Edmisten v. Bull Shoals Landing

388 S.W.3d 416, 2012 Ark. App. 44, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 112
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 11, 2012
DocketNo. CA 11-313
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 388 S.W.3d 416 (Edmisten v. Bull Shoals Landing) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edmisten v. Bull Shoals Landing, 388 S.W.3d 416, 2012 Ark. App. 44, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 112 (Ark. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

DAVID M. GLOVER, Judge.

| ¶ This workers’ compensation case is a companion case to Prock v. Bull Shoals Landing, 2012 Ark. App. 47, 390 S.W.3d 78, handed down this date. Appellant Matt Edmisten and Greg Proek were injured at work while Edmisten was holding the lid of a fifty-five-gallon drum as Proek opened the drum with a welding torch; the drum exploded, severely burning both Ed-misten and Proek. Drug tests showed the presence of marijuana metabolites in Ed-misten’s body.1

The ALJ made several findings: the provisions of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Act that provide for the establishment of administrative law judges were constitutional; the presence of marijuana metabolites in Edmisten’s drug test triggered the statutory presumption that his injuries were substantially occasioned by the use of illegal |2drugs; and Edmisten failed to rebut that presumption and, therefore, failed to prove that his burn injuries were compensable. The Commission affirmed and adopted the ALJ’s opinion. Edmisten now appeals, arguing (1) that the Commission’s decision is based upon speculation and conjecture and (2) that the executive branch of the State of Arkansas and private interests have exerted pressure on ALJs and Commissioners that results in actual bias and the appearance of bias by violating the separation-of-powers doctrine and violates the procedural and substantive due-process rights of all injured workers in Arkansas. We affirm.

Sufficiency of the Evidence

An injury is not a compensable injury if the accident was substantially occasioned by the use of alcohol, illegal drugs, or prescription drugs used in contravention of doctor’s orders. Ark.Code Ann. § ll-9-102(4)(B)(iv)(a) (Supp.2009). The presence of alcohol, illegal drugs, or prescription drugs used in contravention of a physician’s orders shall create a rebutta-ble presumption that the injury or accident was substantially occasioned by the use of alcohol, illegal drugs, or prescription drugs used in contravention of a physician’s orders. Ark.Code Ann. § 11—9—102(4)(B)(iv)(6). The question of whether an employee has overcome the rebuttable presumption is a question of fact for the Commission. Systems Contracting Corp. v. Reeves, 85 Ark.App. 286, 151 S.W.3d 18 (2004). A claimant’s testimony is never considered to be uncontroverted. Nix v. Wilson World Hotel, 46 Ark.App. 303, 879 S.W.2d 457 (1994).

|sOn appeal, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commission’s decision and affirm if the decision is supported by substantial evidence. Telling Indus, v. Petty, 2010 Ark. App. 602, 378 S.W.3d 167. When the Commission denies coverage because the claimant failed to meet his burden of proof, the substantial-evidence standard of review requires that we affirm the Commission’s decision if its opinion displays a substantial basis for the denial of relief; substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Waldrip v. Graco Corp., 101 Ark.App. 101, 270 S.W.3d 891 (2008). It is the function of the Commission to determine the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony; once the Commission has made its decision on issues of credibility, the appellate court is bound by that decision. Telling Indus., supra.

The parties stipulated that the testimony given by Edmisten, Proek, Roger Williams, Mike Didway, Steve Eastwold, and Greg Aaron in Prock’s hearing should be admitted at Edmisten’s hearing and accorded due weight. This testimony was set forth in Prock, supra. All of these witnesses offered additional testimony at Edmisten’s hearing.

Greg Prock testified that he had used acetylene torches to open the drums at least fifteen to twenty times before and that his boss, Steve Eastwold, had never objected to his opening the barrels that way. Prock testified that he never saw Edmisten come to work intoxicated and that Edmisten did not appear intoxicated on the morning of the accident. He denied that he and Edmisten had left the dock that day to smoke pot before the accident occurred. Prock admitted that before the accident he smoked pot frequently |4(three or four times per week) but never with Edmisten. Prock admitted that he did not take the cap off the barrel prior to cutting it but “figured it was empty” because he did not hear anything in it when he picked it up; he also admitted that he did not read the warning labels on the barrels before cutting them with the torch. He confirmed that neither he nor Edmisten wore any safety equipment.

Mike Didway, a co-worker of Edmisten and Prock, testified that he saw both men on the morning of the accident and that neither of them appeared to be intoxicated. However, he also stated that he and another employee were out on the water in a houseboat when the accident occurred, and he did not see what happened. Didway testified that the explosion engulfed a houseboat nearby. Didway said that he had seen Prock open barrels with a cutting torch two or three times before. Didway admitted on cross-examination that he had seen Prock and Edmisten around 7:00 a.m. that morning but did not see Edmisten again that day until after the explosion, and he had no idea what Edmisten had done in that time before the explosion occurred around 9:30 a.m.

Roger Williams, another co-worker of Edmisten and Prock, testified that he was with Didway on the water when the explosion occurred. He relayed that he had not seen or been around Prock or Edmisten prior to the explosion, and he had no idea what Edmisten did between when he clocked in at 6:40 a.m. and when the explosion occurred. He did not recall Edmisten ever coming to work intoxicated, and he testified that he had never seen Prock open a barrel with a cutting torch prior to the day of the explosion.

|fiGail Hostad testified that she lived by Edmisten’s girlfriend and had not seen him appear intoxicated during the evenings when he came to his girlfriend’s house; however, she admitted that she had no idea what Edmisten had done the morning of the explosion. Hostad said that she heard that Edmisten had stated after the accident that he could not pass a drug test, but that she had no personal knowledge of Edmisten’s drug use or what happened that morning. She explained that she heard that Steve Eastwold, Ed-misten’s employer, was alleging that Ed-misten was intoxicated when the explosion occurred. Hostad said that from what she heard from people in town, it was when Edmisten went back to the boat dock that he said that he could not pass a drug test at that time.

Edmisten testified that he was not intoxicated on the morning of the accident and had not ingested any illegal drug that day. He stated that he had used marijuana once before the date of the accident. He said that he had helped Prock cut the tops out of barrels maybe ten or fifteen times before that day; it was a regular occurrence. He denied that Eastwold had instructed them how to open the barrels.

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Related

Edmisten v. Bull Shoals Landing
2014 Ark. 89 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
388 S.W.3d 416, 2012 Ark. App. 44, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edmisten-v-bull-shoals-landing-arkctapp-2012.