{"id":24236,"date":"2019-10-07T08:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T06:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/news\/accident-of-the-undeclared-worker-liability-of-the-employer-and-the-company\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T16:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:18:16","slug":"accident-of-the-undeclared-worker-liability-of-the-employer-and-the-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/en\/insights\/case-law-en\/accident-of-the-undeclared-worker-liability-of-the-employer-and-the-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Accident of the undeclared worker: liability of the employer and the company"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Court of Cassation,\nFourth Criminal Section, with sentence no. 35934 of 9 August 2019 addressed\nthe\ncase of an accident involving an \u201coff-the-books\u201d worker. The Court of\nCassation, confirming the decision regarding the substance, recognized both the\nliability of the legal representative of the company<\/strong>, in his capacity as\nemployer, and the administrative liability of that same company<\/strong> under\nLegislative Decree 231\/2001. With regard to the latter, in addition to the\nmonetary penalty, the company was also subject to an administrative penalty\nprohibiting it from exercising its economic activity for a period of one month,\nwith the resulting additional damage to its assets and image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfacts and previous levels of judgement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dispute in question\nconcerns the accident involving and \u201coff-the-books\u201d worker who, while\ndismantling a modular beam of the stage where a musical event was held, had\nlost his balance, falling from a height of about two meters above the road\nsurface. The worker had suffered injuries which had resulted in an inability to\ntake care of ordinary jobs for more than forty days, with permanent weakening\nin his hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the Court of Brindisi\nand the Court of Appeals of Lecce had declared the legal representative of the\ncompany, in his capacity as employer, guilty of the crime of injury through\nnegligence, also sentencing him to pay compensation for the damages suffered by\nthe injured party, with a provisional award of \u20ac 10,000.00. The judges on the\nmerits also recognised the company’s administrative liability under Legislative\nDecree 231\/2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court\nof Cassation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision of the Court of\nAppeals was challenged by the employer, on his own behalf and in his capacity\nas legal representative of the company, before the Court of Cassation for two\ndifferent reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the first, the\nexistence of abnormal and unpredictable conduct of the injured person was\naffirmed, who had ventured to lend a hand to his colleague, thus putting in\nplace a questionable and exorbitant conduct, such as to deprive the employer of\nany liability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the second reason, it\nwas argued that there was no proof of the causal link between the defendant’s\nomission and the event which had occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nliability of the company<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court of Cassation declared, first of all, that the appeal filed by the company was inadmissible because of the obvious incompatibility of the lawyer who was assisting both the employer accused of the predicate offence and the company called to account for the resulting administrative offence. In fact, with regard to the administrative liability of entities, the legal representative suspected or accused of the predicate offence cannot, because of this condition of incompatibility, appoint the defender of the entity, for the general and absolute prohibition of representation placed by the Legislative Decree No 231\/2001, Article 39 (S.U., no. 33041 of 28 May 2015).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the Supreme\nCourt confirmed the company’s liability for the administrative offence provided\nfor in Article 25-septies, paragraph 3, of Legislative Decree 231\/2001,\ntherefore for not having put in place an organizational and management model\nfor occupational health and safety<\/strong> (see Article 30 of Legislative Decree\n81\/2008) suitable for preventing the commission of the crime of serious\ninjuries in violation of accident prevention regulations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the company was\nsubject to a fine of 100 shares, for a total amount of 30,000.00 Euro;\nmoreover, the company was also subject to an administrative fine of one month’s\ndisqualification from carrying out its business (article 9, paragraph 2, letter\nA, of Legislative Decree 231\/2001), with consequent further damage to its\nassets and image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nliability of the employer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court also found\nthe decision of the Territorial Court to be adequate and complete in its\nreasoning, recognising the responsibility of the appellant who had “acted as an employer<\/em>“, since it was\nin fact that same person who called the injured party to invite him to go to\nthe construction site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, according to\nthe Court, the alleged abnormality of the injured party’s conduct constituted\nmanifestly unfounded grievance. Indeed, “in terms of accident prevention, for the negligent conduct of the\nworker to be considered abnormal and suitable for excluding the causal link<\/strong>\nbetween the conduct of the employer and the damaging event, it is necessary not\nso much that it be unpredictable, but rather that it is such as to activate an\nerratic or excessive risk<\/strong> from the sphere of risk governed by the holder of\nthe position of guarantee<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in this case the injured\nperson was intent on performing the task assigned to him and his fall, which\noccurred while he was helping a colleague to carry a pylon, fell precisely\nunder the performance of his duties. He, therefore, did not engage in any\nabnormal, exorbitant or excessive conduct. Moreover, according to the Court of\nCassation, it was proved that if there had been the necessary and appropriate\npersonal protective equipment and, in particular, those provided for the work\nto be carried out above ground, the event would not have occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, the Court\ndeclared both claims inadmissible and ordered the plaintiffs to pay the costs\nof the proceedings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Court of Cassation, Fourth Criminal Section, with sentence no. 35934 of 9 August 2019 addressed the case of an accident involving an \u201coff-the-books\u201d worker. The Court of Cassation, confirming the decision regarding the substance, recognized both the liability of the legal representative of the company, in his capacity as employer, and the administrative liability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[167,177],"tags":[2419,982,983],"class_list":["post-24236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-law","category-insights","tag-dlgs-231-2001","tag-infortunio-sul-lavoro-en","tag-responsabilita-amministrativa-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAccident of the undeclared worker: liability of the employer and the company - De Luca & Partners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24236\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Accident of the undeclared worker: liability of the employer and the company - De Luca & Partners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Court of Cassation, Fourth Criminal Section, with sentence no. 35934 of 9 August 2019 addressed the case of an accident involving an \u201coff-the-books\u201d worker. 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