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Whilst researching the vagaries of personal injury compensation around the globe, I recently came across a story from the US involving the collection of a cake and the claiming of compensation. Now, I don't know if it was the lovely alliteration involved or just that I read the story at a time when cake was high on my list of priorities, but the story stuck in my mind for some time.
According to the internet report, it appeared that an employee working in a Californian wholesale warehouse business had suffered a slip and trip work accident after leaving her department to collect a cake from the bakery section.
The cake had been purchased on behalf of the worker's sister and the woman had carried out the pick-up whilst still on duty.
The resulting knee injury required surgery, but the employer refused reimbursement for medical expenses claiming that as the employee had been involved in an activity unrelated to work they were not liable for the accident. They also suggested that the worker was in fact violating store rules for carrying out the purchase of the cake during work hours.
However, the California Court of Appeal ruled against the business, citing that the injury arose both as a result of and in the course of her employment.
Whereas the employer claimed the retrieval of the cake was a personal convenience, the court determined that the worker was providing financial benefit to the store in furtherance of the outlet's business activities.
The court cited the state of California's "dual purpose doctrine" - which sees an employee combining a personal errand with that of employment duties, or completing both at what could be argued as the same time - as not reason enough to question the validity of the exercise, unless it could be proved that neither activity was in the interests of the employer.
The court heard that it was common practice for employers to reserve items and pay for them at the end of their shift.
The employee was awarded compensation and the employer's insurers were required to settle the costs of her personal injury lawyer.
So, there we have it - Californian cake compensation, the tale of work injury that appears to put common sense at the fore-front of its adjudication.
If the employee had taken off her uniform and entered the bakery department as a paying customer, she would have been covered by the store's public liability insurance and yet, as an employee, suffering an accident at work where the employer is culpable she should be entitled to make a work accident claim.
But the employers were never going to see it quite like that and the payment of personal injury compensation was always going to be contentious. However, eventually the injured employee got her cake and was able to eat it.
