The U.S. labor movement brought about many great things, including the end of oppressive child labor, the introduction of a minimum wage and the establishment of a workers’ compensation program. This vital practice of law provides protection to workers hurt on the job, but sometimes it gives rise to logic-defying cases. Here are five of the most bizarre, yet successful, workers’ comp cases of the last five years.
Snack attack
An employee of Circuit City fractured his hip while helping a co-worker dislodge a bag of chips from a workplace vending machine. Clinton Dwyer first tried shaking the machine, which had a history of withholding snacks, then hit it with his shoulder. Due to the machine’s history, the company’s lack of policy surrounding it, and the fact that he was helping out a co-worker, Dwyer was awarded workers’ comp by an Illinois court in 2009.
Stuck in a booth
Betsy Waters, employed by Indiana State University at the time of her injuries, attended an event at a campus cafeteria, where she sat in a restaurant-style booth. Because of her size – court documents say she weighed around 360 pounds – she had difficulty getting out of the booth when it was time to leave and felt a pop in her leg that turned out to be a cracked femur. Waters went through several surgeries as a result and was denied compensation by the university and by the Workers’ Compensation Board. Upon appeal in 2011, an Indiana appellate court ruled in Waters’ favor.
Death by salad bar
Jack Rabin, a professor at the Pennsylvania State University, met with a doctoral candidate at an off-campus restaurant to discuss a dissertation. While at the salad bar, he fell, injuring his shoulder and arm, and was taken to the hospital where he underwent treatment. Rabin died of aseptic pneumonia the following month. In 2012, a Pennsylvania workers’ compensation judge determined that even though Rabin was not on the premises of his employer at the time, because he was engaged in university business while at lunch, he was due compensation. Rabin’s widow was awarded death benefits.
Tilting at windmills
In 2013, an Ohio court ruled against Amy K. Sanders in her case against co-worker Ryan Fridd, whom she accused of causing her to fall down and fracture her left wrist. Fridd claims that he put up his arms in self-defense, as Sanders was walking down the hall swinging her arms like “a windmill,” something she did regularly. Because of her history of arm-swinging and engaging in other “horseplay” in the office, the court ultimately denied her claim, but only after she had already received workers’ comp for her injuries.
Fighting Big Tomato Pizza
In the 2013 case of Big Tomato Pizza v. Jonathan Cloud, a pizza place sought an appeal of a decision that granted an employee workers’ comp for injuries. Pizza delivery employee Cloud suffered a punctured lung after engaging in a fight with a beggar who had been chased out of the pizza shop by other employees. Cloud’s employer claimed that he didn’t deserve compensation, as he wanted to fight. An Iowa court disagreed and upheld the decision granting him workers’ comp.
Photo: Shutterstock
