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trucking company. After analysis based on the facts and
circumstances in the instant case, evidence that TLC leased a
driver-employee to a trucking company client for which such
driver-employee had worked before such trucking company client
entered into an exclusive lease agreement with TLC did not assist
the Court in determining whether TLC or such trucking company
client was the employer of each driver-employee whom TLC leased
to such trucking company client.
With respect to petitioner’s argument that, in determining
whether TLC was the employer of each driver-employee whom it
leased to its trucking company clients, the Court gave improper
weight to certain facts, petitioner advances several additional
assertions with respect to certain common-law employment factors,
which we address below.
Hiring of Each Driver-Employee
Petitioner asserts:
The Court found on the hiring factor that TLC had
the sole and absolute authority to hire each driver-
employee. * * * This finding was based on the Lease
Agreement, which gave TLC the “sole and absolute right
to hire.”
Beech Trucking is to the contrary. The Court here
overlooked the conclusion in Beech Trucking that an
agreement of the parties would not control if the
parties’ conduct showed otherwise. Here the parties’
Stipulation was that when a trucking company entered a
Lease Agreement with TLC, “the Trucking Company would
terminate all of its existing drivers’ employment. TLC
would then generally hire all of the drivers who passed
its approval process and assigned them [back] to the
Trucking Company.” * * *
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