Surveillance sank his injury claim, but his employer's own case boomeranged
Deputy District Judge Benny Lo ruled on 12 August 2026 that a school's fight against an injury claim helped cause the employee's depression.
The applicant, the school's human resources manager since 2016 and earning about HKD 70,000 a month, slipped on packs of A4 paper in a filing room on 26 August 2020, fell, and struck his neck and spine against a cabinet behind him. He spent seven days in hospital.
The Employees' Compensation (Ordinary Assessment) Board initially certified three years of sick leave and a loss of earning capacity of just over 10 per cent. The school appealed under section 18 of the Employees' Compensation Ordinance, at first disputing that the accident had even occurred. In its Answer, filed in February 2023, the school pleaded that the applicant "has not sustained any accident as such." Only on 27 August 2025, weeks before trial, did the school admit liability, leaving the extent of compensation as the sole issue at trial.
To test the applicant's account, the school hired three private investigation firms, which carried out covert surveillance between January 2021 and March 2023. The footage showed him walking briskly, at times with his crutches not touching the ground, climbing stairs, turning quickly and squatting at a vending machine. An orthopaedic surgeon retained by the school, who examined the applicant twice, concluded his complaints could not be fully explained by his...
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