An insurance company isn’t having any luck appealing an Australian decision to award workers’ comp benefits to a woman who was injured while having sex on a business trip.
A second court has now ruled the woman should get the comp benefits.
The woman, a government worker, was on a business trip. She suffered injuries to her nose, mouth and a tooth as well as psychiatric injury, when a wall-mounted lamp in the motel where she was staying fell on her during sex.
The woman argued she deserved comp because she was injured “during the course of her employment” because she was required to travel.
The government’s insurer, Comcare, argued she shouldn’t receive comp, and an administrative tribunal agreed.
The unidentified woman appealed in Australia’s Federal Court, which overturned the tribunal’s ruling. The court said if the applicant had been injured while playing cards in her motel room, she would have been entitled to compensation. The fact that she was having sex at the time didn’t matter.
Comcare appealed again. On Dec. 13, the Full Bench of the Federal Court agreed with the previous ruling.
No word on how much the woman will be paid in comp.
Comcare says it’s considering an appeal to Australia’s highest legal authority, the High Court.