Employee’s Accident During Workplace Horseplay Compensable

A jail worker who broke her ankle while being chased by a co-worker pretending to spray her with bug spray suffered her injury in the scope of work, an appeals court in New Mexico ruled in documents made public Tuesday.

Alleging that “horseplay” is not compensable, the Curry County Adult Detention Center and its insurer New Mexico County Insurance Authority appealed to the Court of Appeals of New Mexico a decision by a state workers compensation judge that found the injury suffered by Amanda Motes to be compensable, according to documents in Amanda Motes v. Curry County Adult Detention Center and NMCIA, filed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Nov. 28, 2018.

Ms. Motes worked an overnight shift as a booking specialist alongside several sergeants in the security detail. The job included much “downtime” in which she and a supervisory sergeant would often engage in “lighthearted” play, which included attempting to draw on one another with marker and pretending to spray each other with bug spray — “horseplay” the employment manual forbid and would subject a worker to disciplinary action, according to documents.