Public Servant Wins Compo Over Work Trip Sex Injury

The Federal Government employee, who cannot be named, was injured in 2007 when a glass light fitting came away from the wall above a bed as she was having sex with a man.

The incident took place in a motel room in a country town in New South Wales.

The woman said the light hit her in the face, injuring her nose, mouth and a tooth and also causing a psychiatric adjustment disorder.

The Government's workplace safety body, ComCare, rejected the woman's compensation claim and its decision was also upheld by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

But then she won an appeal against those decisions in the Federal Court.

Her employer has also been ordered to pay her court costs.

The judge, John Nicholas, said the appeals tribunal had erred in saying that the woman had to prove her injury had been caused by an activity that had been "implied" or "encouraged" by her employer.

Justice Nicholas said if the woman had been injured playing cards in her motel room she would get compensation, and that the incident was no different.

"There will be an order that the tribunal's decision be set aside. I shall also make a declaration that the injuries suffered by the applicant on November 27, 2007 were suffered by her in the course of her employment," he said.

"The respondent must pay the applicants costs of the appeal and her costs of the proceedings before the tribunal."

Via [ABC News]