“They’re saying I was messing around.”

What the statute actually lists

The law sets the conditions of compensability, and its exclusions are specific: intoxication causing the injury, intentional self-infliction, deliberately taking one’s own life, being the initial physical aggressor in an altercation, commission of a felony (or a crime that can be charged as one) that the employee was convicted of, voluntary participation in an off-duty recreational, social or athletic activity that is not part of the job or expected by it, and, with exceptions, a claim filed after notice of termination or layoff.

Horseplay is not on that list. What an employer usually means when they say it is that the injury did not arise out of and in the course of employment — a deviation argument.

Why the deviation argument usually fails

Because § 3202 requires the workers’ compensation statutes to be liberally construed in favor of extending benefits, and because California has long recognized that minor deviations, momentary breaks, and ordinary human behavior during a work shift do not remove someone from their employment.

The questions that decide it:

How long, and how far? A moment during work is not a deviation. An hour spent on something unrelated is a different case.

Was it a known and tolerated part of the workplace? If this happened routinely and supervisors saw it, the employer’s own practice undercuts the argument.

Did you initiate it, or were you a bystander? An employee who was simply present when someone else did something is not deviating from anything, and this is the version that most often gets denied wrongly.

Had you returned to work when it happened? Deviations end.

What to do

Write down what actually happened, in order, today. Before anyone else’s version sets.

Name who was present. Coworkers who saw it are the whole case, and they become harder to reach every month.

Say whether this was normal there. If it was, say so plainly and say who knew.

Do not adopt the employer’s word for it. If you say “I was horsing around” in a recorded statement because that is the phrase that was put to you, that phrase will appear in every document afterward. Describe what you did; do not accept a label. About recorded statements.

And remember what is not a defense at all

Carelessness. A mistake. Breaking a safety rule. California workers’ compensation is a no-fault system, and your own negligence does not reduce your benefits. It was my fault.