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Intoxicated Employee Can Be Sent Home: Employer Not Responsible For Auto Accident
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
Quick Summary: The court rejected the argument that an employer must keep an intoxicated employee at the place of employment for as long as the employee is in an intoxicated state.
If the employer has not furnished the intoxicants, such as alcohol served at an office party, the employee is responsible for becoming intoxicated, and the employer is not liable for injuries to other persons caused by an employee leaving or being sent home from work intoxicated. COURT OF APPEALS OF ARIZONA, 1996.
A radiology technician came to work high on cocaine. She consumed additional cocaine on the job and became "conspicuously intoxicated and incapable of performing her work duties," according to the court, and was sent home by her supervisor. On the way home she drove across the centerline due to her intoxication, struck another vehicle, and seriously injured the other driver.
The other driver’s personal injury lawsuit against the hospital was thrown out by the Court of Appeals of Arizona. Taking it for granted the supervisor knew the employee was intoxicated and should not drive, an employer still is not responsible for an employee’s behavior after she is sent home for being intoxicated on the job, the court said. Riddle vs. Medical, 924 P. 2d 468 (Ariz. App., 1996).