Can You Get Workers’ Compensation If Hurt While Drunk at Work in Pennsylvania?

October 21, 2024 | Workers’ Compensation

Can You Get Workers’ Compensation If Hurt While Drunk at Work in Pennsylvania?

Generally speaking, workers’ compensation is a no-fault system. Not only are you relieved of the obligation to prove that your employer was at fault, but you can often collect compensation even if the accident was your fault. This is not always the case, however. Drunkenness can bar your recovery under certain circumstances. 

The Employer’s Intoxication Defense

If you were intoxicated at the time you suffered your injury, your employer might have a valid intoxication defense against you. If this defense succeeds, your claim might lose some of its value or even become completely worthless.

The Burden of Proof for the Intoxication Defense

You don’t have to prove you were not intoxicated. Instead, it is your employer who must prove the intoxication defense against you. You still have to prove your general workers’ compensation claim.  

Causation

It’s not enough to prove intoxication. Your employer must also prove that your intoxication was both the actual cause and the proximate cause of your injuries. Intoxication was the actual cause of your injuries if you can honestly say you would not have been injured except for your intoxication. 

Your intoxication was the proximate cause of your injuries if the relationship between your intoxication and your injuries was close enough to make it fair to deny your claim. Your intoxication can be the actual cause but not the proximate cause of your injuries. In this case, your employer’s intoxication defense will likely fail.

The Standard of Proof

The standard of proof for both you (demanding workers’ compensation benefits) and your employer (asserting the intoxication defense) is the same–a “preponderance of the evidence,” This standard amounts to a “more likely than not” standard –all your employer needs to prove is a 51% likelihood of the validity of their intoxication defense. This is a much easier standard of proof than the ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard that applies in criminal court.

“Course and Scope of Employment”

Workers’ compensation only covers accidents and illnesses that occur within the “course and scope of employment.” An employer might argue that, by definition, intoxication is beyond the course and scope of your employment since your employer doesn’t pay you to get drunk. State courts have rejected this argument.

Your actions might be outside the course and scope of your employment if you were playing volleyball with dangerous work equipment. If you were just trying to do your job, however, intoxication doesn’t put your injury beyond the course and scope of your employment.

Examples of Workers’ Compensation Claims Involving Alcohol

Below are some common examples of workers’ compensation claims involving alcohol:

  • You engage in horseplay at work while intoxicated, thereby injuring yourself. Your employer, therefore, has a strong intoxication defense.
  • You operate heavy machinery while under the influence of alcohol. To win an intoxication defense, your employer must prove that your intoxication was the primary cause of the accident.
  • An employee slips and falls on a banana peel left for two days on a staircase. Even if you were intoxicated at the time, your intoxication was probably not the primary cause of the accident. Accordingly, your employer’s intoxication defense will likely fail.
  •  An intoxicated employee suffers an accident at a company picnic that served alcohol. This one could go either way. To what extent, for example, did the company pressure employees to attend or drink?
  •  A chronically alcoholic employee who conceals their condition trips on a loose cable and suffers an injury. It might be difficult to trace the cause of the accident to intoxication. 

As the foregoing examples illustrate, the mere fact of drunkenness does not necessarily defeat your claim.

Workers’ compensation claims work very differently from medical malpractice claims or many other personal injury claims, for example. You’re going to need a Pennsylvania lawyer with experience working specifically with workers’ compensation claims. Preferably, they should also have experience working with ordinary personal injury cases, just in case you have an opportunity to sue a third party over your workplace accident. Overall, your chances are much better with a lawyer than without one.

If you’ve been injured in a workers’ compensation, please contact Marzzacco Niven & Associates at the nearest location to schedule a free consultation today:

Harrisburg Law Office
945 East Park Drive, Suite 103 Harrisburg, PA 17111
(717) 231-1640

York Law Office
2550 Kingston Road, Suite 210A York, PA 17401
(717) 995-8998

Wyomissing Law Office
833 N. Park Road, Suite 103, Room A Wyomissing, PA 19610
(717) 388-2325

Chambersburg Law Office
79 St. Paul Drive, Suite 1 Chambersburg, PA 17201
(717) 388-2378

Carlisle Law Office
354 Alexander Springs Road Carlisle, PA 17015
(717) 995-8732

Carbondale Law Office
30 Lincoln Avenue, Suite 101 Carbondale, PA 18407
(717) 995-8810

Lancaster Law Office
2173 Embassy Drive, Ste 123, Lancaster Pa 17603
(717) 616-2954

Lebanon Law Office
937 Willow Street, Suite D Lebanon, PA 17042-1140
(717) 995-8963