This month, Portner & Shure settled a Maryland workers’ compensation case from an incident that arose at a voluntary work event. Our client worked at Target, and the company was holding an event for children where it was not mandatory for employees to attend. Our client attended the event wearing her Target uniform. The police had a booth at this event where individuals could wear drunk goggles, which allows them to see what it is like when someone is drunk. Police officers placed these goggles on our client and she fell down a hill. As a result, she severely injured her left knee, tearing her medial meniscus. Her injuries required surgery to repair.
Target claimed that they were not liable under their workers’ compensation insurance because our client was not working at the time of the accident. Based on the information gathered from the Maryland Workers' Compensation Act, Section 5, Part C, subsection 2b, “The courts have applied a ‘positional risk’ test to determine whether an accident arose out of the employment. Under this test, an injury arises out of the employment if it would have occurred but for the fact that the employer's job required him to be in the place or position where he was injured.” Using this information, we were able to settle the case for $71,000, which our client was very happy with.
