Nyland v. Department of Labor & Industries

This appeal presents the sole question whether a person engaged in the business of fishing (which is not covered by the workmen’s compensation act) who hires others to labor in the extrahazardous employment of building a boat for use in his fishing business, is an employer within the meaning of the act.

Since 1912 or 1913, William E. Melzer has been a commercial fisherman. In 1944 and 1945, with the aid of carpenters, shipwrights, and other workmen employed by him, he built an eighty-foot seine boat, the Windward, for use in his fishing operations. Plaintiff was one of the workmen employed in…