Worker fails to land benefits after driving golf cart over ramp

A worker's injuries resulting from premeditated and deliberately planned horseplay do not arise out of and in the course of his employment.

Case name: Ray Smith Associates, 111 NYWCLR 143 (N.Y.W.C.B. 2011).

Ruling: A New York Workers' Compensation Board panel held that the worker's accident, when a golf cart he was driving tipped over, was the result of noncompensable horseplay.

Guard's accident on public road while driving to work not compensable (05/31/12)
Defenses against traveling employees' claims (06/04/12)
Legal experts weigh in on Australian sexcapades claim (06/04/12)
Ignoring coexisting conditions can have nightmarish ramifications, expert warns (12/08/11)
Drinking alcohol, nap during work topple compensability for painter's fall (02/27/12)

What it means: A worker's injuries resulting from premeditated and deliberately planned horseplay do not arise out of and in the course of his employment.

Summary: On his last day of employment, a worker was driving a golf cart at near maximum speed and twice jumped over a ramp he had made of leaves and dirt. The coworker said the cart almost tipped over during the first jump. During the second jump, the cart crashed and rolled over. The worker sustained injuries to his tailbone, coccyx, and back, and he had a concussion. The panel found that the accident did not result from a momentary abandonment of work but rather was the result of a premeditated and deliberately planned amusement that took time for the claimant to construct or create and was not reasonably connected to the claimant's employment duties. Therefore, the worker was not injured in an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment.

Read more at the WorkersComp Forum homepage.

September 15, 2011

Newsletter Sign-up