Kentucky: Igniting Cigarette Lighter While Holding Unidentified Explosive Object Was Not Horseplay

A Kentucky appellate court affirmed a determination by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that a heavy equipment operator’s severe injuries did not result from horseplay where evidence suggested that a co-worker serving as a “spotter” alongside the operator’s forklift saw an object about the size of a tennis ball on the ground, picked it up, and handed it to the operator. The operator contended he ignited a cigarette lighter in order to get a better look at the object; it turned out to be explosive. The court indicated there was evidence to support the Board’s finding that the equipment operator had not ventured from the course and scope of his employment when he tried to identify the object. The inspection was incidental to his duty to insure that the work site remained safe and that no object that he and his spotter discovered on the grounds posed a threat to safety.

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 Hall Contracting of Ky., Inc. v. Huff, 2015 Ky. App. LEXIS 138 (Sept. 18, 2015) [2015 Ky. App. LEXIS 138 (Sept. 18, 2015)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 23.07 [23.07]

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

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