## Facts

- Mill Street Church of Christ hired member Bill Hogan to paint the church interior; elders anticipated that assistance might be needed.
- The church had previously hired Bill Hogan for similar work and had permitted him to hire his brother, Samuel J. Hogan, as a helper.
- Bill Hogan worked alone until reaching the baptistry area, a high and difficult portion to paint, and concluded that he needed help.
- Bill Hogan discussed hiring a helper with an elder; they discussed another potential helper, but Bill was not instructed that he had to hire that person or anyone else.
- Bill Hogan asked Samuel Hogan to help, explained the job and pay, and Samuel agreed.
- Samuel began work and, about thirty minutes later, fell from a ladder while painting and broke his arm.
- After the accident, the church’s treasurer paid Bill Hogan for hours worked on the project, including the time Samuel worked.
- The church supplied the tools for the work and permitted purchases of supplies on the church’s account.

## Issues

1. Whether Bill Hogan, as the church’s agent for the painting job, had implied authority to hire Samuel Hogan as a helper.
2. Whether Samuel Hogan therefore qualified as an employee of the church for workers’ compensation purposes at the time of his injury.

## Decision

- The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the reorganized Workers’ Compensation Board awarding benefits.
- The court held that Bill Hogan acted as the church’s agent in performing the painting work.
- The court held that Bill Hogan had implied authority to hire Samuel Hogan as a helper.
- Because Samuel was hired under that implied authority, he was an employee of the church when injured and was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits.

## Legal Principles

- Implied authority is actual authority proven circumstantially from facts showing the principal intended to confer powers necessary to accomplish the agent’s assigned task.
- A prior course of dealing in which the principal allowed the agent to take similar actions is strong circumstantial evidence of implied authority.
- When the nature of the work reasonably requires assistance and the principal knows of that need but places no express limits on the agent’s ability to obtain help, authority to hire assistance may be implied.
- An agent’s implied authority to hire a helper can make the helper the principal’s employee for workers’ compensation liability purposes.

## Conclusion

The court upheld workers’ compensation benefits by treating the painter’s ability to hire needed assistance as within his implied authority, supported by prior practice and the church’s acquiescence, thereby making the injured helper the church’s employee.


Mill St. Church of Christ & State Auto. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Hogan, 785 S.W.2d 263 (Ky. Ct. App. 1990)