LITTLE ROCK — Two workers who tested positive for marijuana after being injured in an explosion when they tried to use a blow torch to open a 55-gallon drum that had contained flammable liquid were rightly denied workers’ compensation, the state Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
In a split decision, the court affirmed a state Workers’ Compensation Commission ruling against Matthew Edmisten and Greg Prock in the case stemming from a November 2007 accident at Bull Shoals Landing on Bull Shoals Lake in North Arkansas.
Three dissenting judges said there was no evidence that the accident occurred because of marijuana use.
According to the majority opinion, Edmisten held the barrel, which had contained marine oil, while Prock applied an acetylene torch to it in an attempt to cut it open. The resulting explosion caused both men to be engulfed in flames, from which they escaped by jumping into the lake.
In a hearing, the men testified that they had not used marijuana on the day of the accident, though they had used it in the past. A co-worker testified he had seen the men on the day of the accident and they did not appear to be impaired.
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Edmisten and Prock also testified that they had not been warned against using a torch to open barrels. Prock testified that he had used that method previously.
Steve Eastwold, co-owner of Bull Shoals Landing, testified that he had shown Prock how to use a pneumatic air chisel to open barrels. He said he had never seen Prock use an acetylene torch for that purpose and had never approved that method.
An administrative law judge ruled that the injury was the result of an attempt to finish a task quickly, not the result of drug use. The commission overturned that ruling, finding that the men’s testimony was not credible.
The commission also said the testimony of a co-worker that the men did not appear impaired was not persuasive because about 90 minutes transpired between when the co-worker saw the men and the accident, and the men could have smoked marijuana during that time.
In its majority opinion Wednesday, the Court of Appeals said the commission weighed the credibility of the witnesses and reached a reasonable conclusion.
“We affirm because the commission’s decision displays a substantial basis for the denial of relief,” Judge Doug Martin wrote in the majority opinion in Prock’s appeal.
Judges David Glover, John Pittman, John Robbins, Waymond Brown and Jospehine Linker Hart joined Martin in voting to uphold the commission. Judges Larry Vaught, Raymond Abramson and Cliff Hoofman voted to overturn the commission.
“The commission had to resort to speculation or conjecture to conclude that the use of marijuana caused the accident because there was no evidence of impairment and no evidence that drug use caused this accident,” Abramson wrote in the minority opinion in Prock’s appeal.