Ortiz v. Overland Express’s Empirical Analysis
2009
Citation profile
6 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on State Ex Rel. Helman v. Gallegos · State v. Smith · New Mexico Industrial Energy Consumers v. New Mexico Public Regulation Commission · State v. Maestas · Stinbrink v. Farmers Ins. Co. of Arizona
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Case law has interpreted the phrase "occasioned by" in Section 52-1-11 as a requirement that the employer prove that intoxication was the "proximate cause" of the accident. The uniform jury instruction on causation, UJI 13-305 NMRA, states that an act is a "proximate cause" of an injury if it "contributes to bringing about the injury." Furthermore, a proximate cause "need not be the only explanation for the injury, nor the reason that is nearest in time or place," but will be sufficient "if it occurs in combination with some other cause to produce the result." This can be interpreted to mean that the requirement in Section 52-1-11 that the injury be "occasioned by" intoxication will be met if an employer is able to show that intoxication was a contributing cause to the injury. While Section 52-1-11 provides a complete defense, Section 52-1-12.1 provides employers with a partial defense ... when intoxication is a "contributing cause" to a worker's injury or death. Under this analysis these two statutes are irreconcilable in their results.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“No compensation is payable from any employer under the provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act [Chapter 52, Article 1 NMSA 1978] if the injury to the person claiming compensation was occasioned solely by the person being under the influence of a depressant, stimulant or hallucinogenic drug as defined in the New Mexico Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act [Chapter 26, Article 1 NMSA 1978] or under the influence of a narcotic drug as defined in the Controlled Substances Act [30-31-1 NMSA 1978]....”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“although the Legislature removed the definition of “depressant, stimulant or hallucinogenic drug” from the predecessor to the DDCA, the DDCA’s reference to the Schedules of the Controlled Substances Act, which include a definition of the stimulants methamphetamine and amphetamine, is nevertheless sufficient for those drugs to be included in the DDCA and, by way of that link, in Section 52-1-12.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.