[/floatr]Mainichi: Court rejects worker's accident claim over death that followed workplace drinking
The Tokyo High Court has quashed a lower court ruling that had recognized a man's death from drinking at work as being entitled to worker's accident compensation. In making its decision, the high court rejected a claim by the bereaved wife of the 44-year-old victim. The victim, who had served as a vice manager at a construction company in Tokyo, drank alcohol at a gathering held at his workplace from about 5 p.m. in the evening in December 1999. He left the company shortly after 10 p.m., but fell down stairs at a subway station and hit his head. He died about two weeks later. The ruling accepted that participation in the gathering could be accepted as part of the man's work, but said that duties fitting in with the purpose of the meeting had ended by about 7 p.m. It added that drunkenness was a large factor in the accident, and that the accident could not be considered to be a commuting accident. An earlier ruling in the Tokyo District Court had judged that the gathering constituted work even though participants had been drinking, based on the fact that the vice manager had been ordered by a superior to listen to requests from subordinates.
