I recently came across a Minnesota Supreme Court opinion I found humorous. The opinion was written in 1923, nearly 100 years ago.
The case addressed the question of whether a man injured while working as a Santa Claus was entitled to Worker's Compensation benefits. The story goes that a hardware store hired a gentleman to be Santa Claus at the store during the Christmas season. The store asked Santa to hand out nuts, chocolates, and the like to patrons. The hardware store supplied the Santa costume and a private changing room.
In the course of spreading holiday cheer children would tug at poor ol' Santa. Even Santa gets annoyed sometimes. In 1923 what does Santa do to relieve the stress? He goes into the employer provided changing room to have a smoke. In 1923 the Supreme Court's opinion was that smoking cigarettes in the workplace was an "indulgence of employees reasonably to be expected by employers." Unfortunately for Santa, the cigarette lit his beard on fire and he was burned.
But, despite the injuries and denial of benefits by the Industrial Commission, the Supreme Court concluded Santa was hurt in the course and scope of his employment. Thus, Santa got paid.
There's little of present-day legal value to this opinion. Nonetheless, hopefully, you were entertained by the story and images.
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