Van Horn v. Industrial Acc. Com

In Van Horn v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1963) 219 Cal. App. 2d 457, a student athlete received financial assistance from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in exchange for playing football. Some of the money paid to the student was in the form of an athletic scholarship, which was funded by a booster club. The student was killed in an airplane crash while returning from an out-of-state football game against Bowling Green University. The student's heirs applied for workers' compensation death benefits on the theory that the decedent was an employee of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. ( Id. at pp. 460-463) The Court of Appeal held that the student had an employment contract with the college and that his heirs were entitled to workers' compensation benefits. ( Id. at pp. 464-468.) The decision was premised on the theory the student's agreement to play football for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was a contract to "render services" within the meaning of workers' compensation law. ( Id. at pp. 465-466.) However, Van Horn also stated: "It cannot be said as a matter of law that every student who receives an 'athletic scholarship' and plays on the school athletic team is an employee of the school. To so hold would be to thrust upon every student who so participates an employee status to which he has never consented and which would deprive him of the valuable right to sue for damages. Only where the evidence establishes a contract of employment is such inference reasonably to be drawn. " ( Id. at p. 467.)