Appeals court rules intoxication not sole cause of worker’s fall from ladder

A New York appeals court ruled Thursday that a worker who had been intoxicated when he fell eight feet off a ladder is eligible for workers compensation benefits because it’s possible the ladder’s unstableness contributed to the accident.

In affirming an earlier decision by the state Workers’ Compensation Board, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York said that “although intoxication may have contributed to the accident, the record reflects that claimant’s ‘fall can also be attributed to the absence of another employee holding the ladder, a simple misjudgment of footing, the lack of a safety railing on an elevated surface or the inherent risk of working at height.’” The case is Matter of Lujan-Espinzo v. Electrical Illuminations by Arnold Inc.

A toxicology screening performed at the hospital following the incident found that Jose Lujan-Espinzo was severely intoxicated by alcohol at the time of his fall, which caused “severe” injuries to his neck, left shoulder and back, and led to diagnoses of traumatic brain injury and post-concussion syndrome, according to court documents.

A workers compensation law judge rejected Mr. Lujan-Espinzo’s claim, saying that “it was not based upon a finding under Workers’ Compensation Law … regarding claimant’s intoxication but was based on claimant giving false testimony with respect to his consumption of alcohol on the date of the accident.”

In upholding the comp board’s reversal of that decision, the appeals court wrote that as “the record establishes that claimant was in the course of his employment when the accident occurred and there were reasonable conclusions as to contributing factors to the accident other than claimant’s intoxication, substantial evidence supports the Board’s determination that the carrier did not rebut the presumption of compensability.”