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In re Worker's Compensation of Hepp3/25/1999
OCTOBER TERM, A. D. 1998
Appeal from the District Court of Sheridan County: The Honorable John C. Brackley, Judge
Appellant Karen Hepp (the employee) appeals from the district court's order which affirmed the Office of Administrative Hearings' denial of her claim for worker's compensation benefits.
We affirm.
ISSUES
The employee submits two issues for our review:
1. Whether the Hearing Examiner applied an incorrect standard of law and burden of proof?
2. Whether substantial evidence supports the Hearing Examiner's findings and Conclusions?
FACTS
Community Media, Inc. (the employer) hired the employee in early December of 1995 to work as a sales representative for its radio station. Peggy Anderson and Jerry Walker managed the radio station, and, because of the employee's good reputation in the sales industry, they had been trying for some time to get her to come to work for them. Although the employee could have been paid on a commission basis at any time, she and the employer decided that she would receive a salary for the first three months of her employment and that thereafter she would work on a commission basis.
As a sales representative for the radio station, the employee was required to regularly visit with contacts for the purposes of developing new customers and maintaining and increasing the advertising frequency of existing clients. To meet these requirements, sales representatives were expected to travel on occasion to the contacts' places of business. The sales representatives were even given monthly $50 travel allowances for such purpose.
The employee made it a practice to meet with her clients at their places of business to learn more about them so that she could develop effective advertising campaigns. This was often accomplished outside the usual Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. business hours.
When the employee began working for the employer, she was assigned the Sheridan Livestock Sale Barn account. Gib Lloyd owned the sale barn. The employee claims that her managers instructed her to do what she needed to do in order to keep the account because Lloyd had threatened to discontinue advertising with the radio station. The employee remembers her managers being concerned that Lloyd would transfer his business to the station where the previous sales representative had gone to work and that they suggested she contact Lloyd as soon as possible.
The employee contacted Lloyd, and they met for breakfast. They talked about his business, and the employee developed advertising ideas for the sale barn that pleased Lloyd. The employee testified that, a few days later, Lloyd invited her to come to his property to ride the horses that he was planning to sell at a horse sale following the regular livestock sale on December 19, 1995. The employee claims that Lloyd asked her to ride his horses in the horse sale. She remembers that she agreed to participate in the horse sale and that, because she was reluctant to ride an unfamiliar horse through the ring, Lloyd invited her to come to the sale barn on the Saturday before the sale to familiarize herself with the horses.
The radio station managers testified that they thought the invitation extended to the employee to ride horses was a personal one and that they did not pressure or require the employee to go riding that Saturday. The employee claims that she had her own horse, which she could have ridden that day if she had wanted to, and that she expressed to her mother and some friends that she felt obligated to go riding with Lloyd so that Lloyd would continue a
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