# Brown v. Industrial Accident Commission

> California Supreme Court · February 28, 1917 · 174 Cal. 457

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/3297802

## Case

- **Full name:** HERBERT F. BROWN, Petitioner, v. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Et Al., Respondents; CHARLES E. SKIDMORE, Applicant
- **Court:** California Supreme Court
- **Decided:** February 28, 1917
- **Citations:** 174 Cal. 457; 163 P. 664; 1917 Cal. LEXIS 819
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Shaw
- **Judges:** Lawlor, Shaw
- **Cited by:** 32 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/3297802

## Opinion text

*462
SHAW, J., Concurring.
Skidmore was engaged by Brown to sell real property. His contract was that he should devote his whole time to that service. At the time he was injured he was acting under Brown’s special instructions to go to Ukiah with Wellock to continue his services there. While on that trip he was injured. I am satisfied that during that trip, at least, he was in the service of Brown under a contract of hire, within the spirit as well as the letter of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. The fact that his compensation was to be a commission on sales made is immaterial. It was none the less a contract of hire. On this ground I concur in the opinion of Justice Lawlor.
I am not satisfied that a person who is employed to sell real estate on commission and who chooses his own time, place, and manner of seeking purchasers, and who pays his own expenses, would be an employee of his principal in the sense of that act, and I express no opinion on that branch of the case.
Melvin, J., concurred.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/3297802. Public record. Not legal advice.