Contractor

The primary meaning is one who contracts; one of the parties to a bargain; he who agrees to do anything for another. One who contracts with a government to furnish provisions or supplies or to do work; one who agrees to construct a portion of a work, as, a raiboad.^ St.-nding alone, or unrestrained by the context or particular words, may mean a sub-contractor or a person remotely engaged under a contract and doing the work, as well as an oiiginal contractor. ^ Although, in a general sense, every one who enters into a contract may be called a " contractor," yet that word, for want of a better, has come to be used with special reference to a person who. in the pursuit of an independent business, undertakes to do specific jobs of work for other persons without submitting himself to their control in respect to the petty details of the work... The true test is to ascertain whether one who renders the service does so in the course of an independent occupation, representing the will of his employer only as to the result of his work and not as to the means by which it is accomplished.. If he submits himself to the discretion of his employer as to the details of the work, fulfilling his will not merely as to the result but also as to the means by which that result is to be attained, the contractor becomes a servant in respect to the work.^ The ordinaiy relation of principal and agent, master and servant, does not subsist in the case of an independent employee or contractor who is not under the immediate direction of the employer.* See Phillips Construction Co. v, Seymour, under CovENAiiT; Respondeat.

1 1 Pars. Contr. 1-5; 2 Bl. Com. 443: 3 Law Quar. Rev. 166-79 (1887). 'Kent V. N. T. Central R. Co., 18 N. Y. 631 (WVj). = Mundt V. Sheboygan, &c. R. Co., 31 Wis. 4.57 (187.'), Dixon, C. J.; 12 N. Y. 631; B How. Pr. 434; 23 Minn. S24. •Shearman & Redf., Neg. §§ 76-77: quoted, 71 Me. 332; 7 Lea, 373; 57 Tfex. 510. See also Carter v. Berlin Mills Co., 58 N. H. 52-58 (1876), cases; Edmundson v. Pittsburgh, &c. R. Co., Ill Pa. 319 (1885); 86 id. 159; 17