage be made to include them. The company then issued its endorsement in the names of “Merrill Parlas, Frank Parlas, Howard Crawthers, Donald Morris and George Riche, jointly and not severally, a copartnership doing business as Red Top Cab Co. and Airline Taxi Co.’’. This policy was renewed by one commencing May 1,4, 1936, with the same parties named. The agent testified that all his dealings were with Frank Parlas; that when he renewed the last policy he inquired as to any changes in the names, but that he had not specifically requested Parlas to let him know when changes occurred in the names of associates or car owners of the cabs.