Durham Land Co. v. Couey

This is a workmen’s compensation case. Frank Couey, the claimant, suffered a total disability which would entitle him under the evidence to $7.50 per week for 350 weeks. The real issue before the Department of Industrial Relations was whether or not the claimant, at the time he was injured, was an employee of the Durham Land Company, or an employee of an alleged lessee or independent contractor of the mine where the injury occurred. The Durham Land Company owned several thousand acres of coal-mining land in Dad'e and Walker Counties. In 1930 it leased all of this land and mining machinery to…