A woman who falls on the way to her hearing care professional’s shop is not covered by statutory accident insurance. This was decided by the Berlin-Brandenburg State Social Court.
The plaintiff, who worked as a dispatcher for Deutsche Bahn, suffered from hearing impairments. She had therefore agreed in writing with her employer that she would always have to wear hearing aids at work and that she would always have to carry spare batteries with her as a precaution. On August 12, 2019, the woman was working her late shift when her hearing aids unexpectedly failed and she had to change the batteries. So the next morning she went to her hearing care professional’s shop to get new replacement batteries. Immediately afterwards she wanted to start her late shift again in the signal box. She stumbled on the curb in front of the shop, fell and fractured the head of her humerus.
Lower court confirmed accident at work
The Potsdam Social Court ruled on September 16, 2020 that the protection of statutory accident insurance also applies to the route that the woman takes to get replacement batteries for her hearing aids.
LSG: Replacement procurement of personal items is not insured against accidents
The accident insurance company responsible for the woman’s insurance has appealed against this verdict. The 3rd Senate of the State Social Court now agreed with the Unfallkasse. It has decided that personal items such as hearing aids or glasses are generally not included in the work equipment whose (replacement) procurement is insured. This applies in any case if they are not used almost exclusively professionally. The medical documents consulted and the woman’s own statements had shown that at the time of the accident she had also been dependent on the use of the hearing aids privately.
Employment contract regulations also do not lead to statutory accident insurance protection
Accident insurance protection cannot be derived from the ancillary agreement made with the employer, according to which the woman must always wear hearing aids at work and carry spare batteries with her. By justifying secondary obligations, the employer cannot arbitrarily extend the accident insurance protection into what is actually a private area. It is the duty of every employee to come to work in good working order and to compensate for personal limitations as far as possible, for example to wear visual aids prescribed in the private sphere or even a hearing aid. If this obligation is expressly stated again in the employment contract, this does not mean that accidents that occur in connection with compliance with this obligation are covered by statutory accident insurance.
A fall on the way to the hearing care professional is not an accident at work
The protection of the statutory accident insurance should only be extended to preparatory actions required by the company if these are particularly closely related to the work activity itself in terms of content, location and time. This particularly close connection does not exist here. In order to maintain her ability to work, the woman did not have to suddenly and without further delay get batteries for her hearing aids. Rather, the purchase of the batteries involved the regular maintenance of a tool. For this she was able to work flexibly in her free time and could have stocked up with foresight.
notice: LSG Berlin-Brandenburg, judgment of February 10, 2022, L 3 U 148/20
Because of the fundamental importance of the matter, the Senate allowed the appeal to the Federal Social Court.
LSG Berlin-Brandenburg
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