With a smirk, Denver bakery worker Julio Medina teasingly lifted his right leg as if he was going to kick a co-worker.
But unfortunately for Medina, his left leg slipped and he fell to the bakery floor. He hurt his wrist and developed a hernia.
On Thursday, the Colorado Court of Appeals said Medina was entitled to workers’ compensation.
The court said that employees who engage in workplace “horseplay” can, in many circumstances, receive workers’ compensation even though horseplay isn’t common or even condoned by their employer.
Recognition that workers injured by horseplay or pranks can receive workers’ comp is rising in the United States, according to lawyers.
Recently, for example, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that a woman sitting in a chair with her feet propped up on another chair waiting the start of a staff meeting could recover compensation after a co-worker playfully pulled the chair out from under her. She injured her back when she fell.
Ted Krumreich, the lawyer who represented Panera Bread in the Colorado case, argued Medina should be denied workers’ compensation.
“The reason why he (Medina) slipped and fell was because he was engaging in attempting to ‘kick-act’ a fellow employee. That act had no association with his job duties,” Krumreich said.
The Court of Appeals said an employee can recover for horseplay injuries as long as the injuries are sufficiently incidental to the work itself.
In this case, Medina was 10 feet from his workstation, the bakery cooler, the horseplay was brief and the shoes he was required to wear were slippery on the wet floor, the court noted.
John Sbarbaro, Medina’s lawyer, said that horseplay is common in workplaces where the workers do manual labor.
“Do you really expect a guy who’s putting dough in a bakery eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, to never – when he sees a friend – pretend like he is going to kick him?” Sbarbaro asked.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
