Ida Kelly v. State of Delaware IAB Hearing No. 1309008 (September 18, 2008)

The Forfeiture provisions of 19 Del. C. § 2353(b) are upheld in favor of the Employer when the Employee initiates a physical altercation with a customer or behaves with a deliberate indifference to danger. There was a video tape available for the Board to view of the actual event which showed the Claimant leaning out of the toll booth window and exchanging angry words with the driver of the vehicle. Claimant's body language suggested that she was the aggressor and made no attempt to disengage from the situation. The customer subsqeuently returned to the booth and struck the Claimant. The Board concluded that the physical altercation would not have occurred but for the Claimant's own actions which amounted to a deliberate and reckless indifference to danger.