A worker at an auto body repair shop is not entitled to benefits for a self-inflicted accidental gunshot wound, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled.
Kenyatta Goins was working on an estimate of the cost to repair a pickup when he decided he needed to move the vehicle, court papers say. As he was getting into the truck, the semi-automatic pistol he carried for personal protection discharged and shot him in the leg.
A police officer determined that the gun discharged in part because it was carried outside of a holster. Mr. Goins said he was carrying the weapon in his waistband and had carried a concealed weapon that way for years for personal safety.
He acknowledged that he never used the gun for work but said he carried it when working because the job was in a dangerous neighborhood.
His manager testified that he also carried a gun but said he left it in his vehicle because he never felt unsafe or witnessed any crime in the area.
An administrative law judge determined that Mr. Goins failed to prove a compensable injury because his risk of getting shot was wholly personal and not increased by employment.
On appeal, the Arizona Court of Appeals said in Kenyatta Goins v. Industrial Commission of Arizona et al. that the record makes clear Mr. Goins was acting in the course of employment when the gun went off. But the question of whether the injury arose out of employment requires deciding whether the risk is distinctly associated with employment, is personal to the claimant or is mixed.
The appeals court said the risk for Mr. Goins was that the gun he carried for personal protection might accidentally discharge and cause an injury, but he failed to show that the risk was inherent to his employment or incidental to the discharge of his duties.
Because the origin of the risk was wholly personal, the court said, it didn’t need to consider the nature of the risk to find that the ALJ did not err in declining to award workers’ compensation benefits.
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Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.