Defenses against traveling employees' claims
While a clear deviation from employment is one defense employers can use to fight what they believe are inappropriate workers' comp claims from traveling employees, it is not the only one.
Others include:
- Horseplay. "A roll in the hay may be a new take on the horseplay defense," said Cassandra Roberts senior workers' compensation partner at Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP, in Wilmington, Del.
- A forfeiture for recklessness. In Delaware, a claimant could lose out on benefits if the actions leading to the injury were done with a willful and reckless indifference to danger. "An argument can be made if you are pounding a wall [during sex] you are indifferent to the danger."
- Personal comfort doctrine. Certain acts unrelated to work are nevertheless covered under workers' comp. Falling in the bathroom, for example, or slipping outside during a smoking break. "You send me on a business trip, put me in a hotel and, basically, what I do in my bed to get me to the next morning is an act of personal comfort," Roberts said. "If that happens to include sex, so be it."
June 4, 2012
Copyright 2012© LRP Publications
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