Court Opinion

ID: 9727373
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:33:05.204441+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:36.748734
License: Public Domain

RAKOWSKI, WOODWARD, and RARICK, JJ., concur. PRESIDING JUSTICE McCULLOUGH, specially concurring: I agree with the decision reached. As is pointed out, the claimant is not entitled to recover if the intoxication was the cause of the injury or the intoxication was so excessive as to constitute a departure from the course of employment. The arbitrator found uncontradicted the testimony of claimant “that he drank a lot between the time he was injured and the time he was taken off the barge to the hospital.” There was no evidence the claimant was drunk at the time of the injury even though the evidence shows at the hospital his blood-alcohol level was an oppressive .29. Had there been evidence his level of intoxication was .29 at the time of the accident, I would find his intoxication was so excessive as to constitute a departure from his course of employment, where the only witness to the incident was the claimant himself.