Cook v. Prehistoric Ponds, Inc.
Cook v. Prehistoric Ponds, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
Erman Cook, Jr., filed an application for discretionary appeal after the superior court held that his employment with Prehistoric Ponds, Inc. does not come within the Workers’ Compensation Act (“Act”) because the employer is a farm, and farm laborers are not covered by the Act.
Days after Cook’s application was granted, this Court decided another workers’ compensation case involving the question of whether Prehistoric Ponds is a farm and therefore excluded from the Act. In that case, Gill v. Prehistoric Ponds, Inc.,
Prehistoric Ponds is a corporation whose business is to breed, rear, and slaughter alligators.
Cook applied for workers’ compensation benefits. After a hearing, an administrative law judge found that Prehistoric Ponds is a farm and Cook is a farm laborer. Because the Act does not apply to farm laborers, the court held that Cook was precluded from collecting workers’ compensation benefits.
Cook appealed the award to the appellate division of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation (“Board”). The Board vacated the
Prehistoric Ponds appealed from that award. The superior court reversed the award of the Board, finding that Prehistoric Ponds is a farm, and Cook was working as a noncovered farm laborer at the time of the injury.
1. Cook contends the superior court erred in finding that Prehistoric Ponds is not subject to the Act. We agree with Cook.
As is exhaustively explained in Gill, Prehistoric Ponds is not a farm, essentially because alligators are “wildlife,” not “[live]stock ... [or] fur-bearing animals.”
2. Cook’s remaining enumerations of error are rendered moot by our holding in Division 1.
Judgment reversed.
See OCGA§ 34-9-2 (a).
280 Ga. App. 629 (634 SE2d 769) (2006).
(Punctuation omitted.) Id. at 633 (2).
See id.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.