Trejo v. Ken Corbett Farms, LLC

Facts

Yesenea Trejo filed a lawsuit seeking to recover for injuries sustained in a vehicular accident involving a bus owned by Alberto & Sons, LLC and driven by its employee, Jose Ivan Hernandez. Trejo argued that Ken Corbett Farms, LLC was liable under a joint venture theory, claiming that Ken Corbett Farms and Alberto & Sons were engaged in a joint business enterprise when the accident occurred.

In late 2016, Ken Corbett Farms entered into an agreement with Alberto & Sons, under which Alberto & Sons provided farm labor through the federal H-2A guestworker visa program. Alberto & Sons was responsible for recruiting, housing, and transporting the workers, while Ken Corbett Farms determined work schedules and paid Alberto & Sons per worker, per hour. Although Ken Corbett Farms initially represented in writing that it would provide worker transportation, Alberto & Sons ultimately provided transportation using its own buses.

On May 27, 2017, Hernandez was transporting H-2A workers near a housing facility when the accident occurred. Trejo alleged that Ken Corbett Farms was in a joint venture with Alberto & Sons, making it vicariously liable for the negligence of Hernandez. The trial court granted summary judgment to Ken Corbett Farms, finding that Trejo failed to present evidence of a joint undertaking for profit. Trejo appealed.

Issue & Holding

The issue in this case was whether Ken Corbett Farms and Alberto & Sons were engaged in a joint venture such that Ken Corbett Farms could be held liable for the accident.

Holding: No. The court held that Trejo failed to establish a joint undertaking for profit, as the relationship between Ken Corbett Farms and Alberto & Sons demonstrated only business interdependence, not shared profits and losses.

Reasoning

The court held that Ken Corbett Farms and Alberto & Sons did not meet the legal definition of a joint venture, which requires (1) a joint undertaking for profit and (2) mutual control over the business enterprise. Relying on Kissun v. Humana, Inc., 267 Ga. 419 (1997), the court emphasized that business interdependency alone is insufficient to establish a joint venture.

The court pointed to Lafontaine v. Alexander, 343 Ga. App. 672 (2017), which involved a landowner hiring a contractor to prepare land for development. In Lafontaine, the court rejected a joint venture theory because the contractor was merely hired for a specific task and did not share in the landowner’s profits or losses. Similarly, Ken Corbett Farms paid Alberto & Sons for a service—providing labor—but the two businesses did not share profits, expenses, or financial risk.

The court distinguished Southern Pine Products v. Waller, 122 Ga. App. 288 (1970), where the facts suggested a closer financial relationship between parties. The court noted that Southern Pine Products lacked meaningful analysis of the “joint undertaking for profit” requirement and disapproved any interpretation of that case suggesting that business interdependency alone is sufficient to create a joint venture.

Because there was no evidence that Ken Corbett Farms and Alberto & Sons shared financial risk or had a mutual right to control operations, the court affirmed summary judgment in favor of Ken Corbett Farms.

Conclusion

The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s ruling, holding that Ken Corbett Farms and Alberto & Sons were not engaged in a joint venture. The relationship between the two companies amounted to a contractor-client arrangement rather than a joint undertaking for profit, and Trejo failed to present sufficient evidence to hold Ken Corbett Farms liable under a joint venture theory.

If you have a case where you want to try to bring a claim under a joint venture theory, this is an important case to read. It establishes the requirements for showing a joint venture, and illustrates that business interdependency alone is not sufficient to prove a joint venture. 

Citation: Trejo v. Ken Corbett Farms, LLC, No. A24A0709 (Ga. Ct. App. October 30, 2024)