State News : Illinois

By: Jigar S. Desai

In a January 27, 2026, Rule 23 order, the Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, Workers’ Compensation Commission Division, addressed the compensability of injuries sustained by a traveling employee who was assaulted by third parties while making deliveries. Avila v. Illinois Workers Compensation Commission, 2026 IL App (2d) 250093WC-U. The court reversed the Commission’s denial of benefits and reinstated the arbitrator’s compensability findings, holding that the Commission’s application of the aggressor defense and its causation analysis were against the manifest weight of the evidence. The court further remanded the case for the Commission to consider whether penalties and attorneys’ fees should be imposed.

Although the decision is nonprecedential, it provides a detailed illustration of how courts analyze street-risk exposures, the aggressor defense, and intervening acts in the context of traveling employees.

Factual Background

Jose Avila worked as a delivery driver for Amazon. On August 1, 2023, while performing his delivery route in Aurora, Avila was driving his truck on a residential street when a black SUV abruptly cut in front of him at close range. The maneuver was sufficiently sharp that Avila had to brake suddenly. Avila testified that the SUV nearly struck a woman who was unloading groceries on the side of the road.

After the near-collision, Avila honked his horn and gestured toward the driver of the SUV. He then stopped his delivery truck and momentarily remained in the area. According to Avila, his purpose in stopping was not to pursue a confrontation with the driver of the SUV but to check on the woman who had nearly been struck and to ensure that she was not injured. The dash camera footage showed Avila stopping his vehicle while a pedestrian remained in the parkway near the truck.

While Avila was stopped, individuals associated with the SUV began yelling at him. The driver of the SUV exited his vehicle and walked toward Avila. Avila testified that he felt threatened because he was still seated and buckled in his truck with the door open, and the approaching individual was on the side of the open door. Avila unbuckled his seat belt and exited the truck. The video footage showed Avila and the SUV driver meeting briefly near the truck, at which point the driver of the SUV punched Avila. Others joined in the scuffle. The physical altercation was brief and partially out of camera view. The woman who was almost struck intervened and calmed the initial confrontation.

After the initial confrontation, Avila returned to his truck and drove away. As he was leaving, he yelled words and made nonverbal gestures to the individuals who had attacked him. Avila stated that he did this out of frustration, but not in a threatening manner.

The dash camera footage showed him continuing along his delivery route through a residential neighborhood for several minutes. Approximately four to five minutes later, and two to three blocks away from the location of the initial encounter, Avila parked his truck to make another delivery. As he walked toward the delivery location, a maroon sedan pulled up near the truck. Several individuals exited the vehicle, including the driver of the SUV from the earlier incident. Avila was attacked from behind, knocked to the ground, and beaten and kicked by multiple assailants. During the assault, one of the attackers took a chain from Avila’s neck.

Avila reentered his truck after the second assault. Dash camera footage showed visible blood on his face and head. He appeared to photograph the fleeing assailants and then stumbled near the passenger side of the vehicle. Emergency medical services transported him to the hospital, where he was treated for facial fractures, dental injuries, head trauma, and related symptoms. He later received follow-up dental treatment and medical care for headaches and psychological symptoms related to the assault.

Procedural History

The case proceeded to arbitration. The employer argued that Avila was the aggressor and his recovery was therefore barred. The arbitrator disagreed and found that Avila’s injuries arose out of and in the course of his employment as a traveling employee and were causally related to the assaults. The arbitrator concluded that the risks of street encounters were incidental to his job duties and that, in any event, the second assault occurred while he was actively making a delivery. The arbitrator awarded temporary total disability benefits, medical benefits, prospective care, penalties, and attorneys’ fees.

On review, the Commission unanimously reversed. The Commission found that Avila was the aggressor in the first incident based on his gestures, conduct, and decision to exit his truck. The Commission further concluded that the second assault would not have occurred but for Avila’s conduct during the first encounter, thereby negating the causal connection to employment.

The circuit court reversed the Commission, finding that the aggressor determination as to the first incident, and the conclusion that the second assault was merely a continuation of the first, were against the manifest weight of the evidence. The employer appealed to the appellate court.

The Appellate Court’s Analysis

The appellate court affirmed the circuit court’s decision. The court began by reaffirming that an injury must arise out of and in the course of employment in order to be compensable. The “in the course of” element concerns the time, place, and circumstances of the injury, while the “arising out of” element requires a causal connection between the employment and the injury. The court noted that injuries sustained by traveling employees are analyzed under more liberal standards because such employees are exposed to the risks of the street as an inherent aspect of their work.

