Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance v. Tuggle

Steele Hays, Judge.

This is a workers’ compensation case. Claimant, Jerry Tuggle, was an airplane pilot and was employed by Powell Brothers Farms, Inc., to fly an airplane over rice fields for the purpose of frightening off blackbirds. Powell Brothers Farms, Inc. carried workers’ compensation insurance on its farming operation.

On August 28, 1976, the plane crashed and claimant sustained an injury to his back. A claim was made for Workers’ Compensation benefits which the carrier denied on the basis that claimant was not an employee but an independent contractor. The carrier also denied that…