Employer Not Liable for Office Worker’s Chair Prank

If a negligent worker causes injury in the course of his job, compensation is generally payable by his or her employer under the principle of vicarious liability. However, as one case concerning an office prank showed, that does not apply where the worker concerned is on a frolic of his own.

A woman suffered a serious injury to her lower back when a colleague pulled her chair away just as she was about to sit on it. Lawyers on her behalf sued the local authority for which both of them worked and damages were agreed at £58,000, subject to the employer being found liable.

In dismissing her claim, a judge noted that the colleague got on well with the woman and normally behaved professionally. There was no culture of pranks in the office and he had not acted maliciously. With little more than a flick of his hand, he had moved the chair as a joke on the spur of the moment. His act of pure folly was carried out in an entirely private capacity and was unconnected to his work.