Charlottesville Music Center, Inc. v. McCray
Virginia Supreme Court
205 S.E.2d 674, 215 Va. 31, 205 (1974)
- Written by Serena Lipski, JD
Facts
Jeffrey A. McCray was 15 years old when he was killed helping his friends install shelving at the Charlottesville Music Center, Inc. (Music Center) (defendant). Jeffrey’s friend, Calvin (Chip) Jarvis, Jr., was at the store installing the shelving because Chip’s father had sold the shelving to the store. Jeffrey and another friend came to the store to help Chip. The store manager was aware that Chip had two friends helping and tacitly approved. The Music Center did not make any promise to compensate any of the boys for their work, and none of the boys expected to receive any compensation for their work. While operating a wooden cargo hoist, Jeffrey and the hoist fell to the Music Center’s basement, and Jeffrey was killed. The administrator of Jeffrey’s estate, Ollie T. McCray (plaintiff), filed a wrongful-death suit against the Music Center. Ollie was awarded a $25,000 judgment. The Music Center appealed, arguing that Jeffrey was a Music Center employee under an implied contract of hire because the Music Center had the right to control Jeffrey’s performance, and therefore Ollie’s exclusive remedy was workers’ compensation, not a wrongful-death suit.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (l’Anson, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
