Pennsylvania: Part-Time Cook Awarded Benefits After Co-Worker’s Dog Bit Him in the Face

A part-time line cook who, while he was taking a smoke break with several co-workers, sustained facial lacerations and permanent scarring when he was bitten in the face by a co-worker’s dog, is due workers’ compensation benefits since the injuries occurred in the course and scope of the employment, held a Pennsylvania appellate court. The court noted that the smoking area was on the employer’s premises and had been established by the employer for just that purpose. It noted also that the cook was within a few feet of an ashtray tower installed in the break area at the time he was bitten. The court concluded that although petting the dog was not part of the line cook’s employment, the activity was a small temporary departure from the work routine and was not the sort of deviation that would remove the cook from the course of his employment.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

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

See 1912 Hoover House Restaurant v. Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd. (Soverns), 2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 530 (Nov. 10, 2014) [2014 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 530 (Nov. 10, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 21.04 [21.04]

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see http://www.workcompwriter.com/dog-bites-man-pennsylvania-court-affirms-award-for-worker-bitten-by-co-workers-canine/

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

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