While working for his employer on board of a ship, the employee fell down the stairs and broke his lower leg. At the time of the accident, he was in a video call. The employee held his employer liable under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code for the damages he suffered as a result of the accident. The case has been litigated. What does the subdistrict court think?

How does the court rule?

The subdistrict court rules that the employer is not liable for the damage suffered by the employee because of the accident.

The subdistrict court judge concluded that the stairs on the ship from which employee fell complied with safety requirements and that the employer did not have to the warn employee about using the stairs while video calling.

In the court’s view, there was no breach of the employer's duty of care, as defined in Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code.

The facts further revealed that the employee was wearing sports shoes, instead of safety shoes and that this fact would have contributed to the occurrence of the fall.

However, the court ruled that this circumstance did not contribute to the accident and that the employer was not obliged to supervise it.

The subdistrict court further considered the following:

“That due caution should be taken when climbing or descending a staircase, which in itself is safe, is so obvious, even in non-work-related situations, that an employer does not need to warn about it separately. The employee was also familiar with the situation on the ship; after all, he had been aboard the ship five times before. The employer also did not have to be aware that employee was video calling while descending the stairs. To the extent that this affected the employee's caution, this is not a hazard that employer should have warned about or supervised.”

Moreover, an investigation was carried out by the labour inspectorate, which identified the accident as an unfortunate combination of events, in which the employer could not reasonably have done anything to prevent it. There was no evidence that the employer had breached its duty of care, the court said.

Accordingly, the employee's request to order the employer to pay damages is rejected.

You can read this ruling here.

Employer liability is a hot topic: when is an employer liable and when not? What does an employer have to do to fulfil his legal duty of care? SPEE advocaten & mediation is, of course, happy to be your expert point of contact with regard to such issues.