This happened 3 years ago, on a Saturday in January 2020: Yonatan Shob, 44, a lawyer by profession who volunteers devotedly as an ambulance driver and emergency medical paramedic for MDA, was returning from prayer at the synagogue when the call center received a call about a car accident near his residence in the town of Hemdat.
The lawyer again rushed to the scene of the accident, riding an MDA three-wheeled scooter, but on his way there, he received another message stating that there were no casualties in the accident, and he could retrace his steps.
Since it was a rainy Saturday, Adv decided to park the scooter again in his private covered parking lot. For some unknown reason, the scooter's front wheels did not lock, and when Adv tried to get off the scooter again, the scooter, with all its weight, tipped over his body, resulting in his right knee being slammed forcefully into the parking lot floor - and he was injured.
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At the end of Shabbat, when the pain increased and the knee swelled, the lawyer went back to the emergency medical center, where the swelling was diagnosed but no fracture was identified.
In light of the restriction in movement and the severe pain that did not stop, the attorney again filed a claim with the National Insurance Institute (NII) to recognize him as a victim of a work accident.
However, the National Labor Relations Board rejected the claim, because according to the National Labor Relations Board's instructions, accidents that occur on private property will not be recognized as work accidents.
The attorney again filed a lawsuit against this decision with the Regional Labor Court in Nazareth.
At the same time, the attorney filed another lawsuit against the insurance company 'Wishor', which insured the scooter with compulsory insurance, requesting that the accident be recognized as a traffic accident. His lawsuit was accepted, and as part of a settlement agreement, the attorney was again compensated by the insurance company in the amount of approximately 340,000 shekels.
In the lawsuit against the National Labor Court's decision, which the attorney filed again with the Regional Labor Court, it was argued that the accident should also be recognized as a work accident, among other things because the fall, although it occurred on private land, did not occur due to a failure in the ground or due to road hazards, for which he, as the owner of the land, is responsible, but rather as an inherent part of the act of driving.
The NSL's attorney argued, on the other hand, that the lawsuit should be dismissed, since the accident occurred in Attorney Shob's parking lot, which is under his sole control and is used only by him and his family members.
To Attorney Shob's regret, the Nazareth Regional Labor Court accepted the NLC's claims and dismissed the lawsuit, while imposing legal costs on him.
The attorney's opinion was again not at all satisfied with the decision of the Regional Labor Court, and therefore he filed an appeal against it with the National Labor Court, in which he argued that the final result, which the Regional Court reached, was a difficult and legally incorrect result.
""The sense of justice cannot accept it, and it requires the intervention of the appellate court, among other things, in view of the fact that the accident occurred as an inherent part of the risks of the road," the appeal claims.
The Vice President of the National Labor Court, Honorable Justice Ilan Itach, recently accepted Attorney Shob's appeal and ruled that the accident should be recognized as a work accident.
Judge Itach justified his decision, among other things, by stating that the accident occurred to the plaintiff as a result of being hit by a scooter belonging to his employer.
The judge also ruled that the entrance to the private parking lot was intended to protect the scooter from the rain, in order to maintain alertness, and that the fall occurred as a result of the risk of using the vehicle and not as a result of risks on the premises of the private residence.
These days, the National Security Council is supposed to appoint a medical committee for the lawyer again, which will determine the degree of his disability and compensate him accordingly.
