Ohio: Police Officer’s Fatal Injuries Preparing for Union-Sponsored Steak Fry Found Compensable

The widow of a police officer who sustained fatal injuries when the officer was struck by a car as he and a volunteer were engaged in setting up and running a union-sponsored steak fry was entitled to death benefits under Ohio’s Workers’ Compensation Act, held a state appellate court. At the time of the fatal accident, the police officer, who served as a union officer, was on paid leave under the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the patrolmen’s association. Union members, their families, and other members of the community regularly attended the steak fry. The court held that the officer was fulfilling the obligations of being a union officer and his activities were consistent with the contract for hire and logically related to his employment. The court analogized the situation to cases in which claims were established for employees injured while attending a picnic sponsored, supervised, and paid for by the employer for the purpose of generating friendly relations between and among employees.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See City of Elyria v. Scott, 2015-Ohio–4619, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 4510 (Nov. 9, 2015) [2015-Ohio–4619, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 4510 (Nov. 9, 2015)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 27.03 [27.03]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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