INCIDENT Workplace pranks: a history of violence It has long been established that employers can avoid liability for practical jokes in the workplace if they can show that the jokers were acting on a “frolic of their own”, for example by doing something totally unconnected with work. Two contrasting cases get out the principle: Smith v Crossley Brothers (Court of Appeal, 1951) As a “practical joke”, two mechanics removed a colleague’s trousers and inserted a rubber hose into his bottom. The rubber hose expelled compressed air, causing serious injury. The Court of Appeal found that the employer was not liable for the resulting injuries as […]