Should drunk man who fell from ladder receive comp?

Safety insight: If you think that a crew member might be impaired by drugs or alcohol, remove the person from the workplace right away and send him or her home. You don’t want someone suffering an injury due to substance abuse.

What happened: A man was assigned to move materials from an elevated surface to the ground using a ladder. Normally, the task required two crew members, but the worksite was busy, so the employee was told to handle the job by himself. As a result, no one was holding the ladder as the staff member descended it.

What people did: The worker lost his balance and fell eight feet to the ground. He survived the incident, but he was badly injured. A toxicology test done at the hospital following the incident revealed that the hurt staffer had a high blood alcohol content level. The injured employee applied for workers’ comp benefits.

Legal challenge: The company opposed the man’s workers’ comp claim, arguing that the employee wasn’t entitled to payments because the law provides an exception when injured crew members are impaired by alcohol.

Result: The company lost. The court said the man was eligible for workers’ comp benefits, noting that he could only be barred from payments if alcohol was the sole cause of his injury. But there were other factors that played a role in the incident, including the fact that he was performing a two-person job by himself as well as the fact that no one was holding the ladder.

The skinny: Courts are usually reluctant to rule in favor of employers that expose their crew members to hazardous conditions because of time pressures.

Citation: Lujan-Espinzo v. Electrical Illuminations by Arnold Inc., Supreme Court of New York, No. CV-23-0458, 10/10/24.

(From the November 12, 2024, issue of Safety Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)