By FireRescue1 Staff
LINDEN, N.J. — A lawsuit involving a firefighter’s prank gone wrong will not be heard in court, after the state appellate court upheld an earlier dismissal of the suit.
Linden Firefighter Raymond Johns had sued the city and fellow firefighter Thomas Wengerter after he was injured from a “bang snap – a small firework without a fuse that explodes when compressed, reported the Bridgewater Courier News.
Johns was injured in November 2015 when he sat down on a toilet, heard and felt an explosion underneath him, and the found blood on the left side of his scrotum. He then saw the bang snap on the toilet.
He was diagnosed with a second-degree burn to his scrotum and a contusion to his left testicle. The city paid all of his medical expenses and he returned to work a little more than a week later.
Wengerter, who denied placing the explosive on the toilet, filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming they were responsible for allowing a “high degree of pranking among on-duty firefighters.”
A Superior Court judge dismissed Johns’ suit because his claim was covered by the state’s Workmen’s Compensation law. State law also says injuries caused by co-workers’ pranks are covered by Workmen’s Compensation.