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Republic Indemnity Co. v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board and Melvin Dickens12/13/1982
substantial factor in causing an individual to drive an automobile off the road.)
We acknowledge that generally the fact of intoxication standing alone is not a sufficient basis for denying workers' compensation benefits. There must be proof by the employer that the intoxication was a substantial factor in causing the injury. (Smith v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd., supra.)
Further, we recognize that there are many types of industrial accidents in which the sobriety or lack thereof on the part of the worker would be irrelevant.
On the other hand, in the case of a slip and fall such as the one at bench or any accident not involving external trauma or force but involving only the reactions, coordination or muscular control of the applicant, intoxication which substantially impairs those functions must necessarily be viewed as a substantial factor in causing the accident.
The spirit and purpose of the workers' compensation scheme is to impose on the employer , as a cost of doing business, the duty to compensate employees for industrial injury regardless of fault on either side. This relieves the employee of the necessity of proving misconduct on the part of the employer and lack of contributory or comparative negligence on the part of the employee. The law is designed to protect the worker from the economic hardships of industrial injury.
That purpose is not served by compensating an employee for self-inflicted injury simply because the injury is sustained on the employer 's premises. (Lab. Code, § 3600.) An injury caused by the employee 's voluntary intoxication is viewed as self-inflicted.
The Board's decision in the instant case cannot be squared with the objectives of the law. Where an employee claiming to be sober simply falls to the ground and injures himself and the employer establishes that the employee in fact has a blood alcohol of .429, and that such a level of blood alcohol would substantially impair the employee's ability to stand and walk, what more can be reasonably required of the employer? In our opinion, nothing.
The decision of the appeals board is annulled and the case remanded to the board for proceedings consistent with the views expressed herein.
Disposition
The decision of the appeals board is annulled and the case remanded to the board for proceedings consistent with the views expressed herein.
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