New judgment Take a breath of fresh air on work not accident insured

LSG Stuttgart: Looking for the bike in own responsibility
If workers go outside to "catch their breath" while working outside or if they want to see their parked bicycle because of a storm, they are not covered by the statutory accident insurance. This was decided by the Landessozialgericht (LSG) Baden Württemberg in Stuttgart in a currently published ruling of 27 March 2017 (Ref .: L 3 4821/16).

In the specific case, it was about an employed at a community college administrative assistant. One weekend, she wanted to prepare for upcoming VHS classes in the VHS offices in the administration building of a savings bank.

(Image: Boggy / fotolia.com)

During working hours she "took a breath" and wanted to see her bike because of an approaching storm. She walked out of the building through the side entrance, which served as an escape route, and reached the fenced parking lot of the bank. When a gust of wind hit the door of the building, the woman was trapped in the parking lot. She tried to climb the two-meter-high fence. She hurt herself on the right ring finger. An end member of the finger had to be amputated. She wanted the accident to have been recognized as an accident at work.

But the responsible professional association refused this. The woman had "self-economic reasons" and not in the context of an insured activity in the parking lot.

The LSG also rejected the recognition as an accident at work. For an accident at work, there must be a connection with the insured activity. The climbing on the fence did not serve the intended preparation of the courses. There was also no accident-insured "operational path", even if the woman was on her way to the office. For the applicant has "seriously interrupted" her insured activity because of a private activity, "gasping for breath" or looking for a bicycle..

In individual cases, accident insurance cover can also exist in the event of an interruption of the insured activity, if "the interruption is only very small in terms of time and space and serves a purpose which is done 'in passing' and 'quite incidentally'. This was not the case here, so the LSG. She had moved away from her workstation two stories outside. The only way to the parking lot is several minutes.

According to the case-law of the social courts, the visit of the toilet and the lunch in the canteen are attributable to self-employment and the privacy of the workers. Accidents on the toilet or in the cafeteria are therefore not considered occupational accidents for statutory accident insurance. fle