http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8454061/woman-who-had-sex-on-work-trip-gets-compo
A public servant injured on a work trip while having sex with an acquaintance at a motel room is entitled to compensation, a judge has ruled.
In the Federal Court on Thursday, Justice John Nicholas concluded that the injuries were suffered by the woman in the course of her employment.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had challenged the rejection of her workers' compensation claim for facial and psychological injuries suffered when a glass light fitting came away from the wall above the bed as she was having sex in November 2007.
The judge set aside the decision made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal which upheld the rejection by ComCare, the federal government workplace safety body.
He said the tribunal erred in finding it was necessary for the woman to show she had been taking part in an activity which led to her injury "which was expressly or impliedly induced or encouraged by her employer".
"If the applicant had been injured while playing a game of cards in her motel room she would have been entitled to compensation" even though it could not be said her employer induced or encouraged that activity.
"In the absence of any misconduct or an intentionally self inflicted injury, the fact that the applicant was engaged in sexual activity rather than some other lawful recreational activity does not lead to any different result."
Re: Woman who had sex on work trip gets compo
This is in Australia, where either the law is expansive or this particular judge has made a bad decision. Third possibility: we are missing some crucial facts.
My WC experience is limited but I would be surprised if a US judge would reach the same conclusion for this set of facts.
She certainly has a "but for" argument, that is, but for her job requiring her to travel, she wouldn't have been in that particular situation. Additionally, generally speaking, state laws vary and some states will be more expansive than others. However, I believe the standard is something akin to having to be acting within the scope of your employment, and I think a vigorous argument could be raised that having sex on your personal time, albeit while traveling for work, is not an action being pursued in the scope of employment.
As I said above, however, my knowledge of WC law is limited (and whatever superficial familiarity I have with the law pretty much ends at the Pennsylvania border) so I leave it to someone more knowledgeable to correct me.
Not that I have a lot of experience with this either, but I think NY is one of those expansive states. During business trips, you're covered if you're injured doing a job-related activity, but you're also covered while engaged in "reasonable activities" to "satisfy ordinary physical needs," (e.g. showering, relaxing, etc).
I think sex would fall under that category, at least in NY. Don't know what other state laws look like, though.
"You don't get to be all puke-face about your kid shooting your undead baby daddy when all you had to do was KEEP HIM IN THE FLUCKING HOUSE, LORI!" - doctorwho
I would have started with a claim against the motel.