Employee falls down stairs when moving office chair: employer liable for personal injury

North Holland court 7 March 2017

This ruling concerns a manager working for travel agency Zonvaart Reizen. The manager asks her employer to replace her and her colleague's office chairs. In response, the employer supplies two new office chairs. She leaves the two old chairs in the shop near the stairs to the first floor, which are located at the back of the shop and can be reached from the shop via a narrow corridor. At this staircase is also the back entrance to the shop. As the chairs are in the way, the manager decides to lift them up the stairs. When she is almost at the top with the first chair, she falls down the stairs resulting in serious leg and arm injuries. As a result, the manager becomes completely unfit for work and enters the WIA. The manager holds her employer liable for her personal injury on grounds of employers' liability.

The travel agency rejects liability because it believes it has fulfilled its duty of care. It argued that this was a garden-variety accident, in which an employer could hardly give instructions. The employee should have realised that you do not lug an office chair weighing 30 kilograms up stairs. In doing so, the travel agency had given instructions to the manager's colleague on how to handle the old chairs; these could be put outside for passers-by to take if necessary.

The subdistrict court ruled as follows. It is established that the accident happened in the performance of its duties. As an employer, the travel agency is therefore liable in principle, unless the travel agency proves that it fulfilled its duty of care. Since the old chairs were in the way, it is logical that the manager wondered what to do with them. Even if the travel agency would have told her colleague that they could put the old chairs outside, this is an insufficient instruction, as it was not supervised. Moreover, it is not clear to whom the instructions were given and what exactly was said. The defence that this would be a domestic accident was rejected by the subdistrict court. The fact is that the situation took place in the shop and was not created by the employee; after all, the new chairs were placed in that space by the employer. Moreover, the employee had to act from her responsibility as manager. Furthermore, people generally do not lug office chairs around at home.

The subdistrict court concluded that the travel agency was liable for the employee's - in itself unwise - action of lifting the chair(s) up the stairs on her own.

Tip: The defence of a domestic accident in the line of duty is not readily accepted.