Accident To Workman - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition accident-to-workman

Definition :

Accident to workman, compensation for. (English) The Workmen's Compensation Act, 1925, provides s. 1, sub-s. (1), that if in any employment personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment is caused to a workman, his employer shall be liable to pay compensation.

Sub-s. (2), that an accident resulting in death or serious and permanent disablement of a workman shall be deemed to arise out of and in the course of his employment, even if at the time of the accident he was acting in contravention of statutory regulations or of the orders of his employer, if such act was done by him for the purposes of and in connection with his employer's trade or business, see Guest v. Gaston & Co., 1927 (1) KB 1.

The word 'accident' must be given its ordinary and popular sense; it has been defined as 'an unlooked for mishap or an untoward event, which is not expected or designed', Fenton v. Thorley & Co., 1903 AC 443. Thus compensation has been recovered in respect of death caused by anthrax bacillus, Brintons Ltd. v. Turvey, 1905 AC 230, and by reason of falling into the hold of a ship during an epileptic fit, Wicks v. Dowell & Co. Ltd., (1905) 2 KB 225; but not where death was caused by gradual lead poisoning, Steel v. Cammell Larid Ltd., 1905 (2) KB 232. Similarly for this Act 'heatstroke' is an accident, Ismay v. Williamson, 1908 AC 437, since if a workman in the reasonable performance of his duties sustains a physiological injury as the result of the work he is engaged in, this is an accidental injury in the sense of the statute, a principle extended to exertion causing the rupture of an aneurism, Clover v. Hughes, 1910 AC 242; distinguished, Noden v. Galloways, 1912 (1) KB 46. See also Falmouth Docks and Engineering Co. Ltd. v. Treloar, 1933 AC 431. A deliberate assault on the workman may be an 'accident', Trim School Board v. Kelly, 1914 AC 667. However, where the accident arose from some peril to which the workman had voluntarily exposed himself by his own conduct and which he was not obliged to encounter by any term of his contract of service, the accident was held not to arise out of his employment. See

Stephen v. Cooper, 1929 AC 570. See WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION, and tits. NOTICE OF ACCIDENT; INDUSTRIAL DISEASE.