Abstract: At approximately at 11:00 a.m. on February 13, 2010, Employee #1 was working as a tree trimmer. He was the sole proprietor of a gardening and tree trimming service that had been in business for more than four years. He performed the duties of a gardener and tree trimmer, including trimming palm trees. Employee #1 was trimming a palm tree to remove dead palm fronds. Employee #1 used climbing gaffs and a climbing belt to climb 50 feet up a palm tree to remove dead fronds. Upon reaching the bottom of the dead fronds, he began to pull them from the tree and drop them to the ground. Employee #1 was working near a witness, who was a gardener working at the home where the palm tree was located. The gardener had been asked by the homeowner to trim three palm trees on the property. The gardener did not do that kind of work, and he had recommended Employee #1 instead. After pulling fronds for about 10 minutes, Employee #1 called out to the gardener to call the fire department. The gardener went to the base of the tree and saw Employee #1 covered in dead palm fronds. He called emergency medical services, and the Pasadena Fire Department responded. Employee #1 had been crushed by palm fronds. He died of asphyxia. His body was transported to the Los Angeles County coroner's office by the coroner. Neither the homeowner nor the gardener provided any supervision, guidance, or support to Employee #1. Employee #1 represented himself as a business and proposed a set price to trim the palm tree, which was under the amount at which he would have been required to have a contractor's license. He provided his own tools and set his own procedures and pace. As a result, the Division did not issue citations, due to a lack of jurisdiction based on a nonexistence of an employer-employee relationship.