Court rejects man’s claim for 100 million kroner after workplace accident

Iceland’s Court of Appeal has cleared insurance company Sjóvá-Almennar of a compensation claim brought by a man who suffered serious injuries in a workplace accident nearly seven years ago, mbl.is reports.

Reykjavík District Court had ordered the insurer to pay the man around 147 million Icelandic kroner in compensation. That amount included a deduction for approximately 47 million kroner already paid from the man’s accident insurance in 2021.

The man suffered severe spinal injuries after becoming trapped in a workplace accident in 2019. He uses a wheelchair and needs assistance with almost all daily activities.

Sjóvá-Almennar had acknowledged liability under both of the man’s insurance policies, an accident insurance policy and voluntary liability insurance, and had paid compensation under both. The dispute concerned whether those payments fully covered his losses.

The Court of Appeal said the case turned on which annual income figure should be used to calculate compensation for permanent disability. The man had worked for the company for four months when the accident occurred.

According to the court, records showed that his employment income in 2017 and 2018 was below the minimum benchmark set by compensation law. The same applied to his income in the year of the accident, although his earnings during the four months he worked for the company were above the benchmark.

The court said he had not shown that exceptional circumstances justified using a different measure of his likely future income. His employment history in Iceland had lasted only slightly more than four months at the time of the accident, and he had not established such a defined career path in Iceland that the statutory minimum benchmark should be set aside.

The court said it made no difference that he bought an apartment in Iceland almost five years after the accident or chose to remain in the country because better services were available there than in his home country. Sjóvá-Almennar was therefore cleared of the claim.