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Hurdle and Son v. Holloway10/5/1999
of the "going and coming" rule and made an injury received by Holloway while in transit a job-related injury. Thus, if Holloway is to be denied compensation on this claim, it must be upon some theory other than this one.
V.
Issue Three: Importation of the Risk
. A workers' compensation claim may be denied in those circumstances where an employee purposely creates some risk at the job that is unrelated to the work expected of that employee and the employee is injured in a way that is attributable to that non-job-related risk. Larson, supra, § 9.03. Mississippi case law recognized the "imported risk" bar to a compensation claim in a case where an insurance agent accidentally shot himself with his own shotgun, which he carried with him in his car, as he waited to carry a customer to a doctor's examination. While he was waiting on the customer, the agent retrieved his gun to shoot a crow and accidentally shot himself in the foot. Earnest v. Interstate Life & Accident Ins. Co., 238 Miss. 648, 119 So. 2d 782, 782-83 (1960). In another case, an employee shot and killed himself with his own pistol while waiting on his employer 's premises for the beginning of the annual Christmas dinner sponsored by the employer. The supreme court held that the employee 's claim was barred by the imported risk doctrine because the employee's possession of the pistol had no connection to his job. Space Steel Corp. v. Jones, 248 So. 2d 807, 808 (Miss. 1971).
. Of course, it is fundamental to the application of this defense that the particular risk actually play some part in causing the employee 's injury. This Court is prepared to concede that an employee who, without authorization, brings intoxicants to the job site, proceeds to share those intoxicants with other employees, and is subsequently injured in a circumstance directly traceable to the alcohol-impaired condition of a fellow employee could properly be denied compensation for that injury under an "imported risk" defense.
. The problem faced by Hurdle and Son in this instance lies in the matter of causation. There is little doubt that Sam Hurdle was in an impaired state at the time of the vehicular accident since he admitted to consuming at least six beers and the evidence indicated his blood alcohol content level to be at .158 when he was tested shortly after the accident. However, Sam Hurdle testified that the actual cause of the accident was a sudden and unexpected equipment failure on the truck in the form of a tire blow-out that caused him to lose control of the vehicle. The Commission found as a matter of fact that this equipment failure was the cause of the accident and not Sam Holloway's degree of intoxication.
. While the members of this Court, viewing the same evidence, might easily draw a different Conclusion from the evidence as to the true cause of the accident, we are reminded of our limited authority to overturn a finding of fact by the Commission that is supported by substantial evidence. Natchez Equip. Co., 623 So. 2d at 273. Hurdle and Son attacks Sam Hurdle's credibility by suggesting that he is attempting to blame the accident on equipment failure as opposed to his own impaired state in an effort to assuage his guilt for causing Holloway's substantial injuries. This, it may be conceded, is an argument that has some persuasive force. However, the proper place to advance that argument was before the Commission sitting in its role as fact-finder. The Commission, apparently after giving due consideration to Hurdle and Son's attack on Sam Hurdle's believability, nevertheless elected to give substantial credence to his explanation of the accident. That is a matter entrusted to the Commission b
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