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Faulkner v. Mayfield3/25/1988
GREY, P.J.
This is an appeal from the Court of Common Pleas of Lawrence County. The appellant appeals from an administrative body that denied his participation in the Workers' Compensation Fund. We reverse and remand.
The appellant, Rusty Faulkner, was found guilty of driving an automobile under the influence of alcohol, a misdemeanor. The Lawrence County Municipal Court sentenced him to a jail sentence and fined him three hundred fifty dollars. Since Faulkner could not pay his fine, he entered a work program to satisfy the debt.
The court assigned Faulkner to chop wood for a private individual. He suffered a serious injury, amputation of part of his right index finger, which required extensive medical attention. Faulkner applied for workers' compensation benefits, but was denied participation in the fund. The district hearing officer found:
"After full consideration of the issue it is the finding of the District Hearing Officer that the claimant was not an employee of the named employer , since the claimant was not hired to be an employee of the Municipal Court, and there never was a contract of hire, either expressed or implied. Rather, the claimant was ordered by the Court to serve time in jail and pay a fine as a result of his criminal activities; and in his failure to pay the fine, the Court ordered that he participate in work detail under the direction of the Bailiff to discharge his criminal obligations, fines, and court costs.
"This District Hearing Officer further finds that during the time of the injury, the claimant was still under the direction and order of the Court for his criminal wrongdoings, and that a certain amount of time had to be served in the work detail to discharge his fines and court costs. The claimant was injured while serving his time on the work detail, and at no time did thsMunicipal Court hire the claimant to be an employee of the Court.
"It is therefore ordered that this claim be disallowed in its entirety." (Emphasis sic.)
After the regional board of review affirmed the district hearing officer's findings, Faulkner appealed. The Court of Common Pleas of Lawrence County granted summary judgment for the Industrial Commission. Faulkner filed a timely appeal.
We will consider Faulkner's assignments of error jointly.
"First Assignment of Error:
"The trial court erred by granting summary judgment concerning the issue of whether there was an employment relationship between appellant and appellee, City of Ironton, Ohio.
"Second Assignment of Error:
"The court erred in determining as a manner of law that no employment relationship existed."
Since the trial court granted summary judgment, our task on review is to see if reasonable minds could come to but one conclusion, that Rusty Faulkner's working off his fine by chopping wood did not make him eligible to participate under R.C. Chapter 4123 in the Workers' Compensation Fund.
Appellees have cited two unreported opinions which deny workers' compensation participation to penitentiary inmates, Tyner v. State (Mar. 31, 1981), Marion App. No. 9-80-46, unreported; Schwartz v. Ohio Dept. of Admin. Serv. (June 4, 1981), Richland App. No. CA-1977, unreported. The basic thrust of these opinions is that inmates who work in prison are not employees under R.C. 4123.01 because there is no contractual relationship. Since a prisoner does not have the freedom to contract while incarcerated, there is no consent, consideration or mutuality, the ordinary components of a contract. Tyner, supra, at 4, following Watson v. Indus. Comm. (1966), 1
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