In the Course of Employment

With respect to the “in the course of” requirement, the court had little difficulty concluding that Avila satisfied this element. At the time of the second assault, Avila had resumed his delivery route and was actively engaged in making a delivery. The evidence showed that he had disengaged from the earlier confrontation, driven away, and returned to his work duties. Accordingly, the court found that Avila was within the time and space boundaries of his employment when the injury occurred.

Arising Out of Employment

The court then turned to the “arising out of” element. The Commission had concluded that Avila’s injuries did not arise out of his employment because the assaults stemmed from a personal dispute initiated by his conduct during the traffic encounter.

The appellate court rejected that characterization. It emphasized that Avila’s job as a delivery driver required him to travel public roadways and interact with traffic and members of the public. The risks inherent in street travel, including the possibility of confrontations with other motorists, are risks to which Avila was exposed by virtue of his employment. The court cited established precedent recognizing that assaults on traveling employees by third parties may be compensable when the employment places the employee in a position of increased exposure to such risks.

The Aggressor Defense

The appellate court devoted significant attention to the Commission’s application of the aggressor defense. The court reiterated that an employee who becomes the aggressor in a physical altercation may be found to have departed from the course of employment, thereby breaking the causal connection between employment and injury.

However, the court emphasized that aggressor status is a fact-intensive determination that must be evaluated based on the totality of the circumstances. The mere fact that an employee exchanges words, gestures angrily, or exits a vehicle does not, by itself, establish that the employee became the aggressor in a subsequent physical confrontation.

Reviewing the dash camera footage and testimony, the court found that the Commission’s conclusion that Avila was the aggressor in the first encounter was against the manifest weight of the evidence. The video did not show Avila initiating physical violence, and the evidence showed that the other driver approached Avila’s truck and struck the first blow. While Avila’s conduct may have contributed to a tense encounter, the court concluded that the record did not support a finding that he escalated the encounter into a physical fight so as to forfeit the protections of the Workers’ Compensation Act (Compensation Act), 820 ILCS 305/1, et seq.

Causation and the Second Assault

The court further rejected the Commission’s conclusion that the second assault was merely a continuation of the first encounter and therefore remained personal in nature. The appellate court emphasized that there was a meaningful temporal and spatial break between the two incidents. Avila had left the scene of the initial confrontation, driven several blocks, and resumed performing his delivery duties. The second attack occurred at a different location, several minutes later, and involved assailants who pursued Avila and initiated a new, unprovoked assault while he was making a delivery.

In addressing causation, the court explained that the Compensation Act does not require that employment be the sole cause of an injury. It is sufficient that the employment be a contributing cause. The court rejected the Commission’s “but for” reasoning that the second assault would not have occurred but for Avila’s earlier conduct. The court noted that such a broad conception of causation would improperly transform many workplace injuries into noncompensable events whenever a claimant’s prior conduct could be traced as part of the chain of events. Instead, the proper inquiry is whether the injury can fairly be traced to a risk of employment, as opposed to a purely personal risk. Here, Avila’s exposure to public street risks as a delivery driver, combined with the fact that he was engaged in work duties at the time of the second assault, supported compensability.

Standard of Review

Finally, the appellate court underscored the standard of review applicable to Commission findings. While the Commission’s factual determinations are entitled to deference, they will be reversed when an opposite conclusion is clearly apparent from the record. The court concluded that the Commission’s findings regarding aggressor status and causation were contrary to the clear weight of the evidence presented.

This decision highlights the importance of carefully separating multiple incidents when analyzing causation. When an employee disengages from an initial confrontation and later sustains injuries in a separate encounter, the later event may be deemed an independent intervening act rather than a continuation of the earlier dispute. Practitioners should analyze temporal separation, geographic separation, and whether the claimant had resumed job duties at the time of injury.

For employers and carriers, the aggressor defense remains viable, but it requires a close examination of the totality of the circumstances. Evidence of verbal provocation or angry gestures may be insufficient, standing alone, to establish that a claimant was the aggressor when the other party initiates physical violence. Video evidence should be reviewed carefully, and the absence of audio may limit the ability to draw firm conclusions about verbal threats or provocations.

For claimants, the case underscores the significance of the traveling employee doctrine and the street-risk doctrine. Employees whose jobs place them in public settings are exposed to risks that may be deemed incidental to employment, including assaults by third parties. Demonstrating that the employee was engaged in job duties at the time of injury remains central to compensability.