Health and safety: general definitions (2)
IN THE COURSE OF EMPLOYMENT
Work away from employer’s premises
General Cleaning Contractors Ltd v Christmas (1952)
C was cleaning a sash window at premises away from the employer’s office. The top frame of the sash window slipped downwards, trapping his fingers. He let go of his had hold on the lower frame and fell from the window sill on which he was standing. He was injured and claimed compensation from his employer.
The employer was found liable for its failure to implement a safe system of work even though the premises at which the work was done was some distance from its office.
Disobeying instructions
National Coal Board v England (1954)
E was a coal miner. Against clear instructions and statutory regulations he assisted a shotsman to set up shot blasting. He coupled up wires which were part of the detonator mechanism. If he had been obeying his instructions he would have been well out of the way. The employer did not know that miners often helped a shotsman in this way. The shotsman thought that E had moved to a safe place. He detonated the explosive. E was very close to the explosion and was injured. He claimed compensation on the basis of the employer’s liability for the negligence of a co-worker. The employer’s defence was that E had acted entirely outside the scope of his employment in helping the shotfirer and that this had been in direct disobedience of working instructions and an infringement of coal mining legislation. This put E’s act outside the scope of his employment.
The House of Lords disagreed. E had been carrying out the work of a miner but doing it in a wrong way. It could not be said that in acting against instructions he was engaged in work totally outside his employment. The employer was liable but E’s compensation was reduced because of his contributory negligence.
Injury during journey from home to appointment
Nancollas v Insurance Officer (1985)
N was a disablement resettlement officer. He had to cover a wide area. On one day he had to travel from his usual office in Worthing to the Guildford office for a case conference about a disabled man. At the conference it was decided that he should interview the man at Aldershot on the following day. He drove directly from his home to Aldershot. During this journey he was involved in an accident and suffered neck injuries. He claimed industrial injury benefit. His entitlement depended on whether he was acting in the course of his employment at the time of the accident.
The Court of Appeal made the following points:
Travelling between two places of work
Smith v Stages and Darlington Insulation Co Ltd (1988)
M was employed as a lagger at a power station. He and S, a colleague, were told to work for a week at another power station. They travelled to the other power station in S’s car. They worked a total of 19 hours and had no sleep. During the journey home, because of S’s fatigue, an accident happened which caused M to suffer serious injuries. He did not fully recover and died two years later. Proceedings were brought against S. It emerged that S had no insurance and the claim was amended to include the employer as defendant. It was alleged that S was driving the car either as the agent of the employer or in the course of his employment. At first instance, the court found that the driving had not been done in the course of S’s employment. M’s widow appealed to the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal found that the journey had been made in the course of employment. The employer had authorised S to drive. The employer appealed to the House of Lords.
The Lords dismissed the appeal and made the following points:
Police officer injured while playing football
Faulkner v Chief Adjudication Officer (1994)
F, a police officer, claimed disablement benefit for an injury suffered while he was playing football for a police football club. He argued that he had sustained personal injury arising out of and in the course of his employment. His claim was rejected on the basis that he had not been doing his job at the time of the injury. F appealed to the Court of Appeal on the ground that the role of the police had changed and that it could no longer be said that football amounted to recreation.
The appeal was dismissed. The question could not be answered by considering whether an injured person had been doing something reasonably incidental to his work. It was important to look at the factual picture as a whole and to reject any approach based on the fallacious concept that any one factor was conclusive.
MANUAL LABOUR
Definition
J & F Stone Lighting and Radio Ltd v Haygarth (1966)
H was employed as a television and radio repair engineer. Most of his work involved the repair or replacement of parts or adjustment of sets. The issue in the case was whether this amounted to “manual labour”.
The House of Lords ruled as follows:
Comments RSS You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.