Woman Hurt During Sex on Work Trip Entitled to Worker's Compensation

"If the applicant had been injured while playing a game of cards in her motel room she would have been entitled to compensation," judge rules

An Australian government worker hurt while having sex in her hotel room while on a work trip is entitled to worker’s compensation, a federal court judge ruled.

Justice John Nicholas ruled Thursday that the sex was an “ordinary incident of life,” News.com.au reported.

The woman, said to be in her late 30s, had been sent by her employer, the Human Relations Section of the Commonwealth Government agency, to a country town on business back in November 2007.

She had arranged to meet a friend who lived nearby for dinner, according to News.com.au. After pair headed back to her hotel room, a glass light fixture fell off the wall and injured her while the pair were having sex. The woman then filed a claim for having suffered facial and psychological injuries.

An earlier court had denied the unnamed woman's claim, arging the couple’s tryst was “not an ordinary incident of an overnight stay like showering, sleeping, eating,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported. 

But Justice Nicholas ruled the incident was ordinary and that it did not matter whether her injury "was expressly or impliedly induced or encouraged by her employer," TVNZ reported.

"If the applicant had been injured while playing a game of cards in her motel room she would have been entitled to compensation," he argued. "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."

During the court case, it couldn't be determined how exactly the lamp went down during the couple’s encounter.
 

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