Brewer Logging v. Employment Division

The sole issue is whether certain individuals were employes of petitioner, thus making petitioner liable for unemployment compensation taxes, or whether those individuals were instead independent contractors.

Petitioner was a logging company which had a contract to build logging roads onto a timber owner’s land, fall and buck timber, and transport it to designated landing sites. Petitioner hired Thomas Mealue and Joel Clouse to do the falling and bucking for him. Mealue and Clouse furnished their own transportation and much of their own equipment, including chain saws. They also employed Ron…