Judgment bite on shotgun in deer goulash was service accident

VGH Munich: Police Christmas dinner was official event
Munich (jur). Biting a police officer during a business Christmas party in her stag goulash on a shotgun, this can be a service accident. As a consequence, the employer must in any case then pay for the treatment of chipped teeth, if the dinner program was part of the official event, the Bavarian Administrative Court (VGH) ruled in a decision published on Saturday, April 1, 2017 (Az .: 3 ZB 14.1976).

Specifically, it was about a police chief, who indulged in a business Christmas party on December 13, 2013, a stag goulash. The "a la carte" ordered food had it in itself. Because the officer bit on a goulash still contained shotgun. On three teeth she suffered chipping. Your dentist invoiced the dental repair with 520.56 Euro.

Shot in the food. Image: RioPatuca Images - fotolia

The police officer said that it was a service accident and the employer therefore had to pay for the damage.

This rejected the recognition as a service accident. The food of the stag goulash belonged to the private part of the Christmas party. The food intake is a "self-economic activity" and no longer attributable to the official events.

The administrative court of Munich disagreed in the first instance. Here lies with the bite on the shotgun a service accident. The appeal did not allow the administrative court.

The application for approval of the appeal was rejected by the VGH in its decision of 3 March 2017. Recognition as an official accident presupposes "an external, sudden, local and temporal determinable event causing bodily injury, which occurred as a result of exercise or service", the court said. The service also includes the participation in official events such as a company outing or a Christmas party of the service.

In this case, the head of the department explicitly considered the Christmas party as an official event, as this was intended to promote the unity of the members of the public. Also the dinner was program point and thus part of this event. This does not change the fact that the policewoman was able to select the food "a la carte" and pay for it herself. A Christmas party would not become a private event because the employer or the staff council would not pay all the costs.

The Administrative Court rightly referred to the connection between service and purpose of service - the promotion of the service climate - and food intake, the VGH emphasized. The plaintiff was practically forced to eat the food in order to attend the Christmas party. She could not determine the location or the circumstances of the meal. fle / mwo