Citation

No Author(s) Listed. Br. Med. J. BMJ 1940; 1(4127): 234.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1940, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

A workman is entitled to compensation for injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. The question of when an accident fulfils these conditions has been asked on innumerable occasions, and many of the answers have found their way into the legal reports. There must be a certain degree of causal relation, between the accident and the employment. Even if the risk is common to all mankind the accident may still have arisen out of the employment. When, however, a workman is killed by earthquake, lightning, or some other force of Nature, his dependants have to show that he was specially exposed to the accident by reason of his employment. Another line of cases deals with the position when a workman contracts an illness at work. An old decision called Turvey v. Brintons laid down that the entry of anthrax infection into a man's system while he was handling wool in the course of his employment was an accident entitling him to compensation, and later cases have followed the same principle.

Language: en